If there was an award for the recipe that stayed in drafts for the longest, I am sure this recipe will win hands down! This was taken almost a couple of years ago. Now I don’t even know which year it was. Suffice to say that it was taken during our yearly trip to Hubby dear’s native town. It was during Sankranti time when my nephew celebrates his birthday. They decided to request their Muslim family friend, who made mutton biryani for them on a previous occasion.
They were raving on the taste and wanted to make it during hubby dear’s visit. Since their friend would be comfortable cooking in her own kitchen, we said we would go to their home. Once the breakfast was done, my SIL and I landed at their place. It was really such a wonderful experience watching somebody cook. All I had to do was click pictures. I told that I would be sharing the recipe on the blog and she was so happy about it and wanted to share the recipe. She made it look so effortless and simple.
During the entire process we were chatting about everything food and what kids eat and don’t eat. She also shared a couple of her other favorite dishes. Well as you guessed as this took such a long time with the pictures, those recipes might be longer to make their presence. Anyway, we finally managed to click all the pictures and came back home. Everybody enjoyed and hubby dear said it was indeed too good. If you must know she didn’t add butter or ghee. Nor the methi leaves were noticed. I must confess I haven’t prepared myself. But the verdict of the entire 20 who eat, was good enough.
Step by Step Picture Recipe
The paste made with Garlic, Ginger, Coriander leaves and 1/4th of cloves.
Before making the gravy, in the pan, brown the onions till crisp
Remove half for the later process
Add the ground masala paste
Mix well
Add salt, chopped tomatoes.
Chopped green chilies, red chili powder is added next
Along with the whole cloves, cardamon, Cinnamon.
Now add the mutton pieces
Continue cooking
When moisture starts coming out, cover with the lid and pressure cook for 3 -4 whistles or till the mutton is cooked well.
Wait for the pressure to fall down, remove the lid
Now add the Fenugreek leaves
Washed Mint leaves for the Dum
Cook Rice in a large pot of water and drain the water. Let the rice be just 85% done and have it covered with the lid.
Keep one layer of rice and remove the rest of the rice.
This is after the gravy is mixed with the methi leaves.
Top with a mutton layer
Add mint leaves
Another rice layer
Now browned onions and mutton pieces
another rice layer
Continue with mint leaves
And onions and gravy
Until you are done with all the layers
Finally, sprinkle with orange food colour and mix in a random style
Mutton Biryani
Rice – 2 kgs
Mutton – 2 kgs
Green chilies – 50 gms
Onions – 250 gms (Half for the gravy, half for dum)
Cloves – 50 gms
Cinnamon – 50 gms
Cardamon – 50 gms
Salt to taste
Oil – 500 ml
Tomato – 250 – 300 gms (sour variety)
Chili powder – 2 tsp
Fenugreek Leaves / Methi Leaves – 1 big bunch
For the paste:
Coriander leaves – 1 Big Bunch
Ginger Garlic – 2 tbsp
During the Dum process
Mint leaves – 1 Big bunch
Brown Onions
Red colour for sprinkling.
How to make the Biryani
For the Rice
Wash and soak the rice for 30 mins. In a big vessel, take twice the amount of rice and bring to boil. When the water starts boiling, add the rice and cover with the lid. Add salt and continue cooking. When it’s almost 85% done, cover with the lid and drain the water. Keep it covered.
For the Paste
Make a paste of the ginger, garlic, coriander, 1/4 of cloves to a fine paste.
For the Mutton:
Wash and cut mutton into equal pieces. Drain on a colander.
Heat a pressure cooker, add all the oil. Add onion julienne, continue till the onions start browning. Remove half of the onions to a bowl.
To the onions, add the ginger garlic coriander paste. Stir well, then add salt, chopped tomatoes.
Then add cloves, cinnamon, cardamon. Combine and add red chili powder, then chopped green chilies.
Now add the drained mutton pieces. Cover and pressure for 4 -5 whistles.
Wait till the pressure is off. Remove the lid, add chopped methi leaves mix well.
For making the Dum Biryani
Remove the rice to another bowl, leaving one layer below. Else if you have another thick bottom pan that fits, grease the bottom and cover with a layer of rice. Over that add the mutton pieces along with gravy.
Now put one layer of mint leaves. Cover with a thin layer of rice.
Now add one layer of brown onions, another layer of mutton pieces.
