Bengali Style Mutton Biryani With Step by Step Pictures

In Mughal contribution to the Indian cuisine, Biryani is one of the tastiest dishes. Though the contents and cooking style has changed with time, yet it manages to be one of the most loved dishes in the festive occasions. Flavored and spicy, this dish is enjoyed by all non-vegetarians throughout the country. 

So being an Indian, I love Biryani and being a bong, I love the Kolkata style Biryani the most. It has a yummness of its own.

And thus, on this auspicious occasion of Eid, today we are presenting the recipe of Bengali Style Mutton Biryani... 

Ingredients:-
For our preparation we will need:

• ·         1 kg of mutton, cut into medium pieces and washed properly.
• ·         3 tablespoon of paste of equally proportions of ginger and garlic.
• ·         4 tbsp of hung curd
• ·         A pinch of saffron
• ·         1/4^th cup of milk
• ·         Salt to taste
• ·         Sliced onions (5-6 medium sized for the mutton preparation and 2 for decorations)
• ·         3-4 potatoes cut into halves.
• ·         Green cardamom 10
• ·         Cloves 10
• ·         Cinnamon 1” x 3
• ·         Mace 1 floret
• ·         Nutmeg 1/4^th
• ·         Black Peppercorn 1 tsp
• ·         Mustard Oil
• ·         Turmeric powder
• ·         Kashmiri lal mirch powder
• ·         Basmati Rice ( As required)
• ·         Ghee
• ·         Rose water
• ·         Kewra water

( Pretty long list .. ??)

Procedure:-

·         Start by preparing the biryani masala first. You can use the store bought biryani masala, but homemade one has a flavor of its own.  Take an iron tawa and dry roast 5 pieces each of cardamom and clolve, the black peppercorns, 3/4^th of the mace, 3/4^th of the nutmeg, 1” x 2 cinnamon, half of the star anise. You can add saahi jeera as well. But I didn’t add jeera as I am not a huge fan of jeera in meat. You can roast them individually because different spices need different time to get roasted. Don’t burn the spices. Now make a powder of the roasted spices. Your Biryani masala is ready.

·         Now marinate the meat. Beat the hung curd and add salt, turmeric, red chilly powder, 1 spoon of ginger garlic paste and 1 tbsp of the Biryani masala. Mix well and pour into the bowl of meat. Add a spoon of mustard oil, coat the meat pieces well and refrigerate for 4-6 hours or overnight. 

  

·         Wash the basmati rice and soak for 30 minutes. In the meantime take a fine cloth and place rest of the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, mace, anise and nutmeg in it centre of the cloth. 
Tie it and make tight knots to ensure that they won’t scatter when put in boiling water.

Now take a rice pan and pour water to boil. Add 2 bay leaves and the spice bag. Add rice when the water starts boiling. Cook rice until half done.
Drain the excess water and spread the rice on a flat surface. I spread them on papers so that the paper sucks in the excess water. Discard the bay leaves and spice bag. Sprinkle a little salt and ghee on the rice.

·         Pour milk in a small bowl of saffron and keep aside.

·         Fry onion juliennes and keep aside. 

·         Now take out the marinated meat from the refrigerator. Peel potatoes and cut into halves. Now heat oil in a pan and lightly fry the potatoes.

 Take them out and add 2 bay leaves to the oil. Dunk in the chopped onions. 

Fry the onions until they turn golden brown. Now add the marinated meat and continue cooking in medium flame. 

Add the potatoes and cover the pan with a lid. Fry them until the potatoes and meat are half done. Pour some boilin water and close the lid again. Let the whole dish cook properly. Take out the mutton in a bowl when the oil starts to separate and the meat become tender.  Make sure there isn’t too much gravy.

 

·         It is time to assemble the biryani. Take a wide, deep bottomed pan and add ghee to it. Warm it up and grease the pan well by carefully rotating it. Now add a layer of cooked rice, a few pieces of meat, 2-3 pieces of potatoes. Sprinkle biryani masala, saffron infused milk, rose water, kewra water and melted ghee.

 Create another 1-2 layers following the same pattern. Sprinkle biryani masala, saffron milk, friend onion juliennes on the top.

·         Cover the pot and use wheat dough to seal the lid.

·         Cook for 20-30 minutes on medium-low flame. When done switch off the flame and keep it like that for another 10 minutes.

·         Break the dough seal, remove the lid and indulge yourself in the awesome aroma.

·         Serve hot with chicken chap and mix salad.