Hydrebadi Mutton/lamb Dum Biriyani

One post a month, that’s my goal now. It’s almost the end of February and I can’t let this month go without any recipe so here I am with a family favourite lamb biriyani which I make often when I have friends over. This biriyani is something you can prep a day ahead which makes your job easier next day. If I am cooking it for Sunday lunch, like I did today, I do all the marination part the previous night so next day all I have to do is half cook the rice, layer and dum. All you need for this biriyani is some raita but if you have time make  Mirch ka salan with this and it is a match made in heaven J That’s one Sunday lunch sorted for you and  maybe even Monday and Tuesday too ! This biriyani freezes well and I freeze it straight away once it comes to room temperature and it comes as a life saver on days when I am too tired to cook in the evening.

Recipe source - here

Ingredients (serves 8-10)

Rice – 3  1/2cups 

Lamb /mutton – 1 kg

Meat tenderiser (optional) – 1tsp

Onion – 4 large ( fried) or 2 cups fries onions

Mint leaves

Coriander leaves

To Marinate

Shahi jeera – 1 tsp

Yogurt – 2 cups

Lime juice – 1 ½ tbs

Fried onion – ½ of it

Mint leaves – 1 small bunch

Coriander leaves – 1 small bunch

Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbs

Red chilli powder – 2 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – 2 tbsp

Cumin powder  - 1tsp

Green chillies – 4 -5

Crushed pepper – 1 tsp

 cinnamon stick – 1 small stick

cloves – 6 number

cardamom – 5

fennel seeds – 1 tsp

Salt

Oil

Method

• Marinate the lamb with meat tenderiser for 1/2 hour
• Meanwhile soak the rice for an hour.
• Add all the ingredients under ‘To marinate’ and keep it for another 1 hour.
• In the meantime boil some water adding salt. Add rice and cook until its half done. Drain it and keep it aside.
• In a big pot, tip the marinated lamb and spread it evenly.
• Add one layer of rice on top and sprinkle some reserved fried onions on top. Add some chopped coriander leaves and mint as well. Repeat layering until all rice is used up.
• Cover the pot with a lid and seal the edges with a plain flour dough/chapathi dough.
• Place the pot on top of another flat plan and cook it on a medium low flame for about an hour (Placing  the pot directly on the flame can burn your biriyani on bottom hence always  place the pot on top of another pan ) 

Malabar mutton curry/ Varutharacha mutton curry

We don’t buy Mutton/ lamb at home often, even when we buy it’s usually for biriyani so if you check my blog I don’t have much mutton recipes, but during this holiday time we have been entertaining a lot and I  have been cooking with mutton too. For my last party I promised my friends Keralan food so when I bought mutton, the first thing which came to my mind was this varutharacha mutton curry which my amma used to make a lot. To be honest I was never a fan of varutharacha curry back then so I rarely made it myself.

My hubby did ask me whether I am sure I want to experiment  as this is not something I cook often, usually when he say something like that I lose my confidence and give up on that dish and go for my tried and tested recipes but this time I was determined. I am glad that I didn't listen to him  as this curry turned out  super delicious. My friends loved  it too !

In this recipe I have added a leaf ( ramba leaf ) which was very new to me until my friend who is from Srilanka introduced this to me, something which they add a lot in Srilankan cooking usually to flavour rice. It’s readily available in Indian/Asian groceries here.You can read more about the leaf here. It's an optional ingredient so please don't bother if you don't have it. 