Continue alternating with mint leaves, onions, and mutton gravy until you are done. Make sure the final layer is rice. Dissolve the red food colour and sprinkle on the top.
Cover with a tight fitting lid and on a slow flame and cook for 30 mins. If you have hot coal, you can put them on the top lid.
22 comments
This is not fair at all, its been a long i have briyani and you are tempting me to make some..Droolinggggggg here.
Mmmm…Smells good from here !
Delicious and flavorful biryani.. Very tempting..
Really perfect… Thanks for step by step pic… Mouth watering here…
Perfectly done…awesome..keep it up..
yummy…nice and delicious recipe.Valli ,can u plz post some rasam recipes like vellulli,allam,tomato rasam etc…
Perfect biriyani!! 🙂
Mouth watering !! Nice presentation… Happy to follow you :))
Yummyyyyy,Looks very tempting.
(manjusfoodbites.blogspot.com)
Looks so delicious!!! Thanks a lot for sharing! Just have a question.Wouldn't you need to add water for the mutton to be cooked? Or is the oil
n the water content from the mutton enough to cook the meat?
Regards, D
D, Thanks, and yes you don't need to add water. Meat gets cooked from the oil and moisture that gets released from the meat. That should be more than enough to cook the meat by itself
Hi Srivalli
I was looking for the mysterious Muslim Biryani for a long time and I was determined I wanted to make it for Christmas, and I saw your pictorial recipe which is such a blessing!! I am going to make it tomorrow, and I will let you know how it turned out. Thanks soooo much for this, I am going to follow your blog for other recipes too 🙂 🙂
Miriam
Miriam, Thanks for dropping by. I hope you enjoy making this. Do let me know how much your family likes it.
Perfect recipe. I tried it and my husband loved it. Just 1 query. Don't u need to add yogurt as most biryanis do ?
Anon Glad you liked it. This particular recipe didn't have yogurt added as we add the green leaves.
Amazing!!!
I guess these steps will help make a perfect biryani..
One small thing.. Instead of adding color at the end, why not add color to the rice when we are parboiling it??? The color seeps into the grains and plus we throw the water. So it is not harmful also for those who have allergy towards food color.
Hi
Every time I used your recipe.. I raked in the accolades. Thanks to you.. Im Planning to do the same today too..Thank you for sharing this blog.. Job well done.
Roy Thanks for the kind words, so glad you like the recipes.
HI Srivalli- amazing post!! Kudos on all the effort to take pictures and sharing us the step by step process. Have a couple
1. For layering, you started with a layer of rice at the very bottom- wouldnt there be a risk of burning the rice at the very bottom. Is there a any specific reason you start the layers w/ rice as supposed to the gravy?
2. What ensures the moistness of biryani- I have always had a challenge w/ getting the right moistness for biryanis.
Thank you,
MV.
Hello Madhuri,
Thanks for dropping by. I am glad if others find the efforts worth their time.
Coming to your questions
1. Why we start with the rice layer is because the rice is not yet fully cooked and hence there will not be a fear of it getting burnt. However when one gets overboard with the cooking process and keeps this rice on flame for more than the required time, the rice does gets crispy and stiff.
The reason why the gravy is not layered first, we have two reasons. first the gravy is fully cooked and there is a chance of it getting burnt. Second, when you scoop out, having the gravy at the bottom is not convenient to get the whole layers in tact.
2. For the moistness, we introduce liquid in two ways. First we grease the bottom with little butter/ghee and then start the layering. Next once you complete all the layers, we sprinkle milk over it. And is tightly covered. So the steam that comes out is again falls down, making the rice moist. Also the gravy has some liquid in it. All together this takes care of the moistness.
Hope I clarified your doubts. Let me know if otherwise
Biryani looks good but I have a doubt. Normally for biryani we add Bunch of Cilantro/Coriander leaves and bunch of mint but here you have added methi/fenugreek leaves. It will give a taste of bitterness slightly. But why fenugreek leaves?
Vidhya, from what I remember of my conversation with the lady who shared this recipe with me, she said they add methi to their biryanis which adds a lot of flavour and doesn’t turn bitter as well. In fact, as I have mentioned in my intro, nobody was able to identify that this biryani had methi leaves in it. This recipe has both coriander and mint leaves, no curds added.
Please do try it, because many have tried it and have said it turned great. I always think the special touch that comes with Muslim biryani is maybe due to the inclusions of such ingredients…Thanks for dropping by.