I am on a baking roll these days. Trying to so something new everyday. I had not intended to blog about this recipe but it would be gross injustice not to share such an awesome recipe with everyone. Its quick and easy and super-super tasty. Don't wanna brag about it but seriously it's one of the tastiest cake I've baked in a long long time. Again simple ingredients and the result is mind blowing. That's why I guess they say its the best when you keep it simple. We have all baked a banana cake/bread in some point i time of our lives.What else would you do with those over ripe mushy bananas. Add a twist and make a Chocolate Banana Cake this time around.
Ingredients:
Plain flour - 1 cup
Cocoa powder - half cup
Egg - 1 lightly beaten
Ripe banana - 1 nos
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Melted butter - 1/3 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Method:
In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients and keep aside.
In another bowl, mix together the mashed ripe banana and the melted butter.
Add the egg and sugar and whisk well till pale in colour.
Add in the vanilla essence.
Next add the flour mixture and fold it well into the wet mix.
Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf tin and bake for 50 mins.
Enjoy the awesomeness.
Today's post is going to be a long one. Primarily two reasons for that..one - I can't tell you enough about my love for this biryani and two - this is a long recipe. It took me a while to actually get down to sharing this very authentic,traditional mutton biryani recipe with you (should have done it long back) because once you have tasted this one you will keep going back for the same.
There are very fond memories attached to this dish.Maa cooks this so very well..can say this is one of her signature dishes...no one can make it like her ( yes I am biased when it comes to her cooking) On all special occasions (and not so special ones) my request to her would always be to make this Kacchi Biryani. Be it on my birthday or even the day I was coming back from the hostel she knew that this is what I would want to eat.And she would make it for me.It is indeed one of the most easy and authentic dhakai biryani recipe that you can find. I confidently say authentic coz this was taught to her by one of our Bangladeshi neighbour "Laskar aunty as I would fondly call her" long long ago. In fact Laskar aunty had even given her a cookbook from Dhaka which is a prized possession of Maa's . It is a bengali cook book and has the most extensive - exhaustive list of recipes - from cakes to puddings to pulaos to roast to biryanis to jams to pickles - it has it all. One day I hope Maa will give me that book!
Year before last I visited my family who were posted in Dhaka and I had a lot of biryani there - even the famous Fakruddin biryani and realised that the recipe passed down to us by our neighbour was as real as it could get and that made me so happy.
Okay now so coming back to the Biryani - this is an easy recipe no doubt but one has to prep up a bit and that is what is important here. I will be noting down a step by step recipe of it below and I sincerely hope that you all will like it as much as I do.
I am going to break down the recipe into different steps so that its easy for you to follow.
Firstly lets note down the ingredients required.
Ingredients:
For the biryani masala:
Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 5-6 nos ( adjust according to taste)
Nutmeg ( Jaiphal) - half a piece
Mace (Javitri) - 2 pieces
Green Cardamom - 3-4 nos
Cinnamon - 2 small sticks
Cloves - 5-6 nos
Other ingredients required:
Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Mutton - half kg ( good quality and fresh. Can use boneless cubes too )
Brown onion slices - 4 tbsp + 1 tbsp ( for this just slice up two big onions and fry till golden brown in refined oil or ghee) Also ensure that you keep the leftover oil or ghee.
Yogurt - 1 cup
Garlic paste - 1tbsp
Ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Potatoes - 2 medium sized ( parboiled and fried till light brown in colour)
Kewra essence (screwpine) - 1 tsp
Salt - for marinating the mutton and while boiling the rice.
Atta dough - a small ball of dough made of wheat required for sealing the handi/pan in which the biryani will be cooked.
Method:
STEP ONE
Dry roast all the ingredients listed under 'Biryani Masala' and grind into a fine powder.
Please be careful not to burn the spices. This 'is 'the most important ingredients of the biryani.
STEP TWO
Wash and clean the mutton. Marinate with 2 tbsp salt and keep aside for half an hour.
After half and hour wash the mutton once more and keep.
Now add the yogurt , ginger paste, garlic paste , 4 tbsp brown onion slices and the biryani masala. Mix it very well and gently too.
Cover this mixture with a cling film and let it marinate overnight.
STEP THREE
Take 2 cups of good quality basmati rice. Wash it under running water , drain and keep aside.
In a big saucepan add water. Once the water starts to boil add 2 tbsp salt and few whole cardamom , cloves and cinnamon.
Next add the rice and let it boil till the rice is almost half done.
Strain the rice and spread it out on a flat surface.
STEP FOUR
Now is probably the easiest part and the last step' assembling' before you can devour this sinful biryani.
Take a handi or a saucepan (make sure it has a proper lid) and brush it with a little ghee.
We will make the first layer with rice and then the mutton.
First rice,then the marinated mutton and fried potatoes , then rice and then mutton again. Finally top it up with the remaining rice. Sprinkle the remaining brown onion slices and the kewra essence on top. Close the lid tightly of the handi and seal it with the dough.
Now the final task is to put this on dum or slow cooking as we say. For the mutton to be fully cooked this has to be put on heat for at least an hour. So to prevent it from burning I always put the handi on a tawa/skillet and not directly.Something like this.
Now forget about it for an hour and then when you break open that seal - simply divine!!
Serve with the usual raita or the very traditional Burhani - the Bangladeshi cousin of our Punjabi lassi!
