The rice for making Thalapakatti Style Mutton Biryani Recipe
Thalapakatti style biryani has a very nice flavor that is so different from all the other biriyani. It is made with seeraga samba rice. Seeraga Samba biriyani has to be the pride of Tamilnadu. Seeraga samba is a very aromatic rice. The grain of the rice is very tiny and it gets its name for its resemblance to Cumin seeds, also called as Seeragam/Jeera in Tamil. It has a very distinct taste, fluffs up well when cooked and south Indian biriyani’s are made with this rice. Samba rice is grown for a longer duration than other types of rice. Seeraga samba rice is the most important ingredient for this biryani. Before starting to cook, wash and soak the rice for at-least half an hour.
Masala Paste for making Dindigul Style Mutton Biryani Recipe
Here is what you will need.
Grind all the ingredients listed under masala paste with half a cup of water to a very smooth paste. Set aside.
Cooking the meat / mutton for Thalapakatti Style Mutton Biryani Recipe
Heat oil and ghee in a pressure cooker and add in the Thalappakatti Biriyani Masala paste. Add in the mutton to the pan. For biryani, always use mutton with bone. Bone has a lot of flavour.
Add in two cups of water and add in the salt.
Add in the plain yogurt (curd) and red chilli powder.
Mix well and cook the mutton in the masala for 20 minutes on a medium flame. Ignore the number of whistles in the cooker. Just cook for 20 minutes and remove the cooker from heat and wait for the pressure to settle.
Open the cooker and see if the mutton pieces are cooked well. Cook for 2-3 whistles more if the meat is hard. Set aside.
Remove the cooked meat to a bowl and roughly measure how much liquid is left behind.
Mine had about 1.5 cups of liquid. Just measure roughly. It need not be accurate. Note: My mutton was very hard and I had to cook for an extra 15 minutes. Due to the extra cooking, the mutton stock was a little less. Usually, you will have a little more stock. Do not worry about the amount of stock.
Measurements used – 1 cup rice = 250 ml
We are using 2 cups rice. We require 2 times water to the quantity of rice. So we need to add 4 cups water. There was already 1.5 cups gravy that we measured before. So I added 2.5 cups water to the gravy mixture in a pan. Add in the chopped coriander leaves and the mint leaves. Let the mixture come to a boil.
Add back the meat and let it come to a boil again. Check for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Drain the soaked rice and add it to the pan.
Wait for it to boil. Add in the lime juice.
Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for the first three to four minutes on medium flame.
Open the lid. Gently mix once from the bottom, cover the lid again and simmer for 10 minutes on very low flame.
After that time, open the lid and mix well. The rice will be three fourth cooked. Cook for a couple of minutes more.
Switch off the flame and close the pan with a lid. Do not disturb for the next 20 minutes. The rice will get swollen and absorb all the left out moisture. This time is very important. Do not rush.
