KACCHI BIRIYANI

Preparing kacchi is no longer exclusive to the skilful mastery of authentic “baburchis”. Use Bengal Meat's new product - 'Mutton Kacchi Marination' (available at all Bengal Meat Stores) and follow this easy, step-by-step recipe to amaze yourself and guests with the best kacchi biriyani you will find anywhere in this city. For a list of addresses of all Bengal Meat stores check out the cover photo of their Facebook page: facebook.com/BengalMeatKitchen

Ingredients
1 kg Bengal Meat's Marinated Mutton for kacchi
½ kg basmati rice
3 medium size (around 250g each) potatoes
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup milk
7 to 8 pieces aloobukhara/dried prunes
10 pieces raisins
½ tbsp keora water
½ cup ghee
½ cup mawa
A pinch of saffron

Method
When baking in an oven -Fry potatoes lightly in oil and keep aside. Then fry the chopped onions until it gets a nice golden colour and then take them out on a paper towel to soak the extra oil out of it. Wash rice and cook partially; drain the water through a strainer.

Now add milk on top of the mutton marinade and spread half the rice on it. Then scatter the fried potatoes, fried onions (half quantity), mawa, aloobukhara, raisin, a pinch of saffron, and keora water one on top of the other. At the end, place the rest of the rice on top of everything and spread the rest of the fried onions, half cup of ghee and the saffron over it.

Cover the pan with lid. If the lid is not tight enough, seal the edge with flour dough.
Now preheat the oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit, put the pan in the oven and bake it for about 20 minutes; then reduce the heat to 350 degree F and bake it for around   40-45 minutes.

Then turn off the oven and leave it for approximately
30 minutes.

Now carefully open the lid and slowly mix the biriyani from the bottom to top, to make an even mix of mutton and rice in the biriyani, before serving with raita or borhani.

When cooking on a burner -    Place the sealed handi with mutton, rice, potatoes and ingredients arranged together in the same way (see above), and put this on slow cooking or 'dum' as we say in the common tongue. For the mutton to be fully cooked, this has to be put on heat for at least an hour. A word of caution though: to prevent the biriyani from becoming burnt put the handi on a tawa/skillet and not on the burner directly!

Now relax for an hour and then when you break open the seal - simply divine! Before serving, mix the biriyani from bottom to top for an even distribution of meat and rice and serve with the
usual raita or the traditional borhani.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015