A Pop Food Exclusive Recipe!

• Cuisine:-Indian/Turkish/Arabian
• Type:- Main course
• For:- 4 servings
• Prep time:- 30 min
• Cooking time:- 30 min (waiting: 15 min)
• Total time:- 1 hour and 15 min

Biryani needs no introduction. The Indian Biryani is said to have descended from a Turkish meat rice brought in by the Mughals. Just as a ray of light breaks into seven colours passing through a prism, India gave birth to a spectrum of Biryanis of magnificent flavours and tastes. 

Another version has it that the Arab traders brought it to South India.  An aromatic rice delicacy, that the Arabs most likely called ‘Pilaf’, became popular as a one-pot healthy meal for the armies in India. 

The Turkish variety was said to have accompaniments that are similar to ‘Mirchi-ka-Salan’ and ‘Raita’. But the Pilaf was known to have none. And you would already know that the Indian rice delicacy name ‘Pulao’ came after the Pilaf. 

Interestingly, the South Indian Biryani, or more prominently the Hyderabadi Biryani comes with a Salan now. Another variety originated when Biryani from Lucknow, a city in North India, travelled to the eastern part of the country. It further evolved in the grand kitchens of the Nawabs of undivided Bengal. Marinated potatoes were added to rice alongside meat to add to the volume and depth in taste, and maybe also because the Dutch have already brought potatoes in Bengal. And a hint of ‘Meetha Ittar’– an essential oil derived from floral and other herbs for human consumption– made the Biryani of Eastern India stand out over the years. 

An authentic ‘Awadhi’ Biryani cook in Lucknow would also use Ittar since the tradition of fragrant Biryanis started there. But a traditional Biryani cook in West Bengal may add a few drops more. Awadhi Biryani in Lucknow is high on gravy, while Hyderabadi and Bengali Biryanis have more fragrant rice. 

We don’t know, but it may very well have been that both Turkish Biryani and Arabian Pilaf entered India through different channels and later exchanged their goodness to form what we generally know as Indian Biryani now. 

At Pop Food, we found North Indian and East Indian Biryanis closer in taste and texture to famous Arabian rice varieties such as Mandy rice or Madghout rice. And the Hyderabadi version to be nothing like Arabian or Turkish rice varieties that we have tasted. 

We have the recipe of the East Indian Biryani here, which is commonly known as the Kolkata Biryani. 

It’s a ‘Dum’ style Biryani where rice and meat are put in an earthen pot whose lid is sealed with dough before cooking on a slow fire.

Image- Homemade Mutton Dum Biryani. Cooking & Photograph- Kasturi Banerjee

Mutton Dum Biryani Ingredients

1. Mutton with bones:- 500 gms, cut into big chunky pieces
2. Potatoes: 4, cut into cubes
3. Boiled Eggs: 4
4. Basmati Rice: 400 gms
5. Whole spices:- Nutmeg,  javitri flower, cinnamon, black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, star anise, bay leaves, black pepper seeds, roasted and ground
   
6. Saffron: 1/2 tsp
7. Milk: 1 cup
8. Onion: 500 gm, julienne cut 
9. Onion: 250 gm,  finely chopped 
10. Ginger & garlic paste: 4tsp
11. Yoghurt: 100gm
12. Kewra water:- 1.5 tsp
13. Rosewater:- 1.5 tsp
14. Meetha Ittar:- 2 drops
15. Kashmiri red chilli:- powder-1tsp
16. Salt:- to taste
17. Ghee or Clarified Indian Butter:- 2tbsp
18. Sunflower oil:- 500gm

Mutton Dum Biryani- Cooking Procedure

Phase 1: Getting Ready

1. Wash and clean Basmati rice
   
2. Soak Basmati rice in drinking water for half-an-hour
   
3. Add a few threads of saffron into lukewarm milk. The colour and fragrance of saffron will slowly diffuse into the milk
   
4. Roast and grind the whole spices
   
5. Wash and clean mutton properly and drain the excess water
   
6. Boil mutton in drinking water until it’s well cooked. Make sure you have added 2 tsp salt into the water before leaving it to boil 
7. Once the mutton is cooked, separate it from the broth. Keep the broth aside for cooking rice
   
8. Make the marinade: Mix mutton with ground spices, salt, yogurt, Kashmiri red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste and a little white oil. Set aside for one hour
   
9. Light-fry the potatoes– till they develop a golden brown colour
   
10. Fry the julienne cut onions in white oil until they are brown and crispy.  This is your Beresta. Spread Beresta on a kitchen paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Phase 2: Mutton Dum Biryani- Cook The Fragrant Rice   

1. Take the mutton broth (and add some warm water if necessary) in a large pan. Add 3 bay leaves, 1 tsp salt,  a few black pepper seeds, 5 cloves, 1 black cardamom, 5 green cardamoms into the water
   
2. Now heat water to bring it to boil. Put a lid on when you smell the fragrance of boiled spices
   
3. Add soaked Basmati rice into the boiling fragrant water
   
4. Semi-cook the rice making sure the grains are still hard inside. Drain water from boiled rice
   
5. Separate boiled whole spices from rice

Phase 3: Mutton Dum Biryani-Prepare the Meat 
 

1. Heat white oil in a separate frying pan and fry chopped onions
   
2. Now add marinated Mutton and stir for a while. Stop stirring when the marinade start giving off water and put a lid on
   
3. You don’t want the meat part to have excess gravy. So you don’t need to add extra water. However, if your mutton was dry, it may not have released enough water for it to be cooked. If this is the case with you, add just enough water to cook the mutton

Phase 4: Mutton Dum Biriani-Preparing Biryani Layers

Take a Copper Handi; in its absence, take a large, deep and thick gauge frying pan. Grease its interior evenly with some oil

1. Place a portion of the cooked mutton on the base of the pan, spread over the surface to form a layer
   
2. Add a layer of cooked rice on it
   
3. Place fried potatoes, some onion beresta, 2 tsp ground spices and the remaining portion of mutton on the rice
   
4. Add another layer of rice that covers the potatoes and onions
   
5. Place boiled eggs, rest of the onion beresta, kewra water, rose water, and ghee over the the rice
   
6. Add another layer of rice. Sprinkle saffron-flavoured milk and two drops of Meetha Ittar over the rice. Sprinkle two tsp Ghee all over the top surface
   
7. Put on a lid, apply flour dough round its edge that fits into the pan to make it airtight. Ignite the burner and cook on low flame for 15 mins
   
8. After 15 min. Turn off the flame. Allow the Biryani to set for another 15 mins

How do you know you have cooked your Mutton Biryani well? 

1. Each grain of rice will be separate, while grains soaked in saffron-milk orange rice claiming distinct existence
   
2. The ‘nose’ (the beginning of the taste) of the rice will be the fragrance of the spices with a hint of ittar. The ‘body’ will be of the mutton broth and clove. The ‘aftertaste’ will be of clove and ghee
   
3. Mutton pieces will be intact, but meat will separate from the bones with almost no effort. Also, the meat will melt in your mouth. The meat will contain the fragrance of the spices
   
4. There will be no spilling of gravy on the rice

Mutton Dum Biryani: Good to know…

1. Biriyani cannot be cooked in a thin gauge vessel; it will end up leaving the lower layers charred
2. Copper vessels are the best for cooking Biryanis, since copper is a great conductor of heat and heat is distributed evenly along the vessel surface
3. If you can’t arrange a copper vessel, go for a metal pan with a heavy gauge aluminum/copper disk stuck at its bottom
4. You can cook Biryani without Meetha Ittar as well