To prepare the meat:
1. Use large pieces of goat meat without fat. I used the front leg part or the agli raan to make this Biryani.
Clean and wash the goat meat, pat dry with a kitchen towel.
2.
Grate green papaya. You can also use meat tenderizers. Marinate the meat with the grated papaya for 30min.
3. In a bowl mix Greek yogurt (or hung curd), ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and biryani masala(1tbsp).
Marinate the mutton pieces in this for 3-4hrs, you can also marinate it overnight.
Making fried onions or Barista:
1.
Slice the onions very thin. Separate the slices.
2. In a pan or kadai add oil (2inch deep) and
fry the onion slices till nicely brown. Take care not to burn them. Fry in small batches. Do not put all the slices at a time, that will lead to lumpy messy onions. Make sure all the onion slices frying are dipped in oil, if needed add more oil. Keep stirring continuously but gently for an even brown color.
3. Take the fried onions out with a slotted spoon or ladle. Keep them on a paper-towel lined plate. This crispy brown fried onion slices are called
Barista. Keep half of the fried onions for later use and use half to cook the meat. Do not discard the oil, use it to cook the meat.
Cooking the meat:
1. In the same pan where onions were fried take half of the fried onions and add the marinated meat and cook till almost done. The oil would be separated from the spices and there should not be any watery gravy to the meat.
Preparing the filler(potato and egg):
1. Boil 3-4eggs till hard. Cool down and shell the eggs. Fry the egg till golden and keep them aside.
2. For the potatoes, either use 4-5 small baby potatoes or cut a large potato into quarters. Peel the potatoes and wash well. Fry the potatoes till golden brown. I boiled the potatoes first then fried them.
Preparing the rice:
1. Use only good quality long grain
Basmati rice.
Soak the rice for 20min in water.
Wash well till the water runs clear. Drain all the water.
2. In a small piece of cloth take cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black peppercorn, shah jeera, star anise and tie a knot to make a
bag(potli).
3. In a deep pan take loads of water and put bay leaf, salt, the spice bag and let the water boil. As the water rolls boiling add the rice.
Cook till its done 3/4th. Drain and spread the rice on a tray.
Preparing the saffron-milk:
1.Take 1/4cup warm milk in a cup and dissolve
saffron strands in the milk. Cover and wait for 20min. Add
rose water and kewra essence in the milk. Mix well and cover. Keep aside.
Layering the Biryani:
1. Take a large
heavy bottom pan with tight fitting lid. Add 2tbsp ghee to the pan. Melt the ghee on low heat. Turn and rotate the pan carefully so the ghee can coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Switch off the heat.
3. Add a layer of cooked rice, then cooked meat pieces, potatoes, egg, sprinkle saffron water, sprinkle biryani masala, add fried onion slices and ghee. Again add a layer of rice, then meat...go on like this till you are done. Top and bottom layer will be of rice.
4. Put the lid on.
Seal the pan with flour dough. I did not use flour dough, I covered the pan with aluminium foil, then put the lid. Keep the heat to lowest. And cook the Biryani in this 'Dum' process for 40min. Make sure your pan in heavy-bottomed or the rice will burn. Or you can place a flat tawa then keep the pan on that tawa. Some like to make a double boiler. For that, take a wide pan add boiling water to the wide pan and place your pan with Biryani on that wide pan.
After 40min switch off the heat and let the biryani stand for another 10min. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve with raita and salad.
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