Tamil Style Mutton Biryani

It was during my stay in Chennai, that i learnt to cook this delicious dish. This was my favourate thing about chennai, other than the evening adda at the akka tea shop at Indranagar Bus stop... :-)

 

Ingredients
1.5 lb goat or lamb meat cut into medium sized pieces
To Grind:
12 Dry Red chilies
1″ Cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 cardamom
1 finger sized ginger
6 cloves garlic
1 onion thinly sliced
About 20 mint leaves
1 star anise

 

3 bay leaves
1″ cinnamon
3 cups Basmati Rice
Salt to taste
Oil
Coconut milk 1/2 cup
1 tbsp Ghee (Clarified butter)
Method

Wash and soak the rice in cold water for at least 30 minutes.

Grind all the ingredients in the To Grind section to a smooth paste and keep aside.

In a pressure cooker, heat some oil and fry the mutton pieces along with the star anise, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.

Add the ground masala paste, salt and 1 cup of water and pressure cook the mutton. (3 minutes after the first whistle).

While the cooker is cooling down, in a big frying pan, heat the ghee, add soaked rice and a little bit of salt and fry well.

When the pressure cooker is cool enough to handle, open and measure the gravy in the mutton. We need total 5 cups of liquid including the gravy, coconut milk and water to cook 3 cups of rice. For example, if there is two cups of gravy in the mutton, add 1/2 cup coconut milk and 2 1/2 cups of water. Add the fried rice along with the required amount of hot water and coconut milk to the mutton in the pressure cooker.

Close the pressure cooker and cook till the first whistle. Switch off the stove and let stand till it cools down.

Delicious mutton biryani is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves, squeeze a fresh lime over the biryani and serve with cucumber raitha.

Two boiled eggs are served along... I don't know whats that for... Just loved eating them ... :-) Maybe its a tradition or something.

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Biryani is one of the most popular dishes in Hyderabad, India. To make Hyderabadi Biryani, the meat and the rice are cooked in an air tight pot on very low flame, so that the rice is cooked in the flavors of meat and gets the aroma of the meat. The meat gets the direct heat from the flame and the rice is cooked with steam generated by the air tight method of cooking, also known as Dum method. It is a length process but the taste is worth going thru the elaborate process.

There are two ways to prepare Hyderabadi Biryani. One is, precooked meat method and the other is raw meat method. In both the methods, meat and half cooked rice are arranged in layers, and cooked until the rice and the meat are fully cooked. For Chicken Biryani, I use the raw meat method and for Mutton Biryani I use the precooked meat method.

 

Total Time: 1 hours
Preparation Time: 30 minutes (excludes marination time)
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4-5

The measuring cup used here is the cup that comes with the rice cooker, which is 160ml.
Ingredients:
Marinade
2 lbs Chicken cut up into 2” pieces
½ cup Yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
2 – 3 tsp Chili Powder
2 tsp Coriander Powder
12 small Chilies split into two
1 cup chopped Mint Leaves
1 cup chopped Cilantro
½ tsp Turmeric
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
Garam Masala Powder
10 Pepper Corns
10 Coves
½ tsp Cardamom Seeds
½ tsp Sahajeera or Black Cumin
1” Cinnamon Stick
1 Large Onion sliced
1 cup Oil
½ tsp of saffron strands
½ cup milk
4 cups Basmati Rice soaked for 30 minutes
Spices for boiling rice
6 Cardamoms
3 Cloves
2 Bay Leaves
1 Bay Flower or Biryani Flower
1 tsp Sahajeera
½ tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1 tbsp of Oil
First Full of Salt

You will also need something known as the Dagad Phool  

 

This has to be added with the other spices. Without this, you just won't get the taste that i m talking about.

Method:
Clean the chicken and cut it into 2” pieces. Wash the chicken and squeeze all the water from it. This is very important that you squeeze all the water away from the pieces or put it a colander to let water drain away.
Grind all the ingredients listed under garam masala to a fine powder.
Mix all the ingredients of the marinade and marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight in the fridge.
In pan heat oil and fry the onions until light golden brown.
Soak saffron in hot milk.
In a big pot bring water to a boil, add all the spices for boiling rice and mix well.
Add rice and continue to cook until you get a one good boil, i.e rice should roll over with boiling water. It takes about 2 ½ – 3 minutes on my stove. Drain the rice and keep aside.

