Mutton Biriyani | Pressure Cooker method

We are Biriyani lovers in the house and it is a must have item for any special occasion. My go to recipe is usually my mom's chicken biriyani but every now and then we love to try new kinds as well. Manish wanted Mutton Biriyani for his special birthday and so that's what we had.

My brother-in-law once shared a FB recipe post from HomeCooking for this Pressure cooker Mutton biriyani and it looked very easy, so I gave it a try and I have to say, it came out great. I have made this recipe about 3-4 times now and it always turns out great. I love to make it spicy and the kids don't seem to mind. They love any Biriyani that I make. 

Just see how beautiful each grain of rice looks and those beautiful mutton pieces, that just melts in the mouth. Cooking in the pressure cooker is a breeze and the rice is mixed in with the gravy so it gets beautifully flavored and plumped up with all that masala.

I should try Shrimp Biriyani next...any excuse is a good excuse to have some biriyani...Lol!

Serve Mutton Biriyani with Raita, Pappad and some tangy pickle. I made my raita with plain Yogurt mixed together with chopped onions, green chilies, carrots, cucumber, corriander leaves, salt and pepper. 
This pressure cooker recipe always turns out perfect for me so do give it a try. 

Mutton Biriyani in Pressure Cooker

Serves 4

You’ll Need

To marinate

3 lbs Mutton

1 teaspoon Turmeric powder

2 teaspoons Red Chilli powder

Salt to taste

For Masala paste

1 large Onion

6 Garlic cloves

2” piece Ginger

3 Green Chillies

6 pieces dry Red chilli

1 Tablespoon Grated Coconut

½ cup Mint Leaves

½ cup Coriander leaves

1 teaspoon Coriander powder

Little water

For Pressure Cooking

5 Litre Pressure Cooker

2 Tablespoons Ghee or Butter

1 Tablespoon Oil

Whole Spices : 2 Cinnamon sticks, 3 Cardamom pods, 5 Cloves, 5 whole Black pepper, 1 Star Anise, 2 Bay Leaves

4 Onions (thinly sliced)

3 Tomatoes (chopped)

3 cups Diluted Coconut Milk

3 cups Basmati Rice (soaked in water for 30mins)

1 cup Coriander Leaves (chopped)

1 cup Mint Leaves (chopped)

Directions:

Marinate the Mutton pieces

In a bowl add the mutton pieces and the spices and marinate it for 30minutes.

Soak the rice

Measure and wash 3 cups of Basmati Rice in a bowl . Allow it to soak for atleast 30 minutes before cooking.

Make Masala paste

Add all the ingredients under Masala paste in a grinder and grind it to a fine paste using little water if needed.

Pressure cooking the Biriyani

1. Heat 2 Tablespoons of Ghee/Butter and 1 Tablespoon of Oil in the Pressure cooker.

2. Add all the whole spices and give it a sauté.

3. Add the sliced onions and sauté until the onions caramelize and turn golden brown.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and the ground masala paste and sauté everything until the tomatoes soften.

5. Add the marinated Mutton pieces and mix it with the Onion masala.

6. Add 3 cups of Diluted Coconut Milk, 1 cup each of chopped Coriander and Mint Leaves and stir everything.

7. Season with enough salt, cover with lid, place the whistle and pressure cook for 6-7 whistles or until the mutton is cooked.

8. Once the cooker cools down, open the pressure cooker, make sure mutton pieces are cooked, season again if needed and then add the soaked Basmati rice and mix gently.

9. Cover with pressure cooker lid and wait for steam to come out (water starts coming off the whistle spout) and then place the whistle and cook for 7 mins. (no need for the whistle to blow)

10. Turn off the heat and let the cooker rest for about 5 mins before opening it.

Notes:

1. For Diluted Coconut Milk: I used 1 14oz can of coconut milk, which is about 2 ½ cups coconut milk, so I added 2 ½ cups Coconut milk + ½ cup water for the liquid. 

2. Wait for pressure cooker to cool down always before trying to open it after cooking. Or run cold water over the cooker with the whistle on it until the pressure comes down and then attempt opening the lid. Else it can be very dangerous!

3. The recipe can be easily modified based on your need. Just make sure the cups of rice = cups of diluted coconut milk and adjust the mutton quantity and spices accordingly. (I have made with 4 cups of rice and 4 cups of diluted coconut milk)

4. If you do not want to use Coconut Milk, feel free to use Water. 


Recipe Source: HomeCooking

Here are some other Biriyani recipes that I have on the blog which are just as good, click on the recipe title to get to the recipe:

Chicken Biriyani


Fish Biriyani


Lauki Biriyani (veg option)



Other recipe with Mutton:
Kerala style Mutton Roast


-Manju

Spicy Beef Curry with Spinach...easy Pressure cooker method

How many of you make New Year’s resolutions? I never make b’coz for me they just end up being January resolutions…yeah, hardly ever stick on to it beyond a month. But I know I used to make resolutions when I was a kid, like ‘this year I’ll improve my handwriting’, or ‘this year I’ll top the class’ and all such kinda stuff but it just lost its charm as I grew older I guess.

