Kolkata Mutton Biryani
Kolkata mutton biryani is a popular dish and made with aromatic spices, tender pieces of mutton, boiled egg, fried potato halves and fragrant basmati rice.
Yield: 4
Materials
For Biryani Spice Powder or Biryani Masala
- 1 inch Cinnamon Stick
- 8 nos Clove
- 4 nos Green Cardamom
- ¾ teaspoon Caraway Seeds or Shah Jeera
- 3-4 petals Mace or Javitri
- 1 no Bay Leaf
- 8 nos Whole Black Peppercorns
- 1 no Black Cardamom
- 3-4 no Cubeb or Kabab Chini
- ½ teaspoon Nutmeg or Jaiphal grated or powder
For Cooking Biryani Rice
- 2 cups Long Grain Basmati Rice
- 2 nos Green Cardamom
- 4 nos Cloves
- 4 nos Whole Black Peppercorn
- 1-2 nos Star Anise
- 3-4 nos Cubeb
- 1 no Bay Leaf
- ½ inch Cinnamon
- 1-2 petal Mace
For Marinating Mutton
- 500-600 gms Mutton Pieces
- 1½ tablespoon Grated Raw Papaya
- ½ cup Thick Yogurt
- 2-3 teaspoon Ginger Paste
- 2 teaspoon Garlic Paste
- 1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
- ⅓ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 2 teaspoon Biryani Masala Powder (Ingredients given above)
- 1½ tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- Salt to taste
Other Ingredients
- 1 no Onion, large Sliced (for making beresta)
- 2 cups Onion finely chopped
- 2-3 nos Potato, medium cut into halves
- 4 nos Boiled eggs
- 1½ teaspoon Coriander Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- ¼ cup Milk Warm
- Saffron a pinch
- ¼ cup Ghee or Clarified Butter
- Few drops of Food Color (Saffron) (Optional)
- Few drops Meetha Attar (a special fragrance for Mughlai cuisine)
- Few drops of kewra water
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Making of Biryani Spice Powder or Biryani Masala
- Dry roast the ingredients for Biryani masala (except nutmeg powder) in a skillet for a few minutes.
- Allow them to cool and later grind them to smooth powder.
- Add nutmeg powder to the ground spice mixture and combine well.
- Now Biryani Spice Powder or Biryani Masala is ready to use.
Marination of Mutton Pieces
- Wash and clean the mutton pieces thoroughly under tap water.
- Now marinated the mutton with grated raw papaya for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- After that, add the remaining ingredients given under marinating mutton section.
- Rub the marination ingredients in all the pieces and rest it for overnight.
Cooking Rice for Biryani
- Soak the rice in water for 20 minutes.
- Later, drain the water and cook the rice with the whole spices listed under the tab 'For Cooking Biryani Rice'.
- Drain the water when the rice is 75 to 80% cooked.
- Spread the rice out on plates to cool.
- Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the rice.
Cooking Mutton for Biryani
- Heat oil in a pan and add the sliced onions.
- Fry it in a little salt and sugar over medium heat until brown and crisp.
- Remove them from the oil and place them on absorbent paper. Now beresta is ready. Set aside.
- Meanwhile parboil potatoes and once cooled down after draining water, cook them in the remaining oil with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder.
- Once they turn golden, take them out and keep aside.
- Now, in the same pan, melt the ghee and add the finely chopped onions.
- Once transparent, add the marinated mutton pieces.
- Cook the mutton pieces with coriander powder and salt under low heat.
- Cover with a lid and cook for 3 to 5 minutes on high heat.
- Later, decrease the heat to low and cook the mutton pieces slowly, covered with a lid and stirring occasionally.
- After the mutton is cooked, set it aside.
Assembling of Biryani
- Soak Saffron in warm milk for 10 minutes. The milk will turn pale yellow. You can also add a few drops of food color to the milk.
- Take a large pot and coat it with ghee.
- Place one-third of the cooked mutton in the bottom, followed by rice, fried onions (beresta), a few potato halves, and a boiled egg. In this layer, add a little saffron milk.
- Add a similar layer on top of this by layering cooked mutton, fried onions, rice, potatoes, boiled egg, and saffron milk.
- Finally, add kewra water and meetha attar to the top layer.
- Close the lid and seal the edges of the pot with wheat flour dough.
- Cook for 2 minutes on high heat and remove the pot from the heat.
- Place an iron skillet on the heat and keep the biryani pot on top.
- Keep the gas on low heat for around 10 minutes and later turn off the heat and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Unseal the edges and serve the hot Kolkata style mutton biryani with raita.