Mutton or Lamb Dum Biryani Rice

Finally the wait for Biryani Rice post on my space is over...friends keep asking me "how come you have not published the famous Biryani recipe for which India is known for so much?"...No doubt the land of spices has this one drooling dish as jewel on its crown.

I would have made Chicken/Mutton/Lamb/Veal/Beef Biryani umpteen number of times in my 10 - 11 years of cooking experience, and in these 2 years of Food blogging, some how I never got an opportunity to shoot this Biryani dish whenever I made. One reason being that most of the times it is a special occasion for which I'm cooking and you can imagine how crazy rush I would have been into..and other reason is just thinking I will be cooking it many more times latter, so I won't brother to click. Somehow this time it just happened..though I was extremely busy I took time to click some pictures.

Well, Biryani is done in a few different ways...India being such a culturally varied country, each region adapted this recipe and added a few changes to accomadate their taste. I will have to probably post 3-4 varieties from time to time. For now I'm posting the Dum Biryani. Recently when I was chatting with my SIL we shared the recipes and one of it was the Biryani recipe, which she emailed to me..So I adapted some variation of my original recipe from hers...especially the coconut paste addition. Hubby is a huge fan of my biryani and my little ones call it "Brown rice".

We accompanied it with Chicken Karahi curry. BTW I should see if this qualifies as an entry for MM Ravishing Rice food blog event, this time hosted by Nags, originally created by Meeta.

Lets get into the making of this much awaited "Lamb Biryani - Dum style"
Ingredients:
Raw : pound boneless lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes or 3 lb in with bones.(preferable for biryani)
2 lb Long grain basmati rice
2 large onion, cut into thin slices
4 Whole Tomatoes
4 Green chillies slit

For marination:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1//2 tsp garam masala powder
1/4 cup very finely chopped coriander and mint leaves
1/2 tsp salt

Dry Spices:
3 Star anise
6 bay leaves
6 cardamom pods
6 cloves
6 small cinnamon sticks
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 Nut meg
1 Tsp mace
1 tsp whole black pepper balls

Other Masalas/Spice powders:
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste

Pastes :
2 Tbsp Ginger garlic paste

For the other paste grind :
1/4 cup grated fresh coconut
6 green chillies
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tsp black pepper balls
1/4 cup mint leaves
1/4 cup coriander leaves
Enough water

Oils:
3 - 5 tablespoons butter/ghee

Garnish :
Fried Onions form 2 large onions, cut into thin slices
A few lemon wedges/circles
finely chopped coriander and mint leaves
Hard boiled egg halves - optional
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped cashews

Directions:
Marinate lamb with the marinade items, for atleast 3 hours or overnight.
Wash and soak basmati rice for half an hour.
Soak saffron strands in milk.
Separately fry the garnish onions, cashew and raisins in ghee/oil and keep aside.
In a pot/pressure cooker heat ghee/oil and add the dry spices and saute' till the color changes.
Add the onions, green chillies and cook till onions are translucent.
Add ginger garlic paste and fry till the rawness is gone.
Add the meat pieces along with marinade and fry them for about 1-2 mins
Add the spice powders - chilly and garam masala powder. You can omit chilly powder if you don't desire that chilly flavour or too much spicy.
Keep mixing thoroughly on high heat for the mutton/lamb pieces to absorb the spices.
Add the ground coconut + mint coriander paste and mix well.
Now add the cut tomatoes and salt, mix well.
Add 1/2 cup of water mix well and pressure cook for 15 - 20 mints
If not using a pressure cooker than cook till the meat is almost done.

If the meat gravy is too watery, increase the heat and let the water evaporate to make it a medium thick gravy. But not too thick that the gravy cannot penetrate thru the rice layers.
Mean while cook rice till 3/4 done separately and keep aside. You can either strain the rice till it is 3/4 done or if using a rice cooker put 1:1 ratio and cook.
Once the meat and the rice are ready for the dam process, arrange them in layers alternatively in an aluminium foil tray or any oven proof glass/porcelain ware.
For each rice layer add some amount of saffron milk, lime circles and coriander mint leaves.
And for the end layer of rice add the fried onions, cashew and raisins.

Preheat the oven to 350c.
Cover the Biryani tray with foil and seal on the edges.
Place in the centre of the oven rack and bake for 1 hour, reducing the heat to 150 - 200c.
After 1 hour turn down the oven and let the Biryani rest for 1/2 an hour.
Remove from the oven decorate with more garnish items.
Serve with raita, eggplant masala or karahi gravy.