A quick special one pot meal for one of those busy days is this particular biryani. Simple preparation, not at all complicated and can be made in less than an hour. I would frown upon any biryani recipe that didn’t call for ‘dum’. Even more so on ‘pressure cooker’ biryani. I would refuse to try any other method thinking it was blasphemous. How wrong I was? This particular biryani which is cooked in a pressure cooker is not an authentic style Hyderabadi biryani. It tastes good the day you prepare it and even better the next day.
For marinade:
1.) Marinate the mutton with the ingredients called for ‘marinade’. Keep aside for 20 mts. While the mutton is marinating, work on the rest of the preparation.
1. Wash Basmati rice. No need to soak in water
2. Slice onions
3. Chop tomato
4. Pick pudina leaves and chop the coriander leaves
5. Prepare biryani masala pwd
6. Beat curd to form thick buttermilk
2.) Heat 1 tbsp oil + 2 tbsps ghee in a pressure cooker vessel, add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, marathi mogga, elaichi and saute for a few secs. Add sliced onions, saute for 7-8 mts. Add the ginger garlic paste and coriander-pudina leaves and saute further for another 5 mts.
2 Add turmeric pwd and red chilli pwd, saute for another 2 mts. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute for 3-4 mts. Add the marinated mutton along with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Pressure cook mutton till it is almost cooked, upto 3 whistles. Turn off heat and cool. Remove lid and you will find that it will appear like a thick gravy. If the gravy appears very watery, cook further without lid till it forms a thick gravy.
3.) Turn on the heat again, add 3 cups of water and 1 cup of thick buttermilk. Add the biryani masala and nutmeg pwd. Add salt (remember we have added 1/2 tsp of salt to the mutton marinade, so add salt accordingly). Add the drained basmati rice and combine. Pressure cook upto 2 whistles and turn off heat. Once pressure is off, remove lid, pour a tbsp of ghee and combine carefully. Serve hot with raita.
