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.