Dhakai Kacchi Biryani

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg bone-in goat or mutton, cut into pieces
• 700 g chinigura or aged basmati rice
• 400 g full-fat plain yogurt
• 3 large onions, thinly sliced
• 250 ml ghee
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 tbsp biryani masala
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 0.5 whole nutmeg, grated
• 2 blades mace, ground
• 500 g small potatoes, peeled
• 0.5 tsp saffron threads
• 100 ml warm milk
• 60 g mawa (dried whole milk), crumbled
• 12 dried plums (alu bukhara)
• 4 tbsp kewra water
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 3 tsp salt
• 200 g plain flour, for sealing the pot
• 120 ml water, for the sealing dough

Before you cook

• Cut the mutton into even pieces on the bone.
• Slice the onions thinly for the beresta.
• Peel the potatoes and keep them whole in cold water.
• Soak the saffron in the warm milk.
• Mix the 200 g of flour with the water into a stiff dough for sealing and set it aside.
• Grate the nutmeg and grind the mace.

Steps

1. Fry the sliced onions in 150 ml of the ghee over medium heat for 15 minutes, until crisp and brown, then drain them on kitchen paper.
2. Crush half the fried onions into the yogurt along with the ginger and garlic pastes, chilli powder, biryani masala, white pepper, nutmeg, mace, lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of the salt.
3. Rub this marinade thoroughly into the raw mutton and leave it for at least 2 hours, or overnight in the fridge.
4. Rinse the rice and soak it in cold water for 30 minutes.
5. Toss the peeled potatoes with the remaining salt.
6. Heat the remaining ghee in the biryani pot and fry the potatoes for 8 minutes, until their skins are golden and blistered, then lift them out.
7. Spread the marinated mutton in an even layer across the bottom of the same pot.
8. Arrange the fried potatoes and the dried plums over the meat.
9. Bring a large pan of heavily salted water to the boil with the bay leaves and cardamom pods.
10. Drain the soaked rice and boil it for 4 minutes only, so the grains still snap in the middle.
11. Drain the rice again at once in a colander.
12. Pile the part-cooked rice over the meat and level it gently without pressing down.
13. Scatter over the remaining fried onions and crumble the mawa across the top.
14. Pour on the saffron milk, the kewra water and any ghee left in the frying pan.
15. Roll the sealing dough into a rope, press it around the rim of the pot and clamp the lid down onto it.
16. Set the pot over high heat for 6 minutes to build up steam inside.
17. Slide a flat tawa or heat diffuser under the pot, drop the heat to its lowest setting and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes.
18. Turn off the heat and leave the seal unbroken for 20 minutes.
19. Crack the dough seal, dig down to the meat with a flat spoon and serve each plate with rice, potato and mutton together.