Mutton biryani

Biryanis are awesome! A good biryani recipe is difficult to come by and when I find a good recipe it is like I have struck gold. Since I am very fond of rice I used to look for a lot of pulao and biryani recipes, however, these days we are cutting back on white rice, and do not indulge in pulaos and biryanis like before. But these days whenever I cook white rice on weekends, I prefer to stick to my trusted recipes.  The recipe I share with you is my own, I made this dish literally with the ingredients available at home. My cook bought this lovely mutton when she came back after her weekly holiday and I didn't want to freeze it. I actually wanted to cook the chicken hyderabadi biryani from my blog, because its our absolute favourite. But I didn't have all the ingredients available and was not sure about cooking mutton the same way as chicken. Most of the ingredients are copied from the chicken hyderabadi recipe, however the quantities and method of cooking is different. It turned out absolutely mouth watering and was a super hit.

Ingredients:

1. Mutton - 1 kg
2. Basmati Rice - 3 cups (240 ml - 1 cup)
3. Coconut milk - 400 ml
4. Oil - 2 tbsp
5. Salt - as needed

Marinade 1:

1. Thick youghurt - 1 cup
2. Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
3. Red Chilly powder - 2 tsp
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
6. Coriander powder - 1 tbsp

Marinade 2: Grind to a paste using water

1. Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
2. Garlic - 10 cloves
3. Ginger - 1 inch piece
4. Green chillies - 10 nos
5. Cumin - 1tsp
6. Peppercorns - 10 nos
7. Cloves - 8 nos
8. Cinnamon - 3 inch piece
9. Star anise - 3 nos
10. Black cardamom - 3 nos
11. Green cardamom - 4 nos
12. Fennel seeds (Saunf) - 1 tsp

Onions - 8 medium sized onions
(Sliced thinly, fried in oil till brown and set aside)

Method: 

1. Use a pan large enough to cook the biryani to marinate the mutton. In the pan, add mutton that is cut and washed. To that add marinade 1 and 2. Add the sliced and fried onions and salt. Mix well and let it rest for 3 hours. 
2. Put the pan on the stove and cook the mutton till it's almost done. Depending on the cut of the mutton and age, the cooking time will vary. Usually it takes about forty minutes to cook. 
3. Wash and soak the Basmati rice half hour before cooking time.
4. Add the basmati rice to the mutton, add the coconut milk, oil and 1 cup of hot water. Mix it gently.
5. Put the pan back on the stove, let it come to a boil. Then lower the flame for 10 minutes and let it gently simmer. After ten minutes, put the flame off. Let  it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
6. Please note, once you lower the flame do not open the lid of the pan as the steam will escape. Open the lid only after it has rested and you are ready to serve the biryani.