Hyderabadi mutton Biriyani

Ingredients                                      

Meat:
1 kg Lamb/mutton – cut into pieces, with bones
1 tsp meat tenderiser – marinate your meat with this for an hour plus 1 tsp each ginger garlic paste

Then add:
1-2 green chilli – chopped
1 tbsp Salt
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp Black cumin
small handful of chopped Coriander
small handful of chopped Mint
2 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Cumin powder
5 Onions – sliced and fried (use half in marination and half later during layering)
1 tsp Black pepper
Whole garam masala - mace, bay leaf, black cardamon, 1 green cardamom, cloves
Lemon – juice half
2 and ½ cups yogurt
half cup oil
Let this marinate for at least 2 hrs or more if possible


Rice:
3 mugs Rice – soaked for 30min
Water
Oil - for rice
Salt – for rice
any whole spices of your choice for added flavour, like cinnamon stick, cardamon pods and cloves
milk with half tsp soaked saffron

Boil the water with salt and oil and the whole spices, then add the soaked rice. When the rice is about 40% cooked, remove half of it, drain and set aside...then continue boiling the remaining rice until it is about halfway or 50% cooked. Drain and set aside.

Directions for layering:

In a thick bottomed vessel pour a bit of ghee and spread the marinated meat. On top of this spread the 40% cooked rice followed by some of the remaining crushed fried onions, coriander leaves, mint leaves and lemon juice. Spread the 50% done rice over this, then sprinkle the milk with saffron and a bit of ghee or oil. Seal the vessel with a damp cloth to keep the steam intact. Cook on high flame for 10-15minutes, till the steam escape fcrom the sides. Transfer the vessel to a hot tava (flat roti pan) to prevent the biryani from burning and continue cooking till the steam escapes from the sides. Lower the heat to minimum and cook for 45 minutes.