Recipe source – Amma and my own

Ingredients

Mutton/Lamb – 1 kilo
To marinate

Chilli powder -1 tbsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

salt
Ginger garlic paste – 1  tbs

Onion - 6 medium

Tomato -3 small

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbs

To roast

Grated coconut/ ചിരണ്ടിയ തേങ്ങ – 1 ½ cup

Shallot/ചെറിയ ഉള്ളി – handful

Coriander seeds/ മല്ലി – 2 tbs

 Cinnamon /പട്ട– 1 stick

Cloves/ഗ്രാമ്പു– 4-5

Cardamom/ഏലക്ക -5

Star anise/തകോളം

Fennel/പെരുംജീരകം – 1 tbsp

Peppercorns/കുരുമുളക് – 1 tsp

Whole Red chilli/ വറ്റല്‍ മുളക് – 3

Curry leaves/കറിവേപ്പില – 5-6 sprigs

Poppy seeds/cuscous/കസ്കുസ് – 1 tbs

Ramba leaf/ രംഭ ഇല /  ( optional) – 1 small piece

Coriander leaves/ മല്ലി ഇല

To temper

Coconut pieces/തേങ്ങാ കൊത്തു – 1 tbs

Shallots/ ചെറിയ ഉള്ളി  -4 thinly sliced

Curry leaves/ കറിവേപ്പില– few

 Method

• Marinate the mutton with red chilli, turmeric, salt and 1 tbs ginger garlic paste for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• In a pan add some coconut oil and add the whole garam masala (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, fennel,star anise) and when nice aroma comes out add grated coconut, coriander seeds, whole red chillies, curry leaves and roast for few minutes. When it start to turn change colour, add poppy seeds and carry on roasting until golden brown. DONOT roast beyond this point.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Once it’s cool grind it adding very little water into a smooth paste and keep it aside.
• In a pressure add coconut oil and add chopped onion and saute until light brown.
• Add in the rest of the ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell goes.
• Add chopped tomatoes, few curry leaves and cook for few minutes.
• Add in the marinated mutton, 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 4 -5 whistles or until mutton is cooked.
• Once the pressure releases open the pressure cooker and add the ground masala paste, curry leaves, ramba leaf and boil everything for 5-10 minutes. 
• In a small pan add coconut oil and fry the sliced shallots, coconut pieces separately until brown, throw in some curry leaves along with them before you remove them fire and add it to the gravy.
• Add chopped coriander leaves and garnish. 

Seekh Kebab

Once you take a break it’s really difficult to get back into that mood of blogging…I wonder whether it’s ever going to come back now…I really wish it does though as I miss blogging !

Its break time for me here and I am off work for a week, which also means I get to take pictures of what I cook in day light. Spring is near our door steps now, days are getting longer and temperatures are slightly getting warmer.  I was looking forward to this break  and have kick started the fun today catching up with friends with a  long gals day out  which ended with an elaborate  lunch and  a movie! 

Whenever we go out eat out in Pakistani restaurants, kebabs is something we try a lot. Last year I tried making shami kebab with the help of a friend which  tasted absolutely delicious so here I am again with another favourite kebab of ours which is so easy to make.

Ingredients

Lamb mince – 500 gm

Onion – 1 medium

Egg – 1 small (beaten)

Cumin seeds – 1 ½ tbs

Corainder seeds – 2 tbs

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Green chillies – 2

Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp

Coriander leaves – fistful

Salt

Method

• Dry roast cumin and coriander seeds separately and powder it in a mixie/ coffee grinder
• Crush onions in a mixie (not paste) and keep it aside.
• Make a paste of green chillies and coriander and keep it aside.
• In a bowl add the crushed onion, ginger garlic paste and green chilli- coriander paste.
• Add salt, powdered cumin and coriander, red chilli powder and mix.
• Add minced lamb, egg and mix.
•  Refrigerate it for 1 hour.
• Take wooden skewers and with a wet hand stick the minced mix on the skewers
• Bake it in a preheated oven at 200 degree C for 25 minutes flipping the sides in between.

Shami Kebab

When I eat something really good at a friend’s place, I immediately asks for the recipe and most of the time inspiration gets buried deep inside without any attempt, but sometimes especially when the recipe is too good to pass, I try it out. There are many such recipes in my blogs which were inspired from friends and family and this Kebab is a result of one such inspiration. When I went to my friend Z’s place, she served some delicious Shami kebab which was her grandma’s special. Shami kebab is a Pakistani kebab and I remember her telling me that she grew up eating this a lot. She was so generous to share her recipe with me. I also did some online search and they were all pretty much the same, expect few changes. I  was really happy the way it turned out and  and this was one of my starter for my New year party with blogger friends Nisha, Suchi and Manjiri and they all loved it too :)

Ingredients ( makes 24 kebabs)

For Kheema paste

Lamb (minced) – 500gm

Chana Dal – 125 gm/ 8 tbs

Potatoes – 2 small ( diced)

Ginger- garlic paste – 2 tsp

Cinnamon stick - 3” stick

Cloves – 3

Cardamom – 2 nos

Fennel – 1 tsp (optional )

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Peppercorn – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala – 1 tsp

Red chilly powder – 1 tsp

Water – 1 cup

Salt

Other Ingredients

Onion – 2 medium

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Coriander leaves –  few sprigs (finely chopped )

Mint leaves – few sprigs ( finely  chopped )

Lime juice – 2 tbs

Egg – 1 large

Oil – for shallow frying

Method

1. Soak Chana dal in boiling water for 1 hour.
2. In a big saucepan add all the ingredients listed under ‘kheema paste’ and cook for 35-40 minutes until water dries and all the ingredients are cooked through.
3. Let it cool down and then grind them into a fine paste.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients listed under ‘ other ingredients’ expect the egg to the kheema paste and knead until its mixed well.
5. Divide the paste into 24 equal sized balls and flatten it out, dip them in beaten egg and shallow fry flipping the sides for 3-4 minutes or until firm and brown.

