DELICIOUS ANGLO-INDIAN MUTTON BIRYANI
This recipe is a typical Anglo-Indian recipe for Mutton / Lamb Biryani. It is for a simple, tasty and easy prepare Biryani or Palau. Since its an Anglo-Indian Rice Dish, it will not taste like Muslim or Moghlai Biryani. Beef or Mixed vegetables could be substituted for mutton / lamb if desired.
1 kg Basmati Rice or any other Good Rice …wash and soak for about 1 hour
1 kg Mutton / Lamb (or Beef) cut into fairly big pieces
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons spice powder or garam masala
½ kg tomatoes chopped
3 tablespoons curds / yogurt
3 pieces cinnamon,
3 cloves,
3 cardamoms
1 nutmeg flower
2 cups oil or ghee
Salt to taste
6 green chilies ground
1 tablespoons ginger paste
2 tablespoons garlic paste
2 teaspoons chillie powder
½ kg onions sliced finely
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
½ cup fresh mint leaves
Wash the meat and marinate with the spice powder, green chilly paste, half the quantity of ginger garlic paste and turmeric powder for half an hour.Heat the oil or ghee in a large vessel and add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg flower, remaining ginger garlic paste and onions and sauté for some time. Add the chopped tomatoes, curds, mint leaves and chilly powder and simmer till the oil separates from the masala and the tomatoes are reduced to pulp. Add the marinated meat and salt and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the pieces and keep aside. Now add sufficient water to the gravy in the vessel so as to get about 7 glasses of liquid. Add the rice and cook till half done. Now add the cooked meat and mix well. Cover and cook on low heat till done.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
In the middle of the recipe it says:
“Add the chopped tomatoes, curds, mint leaves…”
What curds? I don’t see anything called curds in the ingredients.
Sorry if I’m being dim.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Hi Siobhan
I’ve made the necessary change in the recipe.
Bridget
September 24th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Thanks, Bridget. Mum says she called this a “Junglee Palao” as a kid, because it saved all the layering steps, but tasted just as yummy :>
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hi Bridget, Sorry but I was very disappointed with the result of your Biryani. I spent most of my life in Bombay (Mumbai) and enjoyed the best biryani. This recipe did not come up anywhere near it. I don’t think I did anything wrong, I followed your recipe every step of the way. Measuring and counting exactly as you specified. Actually I do make a biryani which is an authentic Muslin Biryani, but wanted to try something different. It was for my Granddaughter’s First Communion Lunch. Have to start all over again with my own recipe. Maybe I should stick to what I know best. Kathleen Couter
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Hi kathlene
Sorry my Biryani recipe did’nt meet your expectations!!! This is a simple Anglo-Indian Biryani that my mum cooked for us on sundays and which we all enjoyed. Muslim Biryani does taste different from our Anglo-Indian version of Biryani as the ingredients and the proceedure in preparing the Muslim version differs from ours. Bridget
October 14th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Hi Kathleen
I have tried Bridgets biryani recipe and thought it was good. Would like to try your recipe too if you would let me have it.
In the meantime, Bridget, you are doing a wonderful job by putting out all the recipes that people like me try out & enjoy.
Keep up the good work
Dennis
October 14th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Thank you Dennis. This type of positive response makes my effort worthwhile. I would love to feature Kathlene’s recipe on this site if she shares it with us.
Bridget
October 16th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Hi Bridget, I would like to say something to you and to Mrs. Kathleen. I was a person who never entered the kitchen and hated cooking, but today I’m doing most of the cooking at home; for 2 reasons; 1, all thanks to Bridget for her wonderful easy-to-use cooking recipes (the food actually taste fantastic) and 2, I now enjoy cooking.
Different recipes will always taste different from person to person. It all depends on one’s taste buds. For me (and I guess for the majority of the ones who post their comments here) the food taste very good. I would also like to point out that Biriyani prepared the Muslim method will always taste different from our Anglo-Indian preparation (after all this is an Anglo-Indian website and Bridget is catering to the Anglos not to the Arabs)
I, once again, would like to thank Bridget for her continuous effort in posting all her recipes on this web site and also for giving away all her secrets, which not many people, do. As for me I have since taken print-outs of most of the recipes and made them into a file.
