Sunday’s Easter special mutton biriyani. So I hope everybody enjoying this spring holidays. This is easy & quick dum biriyani recipe. While preparing non vegetarian biriyani, it’s very important to marinate the meat with yogurt & spices. Here, I have listed ingredients for marination & mostly I always marinate for overnight, so that it helps meat to pre marring with all ingredients, gives nice aroma & taste to the meat. It’s totally optional of using meat tenderizer, it may helps to the tenderizing the meat, this could be available in any super market. Don’t worry if you don’t have, because yogurt / lime / lemon is the natural meat tenderizer, the acid in the yogurt / curd helps to get the soft & tenderness of the meat. Raw papaya & pineapple are also an natural tenderizer.

In dum biriyani, the marinated raw meat & half cooked basmathi rice will cook together, this the method mostly used in restaurants / any parties, because they have large vessel & they will cook on very low flame under charcoal, this helps to cook the meat perfectly & tender. But here, I used pre-cooked the meat & half cooked rice together layered. This is the easiest way to make mutton dum biriyani. To cook perfect & tasty biriyani, don’t over load the spices (Indian spices available in all Asian grocery shop), marinating time (overnight is best), good quality of bastmati rice, proportion of rice, yogurt & meat must be equal.

Bon appetite !!
I severed dum mutton biriyani with onion raita and spicy, tangy, mild sweet drumstick, brinjal curry

Marination Time : 30 minutes / overnight
Cooking Time : 30 – 45 minutes
Recipes Cuisine : South India
Ingredients:
Mutton Marination:
Mutton (thigh with bone) – 500gms
Meat tenderizer – 1tsp (optional)
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Biriyani masala – 2 tsp (http://mysouthernflavours.com/2013/11/22/652/)
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Red chili powder – 2 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Curd / yogurt – 1 ½ cup (thick)
Salt – 2 tsp
Ginger – garlic paste:
Ginger – 1 large pieces
Garlic – 7 cloves
Green chilies – 2
Rice preparation:
Basmathi Rice – 500 gms
Salt – ½ tsp
Shahi jeera – ½ tsp
sombu / anise seed – ½ tsp
Cardamom – 3 nos.
Cinnamon – 1 small stick
Cloves – 4 nos
Bay leaves – 1 nos
Ingredient for layering & Garnishing:
Saffron – pinch (mixed in milk)
Cilantro & mint leaves – handful
Fried onions – 1 cup (homemade)
Ghee / Unsalted butter – 1 tbsp

Method:
Step 1:

Mutton preparation:

• First clean the mutton & remove the moisture by using paper towel.
• Start to mix the all spices, yogurt / curd, salt & oil in a large bowl.
• Add the mutton to the mixture and marinate it for atleast 1 hour / overnight in the refrigerator.
• Add 1 tbsp of oil to the pressure cooker, fry the thinly sliced onions, remove the extra oil & keep aside.
• In the same pan add the marinated mutton, saute for 5 minutes on high flame,add ½ cup water, cover the the lid, cook it for 5 whistle on medium flame, switch off & keep aside.

Step 2:

Rice Preparation:

• Soak the basmathi rice for 30 minutes with enough water.
• Boil the water in a large pot, add shahi jeera, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon & salt.
• Now drain the water from the soaked rice & add to the boiling water.
• Turn off the flame, when the rice half cooked ; drain water & wash the rice in the cool water for a minute (prevents rice from over cooking)

Step 3:

Layering the Dum Biriyani:

• In a heavy bottom pan / nonstick, add 1 tbsp of ghee & first layered by cooked mutton.
• Second layered with the ½ cup fried onions, cilantro & mint layer & third layered with half cooked rice & pour saffron mixture over the top.
• Final layer with handful of cilantro & mint leaves, fried onions and cover it with tight lid.
• Cook it on high flame for first 5 minutes.
• After that cook it on dum, for another 15 – 20 minutes on very low flame.
• Serve it hot & enjoy with onion raitha & curries.

Hints:
For dum biriyani use heavy bottomed utensil / nonstick.
Don’t worry if you are not having tight lid, cover the pan with news paper / muslin cloth & close it with lid [or] keep heavy vessel over top of the lid (this helps for perfect dum, without releasing pressure).