Kolkata Mutton Biryani

By Bong Eats on June 2, 2018

Fragrant rice and soft mutton get together in this classic Calcutta biryani dish.
Contains potatoes!
Cooking time 4 hours
Recommended by 96.1% of 88933 members who rated this recipe on Youtube

Ingredients
Serves 5–6 servings
1 kg mutton (large pieces
of ~100g each)
5 whole potatoes (the
starchy kind, e.g., ‘jyoti’, ~80g
each)
500 g basmati rice (aged,
long-grained, non-parboiled)
For the birista
150 g onions (sliced)
~150 g vegetable oil (for
deep frying)
For the biryani masala
Method
STEP I—FRYING POTATOES
01 Peel potatoes and smear on them yellow food colour.
Keep the potatoes whole (each piece should be about
80 g) and go easy on the amount of food colour.
02 Heat vegetable oil, 3 cm deep, in a pan. Fry the
potatoes until they are lightly coloured on all sides
(about 4 minutes).
03 Drain them from the oil and set aside.
STEP II—MAKING BIRISTA
04 In the same oil, add sliced onions, a small handful at a
time, to make birista. Watch the full video on how to
make birista.
05 Weigh two separate portions of birista—20 g and 15 g
—and keep ready.
STEP III—MAKING BIRYANI MASALA
 1.25 g (6 pcs) green 06 In a pan set over medium heat, add all the spices in
cardamom the given proportions for ‘biryani masala’ (see above).
Gently toast them, stirring continuously.
0.75 g (1 pc) black
cardamom 07 Transfer the toasted spices to a spice grinder and
blitz them to a fine powder.
1.5 g (¾ tsp) cloves 08 Weigh two separate portions of biryani masala—8 g
and 5 g— and keep ready.
0.5 g (3 cm stick)
cinnamon
STEP IV—MARINATING MUTTON
1.2 g (½ pc) nutmeg 09 Peel ginger and garlic, roughly chop them, and crush
them into a fine paste.
1.75 g (2 pcs) mace
10 In a large mixing bowl or pressure cooker, mix
together yoghurt, ginger and garlic paste, birista,
2 g shahi jeera kewra water, biryani masala, red chilli powder, salt,
and ground pepper, in the proportions given above for
‘marinating mutton’.
2 g kabab chini
11 Add the mutton pieces and coat them well with the
1 g (½ tsp) fennel seeds marinade, making sure to to massage it into the
crevices too.
3 g white pepper (whole) 12 Cover and set aside for 1 hour.

1.25 g (½ tsp) black STEP V—SOAKING RICE

pepper (whole)
13 Meanwhile, wash the rice and soak it in water for 30
For marinating mutton minutes. At the end of this time, drain the water and
strain the rice over a net or colander. Set aside.
Soaking leads to longer and fluffier rice grains.
100 g yoghurt
10 g ginger STEP IV—COOKING MUTTON
10 g garlic 14 After the mutton has had 1 hour to marinate, transfer
it to a pressure cooker.
20 g birista 15 Lay the fried potatoes at the bottom of the pressure
cooker, followed by the mutton on top (we changed
 8 g biryani masala this step from the video because this yields juicier
potatoes).
5 g kewra water 16 Add 150 g water and pressure cook it on medium-low
heat for 30 minutes. Allow the steam to release
½ tsp red chilli powder naturally for another 15 minutes before opening the
lid of the pressure cooker.
20 g salt 17 Separating mutton, potatoes, and yakhni: Extract the
potatoes and mutton pieces in separate dishes and
set them aside. Now strain the liquid remaining in the
½ tsp ground pepper pressure cooker. This is called ‘yakhni’ (a broth
resulting from mutton and spices cooked together).
150 g water We need just 200 g of it, so weigh it out and keep
ready.

For the rice STEP VII—BOILING WATER FOR RICE

1.25 g (6 pcs) green 18 Place the spices mentioned in the ‘rice’ section above
cardamom in the given proportions on a small square of
cheesecloth. Tie them with a piece of twine to form a
1.5 g (2 pcs) black bag.
cardamom
19 In a large pot, take 3 kg water. Add 30 g salt to it.
7 g cloves 20 Add the bag of spices to the water and allow it to
come to a boil (should take about 20 minutes).
1 g (6 cm stick) cinnamon
STEP VIII—PREPARING FOR ASSEMBLY
7 g fennel seeds
21 Meanwhile, prepare for assembly by weighing out all
3 g bay leaves that you will need (see ‘assembly’ section above) and
keeping ready.
3 kg water 22 This is the order in which you will need everything.

45 g salt
Bay leaves
For assembly Cooked mutton pieces
Cooked potatoes
 6 to 10 pcs bay leaves (to
line the pan with)
40 g alubukhara (dried
plums)
1 tsp rose petals (optional)
15 g birista
5 g biryani masala (see
above)
50 g grated khoya kheer
(‘mawa’ or solidified milk)
200 g yakhni
5 g lime juice (from half a
lime)
1 pinch saffron (steeped in
20g warm milk)
1 pinch yellow food colour
180 g milk
5 g kewra water
5 g rose water
4 drops meetha attar
30 g ghee
Alubukhara
Birista
Rose petals (if using)
Biryani masala
Grated khoya kheer
Yakhni
Lime juice
Saffron and yellow food colour mixed in 20 g warm milk
Rose water, kewra water, and meetha attar mixed in 180
g warm milk
Ghee and butter, melted together in the microwave
STEP
DUM IX—COOKING RICE, ASSEMBLY, AND
23 Set the biryani’r hnari or pan you are using for dum on
low heat. Grease it with ghee.
24 Lay bay leaves in a single layer to cover the bottom of
the pan. These will impart an aroma and provide
buffer against burning.
25 Place the mutton pieces in a single layer, and the
potatoes on top of the mutton. Don’t place potatoes
too close to the edge or you might accidentally cut
into them while serving.
26 Strew alubukhara, birista, and rose petals evenly.
27 Take half the stipulated amount of biryani masala and
khoya kheer, and spread evenly. We will use the
remaining half in the next layer.
28 Now add the yakhni and lime juice.
20 g butter 29 By this time the water for your rice should have come
to a boil and its colour changed. Extract the bag of
spices and discard it. Add the rice and let it cook until
80% done, that is, until when the centre is no longer
hard, but the grain is still firm. Our rice took about 5
minutes to reach this stage, but read your packet
instructions.
30 Strain rice, a ladle at a time, and spread it directly in
the pan. Repeat this until half the rice is added to the
pan.
31 On top of this first layer of rice, spread the remaining
biryani masala and khoya kheer. Also spread the
saffron+colour mixture evenly.
32 Now strain the rest of the rice and add it to the pan.
Flatten it gently.
33 On top of the second layer of rice, add milk mixed
with the aromatics. Also add melted butter and ghee,
making sure to drizzle it near the sides of the pan too.
34 Cover the pan with heavy-duty aluminium foil (if yours
is thin, use double layers), sealing the sides well so
that no steam escapes. Cover the pan with a tight-
fitting lid. If you don’t want to use foil, you can also
seal the lid with a wet flour dough.
35 Set the pan on dum on medium-low heat for 30
minutes. Turn of the heat and allow it to rest another
15 minutes before serving.