Now 'This year' there are few things that I plan to do and hopefully I’ll see if I can stick on to them. Some people believe in not sharing their wishes to others thinking it might get jinxed and not work, and I belong to such a category, so I won’t share them here now but if they work I’ll definitely be sharing them :-) They are not resolutions or anything but few things that I learnt from mistakes made last year which I want to correct and get better at this year…Opportunities that I missed/lost/foolishly did not take up last year which I want to this year….and the list quite goes on, but I don’t think they are un-doable ;-)

This year I want to also include several different cuisines to my list of recipes. I love trying out all sort of cuisines as long as everything I’m eating is fully cooked…NO raw sushi or rare cooked meat for me plssss! And I do cook/experiment with a variety of cuisines at home, but most of my experiments are done at night either after I come home from work or weekend dinners, so photographing them is a challenge. I’m trying to find a solution to this as living in Minnesota, especially during winters, getting enough light after 3pm can be a challenge and I want to be able to click whenever I want and not just when the dear Sun decides to show up. So that’s one or two agendas on my list. 

Anyways, enough of my ramblings for today. Today’s dish is a simple, quick to cook and yummy to eat naadan (homestyle) Beef curry. I don’t cook much beef or pork at home, though we eat them at restaurants etc, we are more of the chicken and fish eaters at home, but occasionally I do buy beef and I like cooking them in our typical Kerala style preparations with roasted spices and coconut slices  and to make it a teeny bit healthier I added lots of baby spinach. 
I prefer to buy the stew cut meat as they cook easily and are soft. And a pressure cooker makes life so much easier :-)

The Beef curry is spicy and flavorful, go ahead and check out the recipe

Kerala style Beef curry with Spinach

You’ll need

Stew cut Beef meat – 1lb or ½ kg (cut into smaller pieces)

Baby Spinach (roughly chopped) – 2 cups

For tempering:

Oil – 2 Tblsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 sprig (8-10 leaves)

Dry red chilli – 1 or 2 broken

Coconut thinly sliced – 1 Tblsp

Remaining ingredients:

Red Onion (thinly sliced) – 1 big or 2 medium

Green chillies (slit lengthwise)- 1 or 2

Ginger (thinly sliced or grated) – 1” piece

Garlic cloves (sliced or grated) – 5 or 6
Tomato (chopped) – 1 medium

Red chilli powder – 2 tsp

Corriander powder – 2 Tblsp

Garam masala – 2 tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Black pepper powder – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Water – as needed for gravy

Corriander leaves – for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil in your pressure cooker and crack mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering, add the cumin seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilli and coconut slices and fry until coconut slices are mildly brown.

2.  Add Ginger-Garlic-Green chillies and sauté for a minute, then add Red Onions, a pinch of salt and cook until the Onions soften.

3.  Add tomatoes and sauté again for a minute.

4.  Add all the spice powders: Red chilli powder, Corriander powder, Garam masala, Turmeric powder, Black pepper powder and enough salt and mix and cook everything until the raw smell of the spices wear off (2 mins)

5.  Mix in the beef and enough water as per gravy required (I added ¼ cup water) and cover the pressure cooker, put on the whistle and cook for 3-4 whistle blows.

6.  Turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker cool down and then remove the whistle and open the cooker. Add the baby spinach and mix everything. Garnish with coriander leaves if desired.

Few suggestions:

1. You could use Ginger-Garlic paste instead of fresh ginger & garlic.

2. If using regular raw spinach, sauté it separately in a pan and add it to the beef. Baby spinach can be eaten raw so it doesn’t matter if included without cooking it separately.
3. I prefer a thick gravy so added only ¼ cup water, you can add more if you want a runny gravy but note that the beef will release a bit of moisture while cooking which adds to the gravy content.
4. I use Kashmiri Red Chilli powder which is milder in spice but gives a gorgeous reddish-brown color to your dish. 

Look at that lush gravy...yumm! We ate this with some kerala matta rice, beetroot thoran and moru curry and it was a quick and yummy lunch. But the curry pairs very well even with Appam, Idiappam, Chapathi, Porotta, Naan, Basmati rice...even bread etc.
My lil’one wasn’t very keen on trying the spicy dish but I hope he will develop a taste to it as he grows :-)

-Manju