Radha Akka’s Mutton Biryani

Name: Radha Akka's Mutton Biryani
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Tamilnadu
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon Coriander Seeds; 1/4 teaspoon Cumin Seeds; 1 teaspoon Poppy Seeds; 1 sprig Curry Leaves; 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper; 1/2 teaspoon Fennel Seeds; 3 Dry Red Chillies; 1/2 inch piece Cinnamon; 1 Clove; 10 cloves garlic; 1 inch piece ginger; 12 small onions or 6 shallots; 600 grams mutton; 1/2 cup plain yogurt / curd; 1 teaspoon salt; part of the ground ginger-garlic paste ( 2 teaspoon); 3 bay leaves; 1 inch piece cinnamon; 2 cloves; 2 cardamom; 400ml aged basmati rice; 2 tablespoon peanut oil; 2 tablespoon ghee; 3 onions, sliced (about 2 cups); 6-10 green chillies, slit; 1/4 cup mint leaves; 1/4 cup coriander leaves; 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder; 1 teaspoon coriander powder; 1.5 teaspoon salt

June 5, 2017 by Suguna Vinodh 73 Comments

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Recipe for Tamilnadu style mutton biryani made in the pressure cooker. Easy recipe with biryani masala made from scratch. With step by step pictures.

Vinodh’s sister Shree Vidhya got married about an year and a half back. I still remember this chat that I had with her that time. It was an arranged marriage and one of the nice things about arranged marriages are the few lovely lovely days that leads from engagement to the wedding. Its so cute a scene to see the bride and the groom glued to their phones. Those are “love is in the air” days. We were chatting and I asked her what kind of food Krishna (our maaplai) liked? She told, Akka, he is a foodie. He likes Mutton Biryani. I asked, what else? Mutton Biryani was the answer again. So I understood that he was a biryani aficionado. After the wedding, Shree told that her MIL makes the most delicious Mutton Biryani. I met Shree’s MIL, Radha Akka at a function just a few days after the wedding and told her that I wanted to try her biryani. Sadly, we left to Hong Kong just a few days later after that. So the biryani had to wait. We visited them a few weeks back and got to try the legendary mutton biryani. Oh my! Oh my! every single morsel was so delicious. I sat with Radha Akka after lunch and I pestered her for the recipe. She was so sweet to share the recipe. So the secret of our family’s Maaplai Veetu biryani – here for you my lovely readers. Do try it at home. Happy marriages are made with biryani! Here is a picture of Shree with her MIL Radha Akka.

Biryani Masala
The secret to this biryani is home made biryani masala made from scratch. Radha akka makes this masala powder in huge quantities and uses it in all her non-veg preparations. I have toned down the recipe. Here is what you will need.

Dry roast the ingredients in a low flame until fragrant and the poppy seeds are nice and brown.
Note: If you are living in the middle east or any other country where you cannot source poppy seeds, just omit it from the recipe. I just learnt from one of my readers that having poppy seeds can land you in jail in those countries. Poppy seeds are treated as narcotics I believe.

Once the roasted ingredients are cool, grind to a fine powder. Set aside. I use my trusty Panasonic mixer for grinding masalas. It does a fine job for grinding masalas in small quantities.

Prep Work
You will need to make two pastes. Ginger-garlic and small onion / shallot. (If you cannot get small onions, substitute shallot). Grind the ginger and garlic with few tablespoon of water to a smooth paste. Set aside. Grind the small onion / shallot to a smooth paste. Set aside.

Marinating the Mutton
Add two teaspoon of the ground ginger garlic paste to the mutton. Add in the plain yogurt (curd) and salt. Let the meat marinate for 20-30 minutes.
Note: If you want the meat to be very tender, add a teaspoon of ground raw papaya paste. This is an optional ingredient but it yields extremely tender meat when cooked. Do not add more as the meat will disintegrate.

The rice
Radha akka was very particular that she uses only aged basmati rice for her biryani and she likes the brand Lal Qilla.

We have used 600grams of mutton and 400ml of rice today. Soak the rice in water for 20 minutes. Soaking the rice is the secret to a good fluffy biryani. The grains does not become a mush while cooking.

Cooking the biryani
I have used a 5 liter pressure cooker for making the biryani today.
You will need the following aromatics. Get them ready before you fire the stove.

Heat peanut oil and ghee in a pan until hot. Add in the aromatics.

Add in the sliced onions, slit green chillies and fry till the onions are well browned and caramelized. I have used around 6 green chillies today. If you want a spicy biryani, use upto 10 chillies.

Add in the chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves and fry for a minute.

Add in the remainder of the ginger garlic paste. Fry for a couple of minutes. Add in the small onion / shallot paste and fry for a couple of minutes more until the mixture is dry.

Add in the red chilli powder and coriander powder. Fry for a minute.

Add in our homemade freshly ground biryani masala. Fry for a minute.

Add in the marinated mutton. Saute well for a couple of minutes so the masalas coat the meat evenly.

Add in half a cup of water. Remember that I have not added any salt to the pan. We have already marinated the mutton with salt.

Cover the pan and pressure cook for 5 whistles. Switch off the flame and wait for the pressure to release naturally. Open the cooker and taste the mutton. If the mutton is under done or not tender, cook for 2-4 more whistles.

Remove the meat from the pan and measure the gravy/sauce remaining. I had about 400ml of gravy.

The water ratio
We will be using 1 rice : 2 water/liquid for this biryani.
Add the meat back to the pan and add in the required water. We have used 400ml rice. So we will need 800ml water/liquid. As I already had 400ml of gravy liquid, I have added just 400 ml of water. Be cautious on water + gravy measurement.
Once the liquid comes to a boil, add in the soaked and drained rice. Add in the remaining salt. Taste and adjust for the salt seasoning.

Cover with a lid/plate and cook for 5 minutes on medium flame till the rice has absorbed almost most of the liquid.

The biryani mixture should be half done but still be wet with visible liquid like the picture shown below.

At this stage, reduce the flame of the stove to a sim and cover the pan with the pressure cooker lid and cook for one whistle. Switch off the flame and wait for the pressure to release naturally.

Gently fluff up the biryani and serve hot!

Biryani heaven!