I am very lucky to be married to a guy who not only shares my passion for food, but is a fantastic cook as well. But even though both of us work full-time, somehow cooking is my responsibility in our house. It is not something that Siv demands, he doesn’t expect me to cook every day, he cooks when he is in the mood, and expects me to do the same. But I have a voice in my head that tells me that the kitchen is my domain, and cooking is my responsibility! I consider myself a modern, independent, free spirited woman, but I figure that I’m very traditional when it comes to my role in the kitchen. Siv does cook a lot, but when he does, I feel like he is doing me a favor. Am I crazy? Does this make sense to anyone?

Anyway, ramblings aside, here is the Mutton Biryani Siv made this week,I am sharing the recipe as promised in my last post. His first attempt at making Biryani following his mom’s recipe.

Ingredients

Method

Wash and soak the rice in cold water for at least 30 minutes.

Grind all the ingredients in the To Grind section to a smooth paste and keep aside.

In a pressure cooker, heat some oil and fry the mutton pieces along with the star anise, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.

Add the ground masala paste, salt and 1 cup of water and pressure cook the mutton. (3 minutes after the first whistle).

While the cooker is cooling down, in a big frying pan, heat the ghee, add soaked rice and a little bit of salt and fry well.

When the pressure cooker is cool enough to handle, open and measure the gravy in the mutton. We need total 5 cups of liquid including the gravy, coconut milk and water to cook 3 cups of rice. For example, if there is two cups of gravy in the mutton, add 1/2 cup coconut milk and 2 1/2 cups of water. Add the fried rice along with the required amount of hot water and coconut milk to the mutton in the pressure cooker.

Close the pressure cooker and cook till the first whistle. Switch off the stove and let stand till it cools down.

Delicious mutton biryani is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves, squeeze a fresh lime over the biryani and serve with cucumber raitha.

Since this is a traditional biryani recipe from his mom, this is made completely in the pressure cooker. I’ve tried a pressure cooker biryani recipe from Kitchen Wonders once, even though it tasted great, I kind of messed it up by overcooking the rice, so I went back to my regular oven method. But Siv made this perfect, you can see from the picture that the rice is not overcooked, may be he is a better cook than I am after all!

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Comments

18 Responses to “Tamil Style Mutton Biryani”

  1. Sumitha on March 16th, 2007 1:04 pm

    Hi Sig,its my first visit to your blog!You have a “fantastic” blog!I loved reading the restaurant reviews,if only i lived in Seattle your info would have been greatly useful.Aww…I am sad that the biryani you tried was overcooked.I have found a great recipe here in your blog now which I am definetly gonna give a try.

  2. Sig on March 16th, 2007 4:03 pm

    Hi Sumitha, Thanks for coming by… I love your blog and recipes too… Yeah, I messed up your biryani recipe… think I added more water than you specified… it tasted wonderful though. :)

  3. Richa on March 16th, 2007 4:25 pm

    hi sig, reached here blog hopping.
    i too love to try new restaurants, veg though.
    i try to use the masala from non-veg recipes for my paneer recipes.

    cheers

  4. Pravs on March 16th, 2007 4:59 pm

    More than chicken biriyani..mutton biriyani is my fav…i will give this a try. Thanks for the recipe.

  5. Kalinka on March 16th, 2007 5:55 pm

    Hello from Portugal

    I went for holidays to Algarve, in the south of the country.

    Now, I write in portugueses and in english, if you want to visit me again, you can read it in english.

    You can see some pictures there.

    Waiting for YOU.

    Bye. Hugs.

  6. shilpa on March 16th, 2007 6:03 pm

    Sig, biryani looks very good. I don’t wat mutton very frequently and since my husband don’t eat it, I have stopped eating it after marriage. So I am going to prepare this with chicken. Thanks for sharing.

  7. A Yunus on March 16th, 2007 7:46 pm

    Sig,

    The Biriyani is tempting da!! Hmm..I have no way to get such nice dishes from my DH…he is a forever wannabe taster :)) I shud try this one sometime…!!

  8. Asha on March 16th, 2007 10:26 pm

    YUMMY!! Thank you Sig!!!Looks beautiful!!

    I am off and won’t see me until Minday!:)

  9. Sig on March 16th, 2007 10:49 pm

    Richa, welcome… yeah most non-veg recipes are great with paneer as well.

    pravs, yep me too.. i love mutton everything and biryani especially.

    Shilpa, if you are not into mutton, try with chicken, just reduce the cooking time for chicken.

    Anisha, thanks… if your DH doesn’t cook, that has a positive side too, I personally like to feed him and collect the praises than the other way… It is good when someone appreciates you. :)

    Asha, Have a great weekend… Take frequent vacations from blogging, otherwise you will get burned out and the whole food blogging community will miss our greatest member :-)

  10. ros on March 21st, 2007 3:58 pm

    Mutton biryani was what my mother considered one of her specialities. Unfortunately she wasn’t the greatest cook and I found I had to rework her recipe completely.

    It is interesting seeing the differences between your husband’s Tamil version of the dish and the one I make which is based on my Sinhalese family’s recipe. There are subtle differences in the spicing, the most notable are the use of star anise and mint leaves.

  11. Sheela on March 29th, 2007 11:17 pm

    Hey Sig, was stuck at home today, down with flu and all, and popped over to check out your posts - couldn’t surf away without leaving a note - not about the recipe, but about something you “rambled”…

    D, my husband, cooks a lot, and yet, I feel pretty much the same way you do. You ask:

    —Am I crazy? Does this make sense to anyone?

    It sure does, makes complete sense to me…you stole my thoughts.

    Perhaps, it is a genetic trait? or cultural? or plain conditioning? who knows?

    But, works out fine as I love to cook… if only my wee one would not insist on sitting on my hip and supervising :-)

  12. Sig on March 30th, 2007 12:25 am

    Sheela, hope you feel better soon… I am at home too today, taking care of Siv who is down with flu and cold :).
    I’m glad someone got what I was rambling about. There is a great discussion on Jugalbandi.Info about this, in case you missed it.

  13. shilpa on January 27th, 2008 2:07 am

    lovely n brilliant recipe ….but ur question as in is ur hubby doin a favour on u by cookin doesnt make sense to me …for me ..common sense takes priority over …tradition n unecccessary cultures …no one takes a dominence over one area …be it kitchen or earning bread …its a shared responsibility …i wud never follow th fact that women look pretty in kitchen …no matter which fool makes that tradition.

  14. Mutton Biryani - Kerala Style : Live To Eat on February 27th, 2008 8:17 am

    […] is better. Our biryanis are totally different in taste, technique and appearance. He makes the authentic Tamil style biryani in the pressure cooker, a truly one pot dish. I have a few different biryani recipes, but my […]

  15. Bharathy on March 12th, 2008 7:20 am

    I was under the impression that coconut milk in biriyanis means Kerala..Tamil recipe calls for yoghurt!..here I see the other way round!..
    Both are LOVEEELY!(your and siv’s) :grin:
    It is a TIE :razz:

  16. Cooking it up on slumber prone days - Coconut rice and potato stew « Escapades on June 27th, 2008 6:30 am

    […] rice dish i cooked in a pressure cooker would resemble a goop good enough to stick a shoe sole…..sig came to my rescue….she talks of switching the heat off after one whistle for a perfectly cooked […]

  17. suba on June 30th, 2008 5:15 am

    Did u forget tomato or no need? I am surprised without tomato….let me try this week

  18. chandrika on July 3rd, 2008 11:33 am

    Dear,Sir,Mdm
    Ilike to know indian all kind of biriyani and sweets how to cook please help meto learn.
    Thank you.

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