Now its time to arrange chicken and rice in layers, one layer of chicken and two layers of rice. In a heavy bottom sauce pan, pour ½ the oil at the bottom, arrange the chicken pieces and sprinkle some oil on top of the chicken.
Arrange ½ the boiled rice on the chicken pieces, sprinkle some oil, ½ the fried onions and ½ the saffron milk.
Repeat the above step for the last layer, I.e, arrange the last layer of rice. Spread the rest of the rice, sprinkle all the oil, fried onions and the saffron milk.
Now, we need to seal the the container and make it air tight so that the steam doesn’t escape when we cook. In India, flour dough or a big cloth is used to seal the container and the cover together. Here, I use an aluminum sheet. take 2 sheets of aluminum foil (the sheets should be bigger than the diameter of the sauce pan) and place it on top of the sauce pan and then cover it with the lid. We will have aluminum sheets between the pan and its lid. Since we took the sheets bigger than the diameter of the pan, we will use that to seal the pan and the lid.
Put a heavy object (motor pesto or heavy pan or skillet) on the top of the container, so that the steam doesn’t escape easily.

Cook biryani for 8-10 minutes on high until stream escapes from the foil seal. Then reduce the flame to medium low and continue to cook for another 20 minutes. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes before opening it.
Mix the rice and serve it hot with raita or chicken shorva or mutton shorva.

 

Chicken lollipop .....

 

Now, this is just a continuation of the Chicken pakora recipe.  

Prologue:

So, here is the recipe to make Chicken Pakoras, the easiest way... :-)

Ingredients:
Chicken, wings with skin 8 nos.
Eggs 2 nos.
Green chilies, ground 6 nos.
Pepper powder ¼ tsp.
Chicken masala ¼tsp.
Chili sauce ½ tsp.
Soya sauce ½ tsp.
 Flour ( maida ) 50 gms./ Corn Flour 50 gms.
Ginger, paste 1 tsp.
Garlic, paste 1 tsp.
Red colour A pinch
Water ½ cup
Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste.

Directions:

Cut the wings into two, chop the end bone,pull the flesh up with the skin and remove the thin bone and mould into a lollipop.

Boil the pakoras with ½ cup water, ½ tsp.salt for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly, except lollipops and prepare a thick batter.

Heat oil in a deep pan, dip lollipop into the thick batter and fry on medium heat to a light brown colour.

Serve hot. 

NOW TO MAKE CHICKEN LOLLIPOPS, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS TO CONTINUE FROM HERE;

Ingredients:

1. Finely chopped Onions

2. Vinegar 1 Tablespoon

3. Soya Sauce 1 Tablespoon

4. Tomato Ketchup 2 Tablespoon

Directions:

Fry the onions in a little bit of Refined oil, till golden 

Turn down the heat to minimum.  

Now add the chicken pakoras in d onion, add vinegar, tomato ketchup, soya sauce.

Mix well

Turn off the heat.

Serve hot

NOTE: The mixing of the pakoras, vinegar, ketchup and the sauce should be done on a very low flame and the entire process should be completed within 5 minutes or so. you shouldnt let the ketchup and sauce burn up.

Chicken Pakora : The Simplest way

 

So, here is the recipe to make Chicken Pakoras, the easiest way... :-)

Ingredients:

Chicken, wings with skin 8 nos.
Eggs 2 nos.
Green chilies, ground 6 nos.
Pepper powder ¼ tsp.
Chicken masala ¼tsp.
Chili sauce ½ tsp.
Soya sauce ½ tsp.
Flour ( maida ) 50 gms.
Ginger, paste 1 tsp.
Garlic, paste 1 tsp.
Red colour A pinch
Water ½ cup
Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste.

Directions:

Cut the wings into two, chop the end bone,pull the flesh up with the skin and remove the thin bone and mould into a lollipop.

Boil the pakoras with ½ cup water, ½ tsp.salt for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly, except lollipops and prepare a thick batter.

Heat oil in a deep pan, dip lollipop into the thick batter and fry on medium heat to a light brown colour.

Serve hot.