Hyderabadi Biryani – How To Make It and Ingredients

It is usually accompanied by Dahi ki Chutney, Raita (a yogurt dish), or Mirchi ka Salan.

There are 2 styles of preparing this variety. The Katchi Biryani is prepared with the Katchi Yakhni method (with raw gravy). The raw meat is marinated in curd and cooked only by the dum, or the baking process, which is done with rice. This is a challenging process as it requires meticulously measured time and heat to avoid overcooking or undercooking the meat. In Pakki Biryani, where the meat is cooked with all the accompanying spices and then the rice is simmered with the resultant gravy redolent of mace, ittar, and kewra in a sealed vessel with saffron and cardamom. It is accompanied by side dishes like Mirchi ka Salan, Dhansak and Bagara Baingan.

The meat used in the preparation is usually mutton, beef – popularly called Kalyani Biryani – or, less frequently, chicken.

There is also a vegetarian version of the Hyderabadi Biryani in which the place of the meat is taken by a mixture of vegetables such as carrots, peas, cauliflower and potato. The vegetarian version is called ‘tarkari’ biryani. The Hyderabadi Biryani version of the mixed Vegetable Biryani is the “Tahiri“.

Ingredients

The Procedure of Hyderabadi Biryani

• Mix lamb with turmeric, chili powder, salt, garlic paste, yogurt, and half lemons juice. Thoroughly apply this paste onto the meat flesh and let marinate for an hour.
• Heat about 100 ml of oil. Roast cumin, cloves, cinnamon, depodded cardamom, bay leaves, ½ spoon cumin, 1 spoon coriander powder, and finally add onions(2). Wait a couple of minutes to add mint leaves. When onions turn slight brown, add the marinated meat and cook for about 20-30 min. It should NOT be fully cooked at this stage; add garam masala and coconut powder and turn off flame when about ¾ cooked. Gravy should not be much, lamb pieces should look cooked.
• Meanwhile, while the lamb is still cooking, prepare the biryani rice. Slightly rinse 3 cups of basmati, and add water little less than the volume of the rice itself so that it’s only half-cooked preferably in an electric cooker. The amount of water actually depends on the kind of rice at hand and your experience helps to judge it. Also, add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to it. Take a few semi-cooked grains of rice and color them with diluted saffron for garnishing.
• You will need a utensil of about 12″ (300 mm) base. Place about half of the semi-cooked rice in it. Next, layer half of lamb on it again topped by a layer of rice (half of the remaining). One more layer of remaining lamb, finally with a layer of the rest of the rice on top ends the rice-meat layering stage.
• Heat oil and deep fry half the sliced onions to a golden brown. Similarly fry cashew. Garnish the top layer with these two along with 100 ml ghee, coconut milk, saffron rice grains, and coriander. Lid the vessel and try making it airtight (but no pressure should build up). Put on high flame for 5 min before reducing it to low flame. The flame should NOT be at the vessel’s center but on one side of it. Wait for 2-3 min and turn the vessel to heat the next part on its circumference. This way, keep rotating the vessel every 2-3 min for about 20 min. Every time you turn it, carefully disturb the contents by a shake/jerk so as to avoid settling of ghee at the bottom.
• Put off the flame and wait for about 10 min before opening. Before serving, mix the medley from the bottom. Serve with boiled egg halves. Enjoy. Rightly and carefully made its an epicure’s paradise.

References