Hyderabadi Mutton Dum Biryani

Also called the “kacche gosht ki Biryani”, where raw meat is cooked on low flame in trapped steam along with half cooked rice till the meat becomes tender and rice becomes fragrant. The art of making this Biryani has a long history associated with the Mughals. It’s now popularly known as the Hyderabadi Biryani.

The essence of this cooking method is the trapped steam. The marinated pieces of raw mutton get cooked on super low heat for a long time.

This recipe is a two step process. First step calls for marinating the mutton and the second step calls for sealing the pot of Biryani shut and cooking on “dum”.

This recipe serves 4 people and provides approximately 860 calories per serving.

Here is what you’ll need:

½ kg mutton

2 cups long grain basmati

2 cardamoms

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 inch cinnamon stick

Mint leaves for garnish

Saffron soaked in 2 tbsp milk

Marinade:

6-7 green chillies slit

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp black pepper

1 tbsp Biryani masala powder (optional)

4 cloves whole

4 cardamoms whole

1 inch cinnamon stick

200 gm yoghurt

1 cup fried onions/ fry 2 onions (check link)

½ cup coriander

½ cup mint leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

5 tbsp oil.

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Clean and wash the mutton pieces.
2. Wash and soak the rice for 30 minutes.
3. Prepare the marinade with all the ingredients listed under “marinade”,
4. Marinate the mutton pieces for 2 hours.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the cardamom, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.
6. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, cook the rice for 5 minutes or till half done and drain it.
7. Layer the bottom of the pan with the marinated mutton and add the half cooked rice on top.
8. Garnish with few mint leaves and saffron milk.
9. Seal the pot tightly by applying sticky dough of all-purpose flour around the brim of the pot.
10. Once the pot is sealed, cook on low flame for 20 minutes and then keep on “dum” for another 20 minutes.
11. For keeping on dum keep the pot on a hot tawa and then put it on low flame.
12. Serve hot with raita.

Recipe by Zohra Sada