Awadhi Ghost Biryani

Wonderfully fragrant and lightly spiced, I love awadhi biryani and have been looking to make it for quite some time. This style of biryani has its origins in the kitchens of Lucknow, the erstwhile capital of the kingdom of Awadh, and is distinguishable form other styles by the melding and light use of spices and heavy use of aromatics like Kewra extract and rose water. I've also added mint as I love its wonderful fragrance when baked. 

The fragrance of the biryani is also enhanced by its cooking style, where it is cooked on a low flame in a sealed container to seal in the flavour and aroma of the ingredients.

A word of warning, the preparatory time for this biryani is upwards of 2 hours, as it has a number of components that need to be separately prepared and assembled together just before the last round of cooking.  

I used mutton for this biryani, as its the preferred meat in awadhi cooking, but this can just as easily be made with chicken, with suitable variation in the cooking time, or with boiled eggs or vegetables, with the use of stock cubes for the savoury broth.

Ingredients

Meat Marinade and Gravy

• 500 g mutton, with bones and cut into bite sized chunks
• 2 medium onions, one finely chopped and other cut into thin longitudinal slices
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1" ginger, chopped
• 3 cloves
• 5 peppercorns
• 1" cinnamon
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 dry red chilies, chopped
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

Rice and Savory broth

• 2 cups basmati rice, washed
• 5 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1" cinnamon
• 2 bayleaves
• 8 peppercorns, cracked
• 3 black cardamoms, slit
• 1 small piece of nutmeg
• 2" ginger, sliced
• 2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• salt to taste

Garnish

• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced longitudinally
• 4-5 cashew nuts, roughly chopped
• 4-5 almonds, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

Aromatic milk

• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 green cardamoms
• 3-4 strands of saffron
• 1/2 tsp kewra extract
• 1/2 tsp rose water

Method

Mutton Marinade

1. Crush the dry spices in a mortar and add it to the chopped onion, garlic and ginger. Add the yogurt and make a thick marinade. Add around a 1 tsp of salt.
2. Add the mutton pieces to the marinade, and toss around to make sure that it evenly coats the mutton.
3. Leave in the fridge overnight, or for at least 6 hours.

Savoury Broth

1. Place all the spices in the middle of a cheesecloth and tie its ends together to create a spice pouch.
2. Take the mutton pieces out of the marinade and keep the marinade aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pressure cooker and add the mutton pieces. Brown the pieces on all sides and add 3.5 cups of water. In case you don't have a pressure cooker, use a heavy bottomed pan and cook with a lid. Also add an extra half cup to a cup of water, to ensure that you have 3.5 cups of the savoury broth after cooking the mutton.
4. Add the spice pouch and close the pressure cooker. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the mutton is tender and falling apart.
5. Separate the mutton pieces and the savoury broth using a sieve. Remove the spice pouch. The spice pouch can be thrown away, or dried out and used for spicing soups.

Mutton Gravy

1. Heat a tbsp of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the sliced onions and brown on high heat. 
2. Add the marinade and cook until the oil starts to separate.
3. Add the mutton pieces and 1/2 cup of the savoury broth. Toss around lightly to create a thin gravy.

Aromatic Milk

1. Crush the cardamom pods lightly. 
2. Heat the milk and add the crushed cardamom.
3. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat.
4. Crush the saffron and add it to the milk. Stir it into the milk, cover and leave aside to cool.
5. Stir periodically to prevent the cream from separating.
6. Once cool, add the kewra extract and rose milk and keep covered.

Garnish

1. Dry roast the chopped almond and cashew, till the pieces are lightly tinged with brown specks.
2. Heat a tbsp of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the onions. Brown the onions on high heat, and leave aside to cool.
3. Once the onion has cooled, add the roasted almonds and cashews and the chopped mint.
4. Toss around to evenly distribute the ingredients.

Rice

1. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan with a lid. Add the washed rice and stir around until the rice glistens.
2. Cook on high heat till the rice turns opaque.
3. Add the savoury stock, reduce the heat and cook covered for 10 minute, or until the rice absorbs the stock.
4. Take off the heat and keep aside, covered, for ten minutes.

Assembling the Biryani

1. Take an oven proof bowl with a tight fitting lid.
2. Pre-heat the oven at 220 C/gas mark 7.5
3. Add half the rice to the bowl and flatten it out. 
4. Pour half the aromatic milk over, in a circular pattern.
5. Add the mutton gravy and spread it to create a mutton layer.
6. Add the half the garnish and spread it out.
7. Cover with the remaining rice and flatten out.
8. Pour in the remaining aromatic milk in a circular pattern, and spread the remaining garnish. Close the bowl and place in the pre-heated oven, at 220 C/gas mark 7.5
9. Let it cook at 220 C for 10 minutes and then lower the heat to 120 C/gas mark 4 for 15 minutes.
10. Once done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.
11. Carefully remove the lid and let those wonderful aromatics tease your senses. Serve   up with a raita of yogurt and cucumber and onions.