Pepper Mutton

Pepper mutton is one such  recipe which never lets me down, especially because I use peppercorns grown back home in our backyard. I bring atleast 1/2 kilo of sundried peppercorns from  India every year  and freshly crush  it for pepper based recipes.

Atleast some of my FB friends knew that Nisha who blogs at Look who is cooking too came down to our place  during easter holidays and I prepared this for our dinner to go with Malabar chicken biriyani (recipe will follow soon ), since she wanted to know the recipe I am dedicating this post to her  :) The picture might not be a good looking one as it was shot just  before the sunset in a hurry but  this recipe is a keeper ! We had a great night that day. Do u want to see what she  brought for us that day  ? An  amazing tres leche cake, it was an  amazing dessert and nearly  half of the cake was gone  the same day and the rest we finished the next day. Little A who generally dont eat cold things also had  fair  share of the cake !



Ingredients

Mutton/ Lamb   - 500 gm

Onions - 2( large)

Tomato -2

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs

Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Pepper powder - 1 tbs

Coriander powder - 2 tbs

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Whole garam masla

Cinnamon - 1 stick

Cardamom - 2 pods

Clove -3

Bay leaf -1

Star anise -1

Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Pepper corns

Curry leaves

Salt

Method

1.Marinate the mutton with red chilly powder,tumeric powder, coriander powder,cumin powder,pepper powder and half of the ginger garlic paste and keep aside for 1 hour.

2.Pressure cook the mutton for 5-10 whistles adding 1/2 cup of water until they are cooked.

3.In a saucepan take some oil , sputter cumin seeds and fennel seeds. Add the whole spices and stir for few seconds.

4.Add finely chopped onions and saute until it becomes brown in colour.

5.Add rest of the  ginger garlic paste and saute again until the raw smell goes. Add chopped tomatoes and saute until it is well cooked and mushy.

6.Add cooked mutton  cover  and cook  in a lowflame for a few minutes.

7.Finally add freshly crushed peppercorns, garam masala and curry leaves.To make the mutton  dry ,cook for few minutes uncoverd until the mutton  is well coated in the gravy.

Rogan josh

During our 1 year stay in Pune (back in 2006), me and my hubby  used to go out for dinner every Friday night and treat ourselves with a three course dinner. I really miss those beautiful Friday nights. We covered so many restaurants in the city and tried all types of cuisines available there. But among all restauranst my fvoutite one was a Kashmiri restaurant. It was from there, I tasted this wonderful dish for the  first time. The taste was so incredible that every time I go there I ended up ordering the same thing.   This was my first attempt to prepare this at home, I did little google search, went through so many recipes and finally made my version. I made this for dinner and luckily it came out well and I was planning to take a picture next day during daylight but nothing was left after the dinner :( Here goes the recipe. 

Updated with a new picture  - I still follow the same recipe and has been making this for so many years! Jan 2021

  Ingredients 

Lamb - 500 g ( diced)

Onion - 3

 Tomato - 2 small or 1 large

Green chillies -2 

Cinnamon stick -1 

Bayleaf - 1 

Cardamom pods -1 

Cloves -2 

Cumin - 1 tsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs 

Kashmiri redchilly powder - 1 tsp

 Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp 

Coraiander powder - 2 tsp 

Garam masala - 1 tsp

 Yogurt -2 tbs 

Salt

corianader leaves

Preparation

In a saucepan take some oil sputter some cumin seeds, add the whole spices (cinnamom, cloves, cardamom, bayleaf) and stir for few seconds.

Add the finely chopped onions to it and saute until onions becomes soft. 

Add ginger garlic paste and stir again.

Add all powders and stir until the raw smell goes. Add the diced lamb and fry it for few minutes till the meat becomes little brown. 

Add tomato puree and stir for few minutes.

Finally add the yogurt and cook it uncovered for 5 minutes.

When it is about to boil simmer it cook on a low heat , strirring occassionally until the meat is well cooked. It took 1 hour for me.. Garnish with coriander leaves.