Mutton Biryaani

First time today, i tried cooking Mutton Biryaani.....and luckily it resulted in a very tasty biryaani. Apparently my Fiance's favourite food is Mutton biryaani, so i had to learn it anyway. It turned out to be very good (atleast that's what the people said). By the end of the cooking process, my kitchen started smelling really good so I knew this was a success.

Alrighty...then let's start our process.........come on in..............

Ingredients:

1. 500 gms mutton

2. 250 gms Basmati Rice (wash and soak in cold water for 20 mins)

3. Meat Tenderizer - 1 tablespoon

4. Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tablespoon

5. Yogurt - 1.5 cup

6. Chilli Powder - 1 tablespoon

7. Salt to taste

8. Mint Leaves - handful

9. Coriander Leaves - Handful

10. Coriander Powder - 1 tablespoon

11. Cumin Powder - 1 teaspoon

12. Cloves - 3

13. Bay leaf - 2

14. Cinnamon Stick - 1

15. Shahizeera - 1/2 teaspoon

16. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

17. Garam Masala - 2 tablespoons

18. Onions - 3 medium sized

19. Oil - 6 tablespoon

20. Crushed Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon

21. Black cardamom - 3

Method:

Marinate mutton with meat tenderizer and ginger garlic paste and set it aside in a cool place for 45 minutes. In the mean time, slice the onions and fry them until they turn golden brown. Take the meat container and add yougurt, chilli powder, few mint leaves, salt, few coriander leaves, corainder powder, cumin powder, cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, black cardamom, shahizeera, turmeric powder and crushed black pepper to the meat and mix well. Now add 3 tablespoons of oil to this mixture. Take a vessel and boil 8 cups of water, add 3 tablespoons of oil, shahizeera, 1 tablespoon of garam masala and one tablespoon of salt. After the water comes to a boil, add the presoaked rice. Cook for 5 minutes on high flame or until the rice is 50% done. Take a heavy bottom pan (its important to use a heavy bottom pan so that biryaani won't burn at the bottom.) add mutton mixture at the bottom. On top of it add half of the rice, then add a layer of mint leaves, coriander leave, 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, half of the fried onions and then add the remaining amount of the rice and on top, add the mint leaves, corainder leaves, remaining garam masala, remaining fried onions. Now place this pan on high flame and cover it with a tight lid. Make sure steam does not go out. As an extra measure, put some weight on the lid, so that steam does not go out. After 10 minutes on the high flame, reduce the flame to low 2 and let it simmer for 60 minutes.

Tadaaaaaaaaa.................yummy biryaani is ready.

Serve it with Raita and Mirchi ka saalan.....enjoy peeps ;-)

Onion Pakodi (Pakora)

Onion pakodi is a tea time snack and one of my mom's favourites.

Ingredients:

1. Onions - 2 medium (cut into thin strings)

2. Gram flour (senagapindi or Besan) - 1 cup

3. Green chillies - 2 (cut into small pieces)

4. Chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon

5. Salt - according to your tast

6. Water - 1/4 cup

7. Oil - enough to deepfry

Procedure:

In a bowl, take onions and gram flour, chillies, chilli powder and salt and mix well. Kneed this mixture for some time so that all the juices in the onions and chillies will make a thick dough and now add just a bit of water to make a smooth batter like consistency (make sure not to make it watery or runny, please avoid adding a lot of water)

Take a pan, heat oil and start dropping small amounts of batter into the oil, (make sure oil is hot enough to fry these). I prefer very small quantities of batter at a time to make the pakora's crisp. Once the pakora's become golden brown, take them out of the oil, strain them properly for excess oil and serve them hot with Mint chutney (you can get this in any Indian grocery stores) as a dip.

You can eat these pakoras as is without any dips as well.

P.S: Want to try a tasty quick dip??? Add two tablespoons of tomato ketchup to 1/2 tablespoon of mint chutney and use it as a dip. That's tangy, tasty mouth watering dip ;-)

Chicken Biryani

I invited one of my office colleagues (Victor) for the lunch recently, he liked the falvors and especially spices alot. He took some left over biryani home. The best part is Victor's dad liked biryani alot and now he asked me for the recipe. So i'm writing this post for him and to all the cooks looking for a easy recipe of "Chicken Biryani"



Note: Below recipe serves 2 people.



Ingredients:

1. Basmati Rice - 1 cup

2. Hyderabadi Biryani Masala - 1/2 tablespoon (You can buy this at Indian Groceries)

3. Chicken - 1 pound (cut into bite size cubes)

4. Oil - 1 tablespoon

5. Cloves - 2

6. Cinnamon stick - 1

7. Bay leaf - 1

8. Ginger and Garlic Paste - 1 tablespoon (You can buy this at Indian Groceries)

9. Garam Masala - 1/2 tablespoon (You can buy this at Indian Groceries)

10. Onion - Medium sized cut into small pieces

11. Chilli powder - 1 tablespoon (You can buy this at Indian Groceris)

12. Salt - As per your taste

13. Water

14. Tomato - 1 medium size cut into small pieces
15. Saffron powder - 1 pinch mixed in 2 tablespoons of water.



Preparation:

Take a pot, add rice, 2 cups of water (for 1 cup of rice, add 2 cups of water), pinch of salt, Biryani masala and mix well and cook the rice. This is just the way you cook normal rice.



Take another pan, add oil and onions, fry the onions until they are golden brown, add cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, ginger garlic paste, cinnamon stick, garam masala mix well and fry for 30 to 45 seconds. Now add tomato and fry for one more minute. Add chicken and mix it well with all the other ingredients in the pan, let it fry for 2 mins and then add 1/2 cup water, chilli powder and salt and let it cook until the chicken is tender and let it simmer for 10 minutes after the chicken is cooked.



Preheat the oven at 3500F. Take a baking pan, spread some rice on the pan, then some chicken and add some rice and so on..... add one layer of rice and one layer of chicken until you layer all the rice and chicken. Finally, pour the saffron mixed water on the rice as a garnish. Cover the pan with aluminium foil place it in the oven and let it sit in the oven for 15 minutes.



That's it.........yummy biryani is ready. Enjoy.



Serve it with raita. Recipe for Raita can be found in my "Khichidi and Raita" post.



Enjoy and don't forget to write how it turned out for you.