Watch: Cook with Gulf News Food – Mumbai Biryani
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Mumbai Biryani
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 kg meat
½ kg yoghurt
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 tomatoes minced
6 onions, fried to make birista (reserve a quarter cup for the very end)
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (a blend of equal portions of minced ginger and garlic)
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander-cumin (dhaniya and zeera) powder, equal quantity
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp biryani khada (whole) masala powder (a blend of equal portions of true cardamom, black cardamom, star anise, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, cinnamon, bay leaves and cloves)
1 kg basmati rice
A few strands of saffron soaked in a few tablespoons of warm milk
Oil or ghee (clarified butter), for garnish
Method:
- Mix ginger-garlic paste and yoghurt. Marinate the meat with this mix, along with the spice powders, and keep it aside for 30 minutes.
- In a pan, add cooking oil and fry the potatoes. This gives a texture to the external surface, which helps in absorbing the flavouring better. Keep aside.
- In the same pan, add chopped tomatoes and fry them for 2 minutes. Add the fried onions.
- Next, add the marinated meat and mix continually for 10 minutes.
- Now add this mixture into a pressure cooker and cook until the meat is tender (approximately 4 whistles). If you wish to not use the pressure cooking technique, you can cook it over a medium to low flame in a covered pot, for about an hour.
- In the meantime, boil rice with salt and some whole spices including an inch of cinnamon, 1 or 2 black cardamoms, 3 green cardamoms, 3 to 4 cloves, 1 or 2 bay leaves and star anise, until the al dente stage, drain using a colander or strainer.
- Add oil to grease a deep vessel. Layer the cooked meat at the bottom and then the rice.
- Drizzle one cup of oil or ghee (clarified butter) on top. Garnish with saffron soaked in a few tablespoons of milk and add two tablespoons of fried onions on top.
- Cover it with food-grade aluminium foil and shut the lid tightly.
- Cook over a very low flame for about 45 minutes. You will see steam being released and condensation on the lid, despite the foil covering.
- Serve biryani with yoghurt raita (cut onions, cucumber and tomato).
Recipe Courtesy: Rubina Sajan