For some this is good, and for all others there’s the I-should-stick-to-what-I-know-best formula.
Keep up the good work Bridget.
With warm “yummyness”
Winston.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:50 am
Hi Winston
Thank you so much for all the lovely things you said. I really appreciate your warm wishes and positive feedback. Congratulations on becoming such a good cook and I take pride in the fact that I was instrumental in doing so.
With the merging and mingling of the Anglo-Indian Community in the mainstream, tastes and cultures have under gone a change. Moreover with the world fast turning into a Global Village, where many Anglo-Indians are migrating away from India and their tastes changing in keeping with their new environment and marriages outside the Community are becoming common, it has become imperative to preserve and record for future generations the unique culture and cuisine of the pioneers of our community. Therefore, in order to ensure that the Anglo-Indian Community lives on through its culinary delights, I have brought out 5 Anglo-Indian Recipe books and also feature of the recipes contained in them on this site, with the hope that it would be a useful, if unpretentious guide to Anglo-Indian Cuisine. It is also my small attempt to preserve the culture of our community through its culinary delights. Anglo-Indian Cuisine is slowly getting extinct as many of the dishes were prepared by the older generation and are now almost forgotten.
Thanks once again Winston
Bridget
October 20th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Dear Dennis and Winiston, You are right I should not have mixed up Anglo- Indian style cooking with any other style. What I cannot understand is why you all are going on the defensive. I meant no disregard to Bridget or anyone else but just aired my opinion, ( which I think I am entitled to. I thought feed back was always very constructive and very positive. I certainly didn’t mean to be negative). I have used alot of Bridget’s recipes and do compliment quite a few of them. Dennis, if you want my biryani recipe, I will forward the same to you if you will email me your address. By the way, are you and Winston from India, if so, which State ? In the meantime keep cooking the Yummies and enjoy, Cheers, Kathleen
October 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
i am from calcutta,(kidderpore,dent mission road) i read your recipe for mutton biryani, sorry, no offence, but some main ingredients are left out, i cook my biryani the muslim way, as that dish is considered a moghul dish,
i am a good cook, i make shamis, pantras,(ground meat wraped in flour wraps,breaded and deep fried,
i am now in vancouver,on fraser st, close to little india,if you need some recipies ,you free to contact me
thanks
noel dessa
October 26th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Hi Noel
Thanks for your comment. As mentioned earlier, my recipes on this site are exclusive Anglo-Indian recipes only. As you know, our Anglo-Indian Food is not typical Indian food as we are very judicious with the quanties and choice of ingredients making our food rather more Anglo than just Indian but with a touch of excotic Indian flavour. There are a number of sites on the web offering recipes for all types of Indian food including the muslim Biryanis. People of our community prefer our own Anglo-Indian tastes and more so being abroad they are nostalgic for the old dishes prepared by their mothers and grandmothers.
I would love to have some of your recipes. Please do send me some and I’ll post them on my site so that you could share them with others also.
Warm regards
Bridget
October 30th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Hi Bridget,
Where are your books on sale, here in Australia?I’d love to get hold of a couple.
Cheers,
Ralph
October 30th, 2008 at 4:56 am
Hi Ralph
I normally post the books personally to whoever orders them from Australia. I’ll email you seperately and let you know the other details.
Bridget
November 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Hi Kathleen
I was not being defensive in any way, all I stated was the fact & that was I use Bridgets method of preparing biriyani & my family & I enjoy it.
I am originally from Madras & now live in Perth, Australia. I have eaten the “Muslim” biriyani too. If you have a recipe that comes anywhere close to that, would love to try it out. You can get my email address from Bridget.
Thanks in advance for the recipe
Regards
Dennis
November 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Dear Bridget
Feel so at home reading your recipes.
Please could you or any of your readers help with the recipe for tomatoe sauce.
I know the ingredients, but I do not know the measured quantities.
I use plain bottled italian tomatoe sauce
Thank you in anticipation
Theresa
Molong, NSW, Australia
15/11/08
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Hi,
One recipe is not necessarily better than another. People have different tastes. Some like their food to be very pungent, others may prefer the spices to be well balanced or, perhaps, kept to a minimum. I believe that originally biryani had garam masalas but was not a pungent food because chillis were introduced later. The main thing is to enjoy your food.