Hyderabadi Biryani

The Deccan's raw-marinade biryani, marinated lamb and part-cooked basmati sealed in one pot under a pastry lid so that meat and rice finish together in their own steam

Origin: Hyderabad, Telangana, India

From the journey of Rice.

Hyderabadi biryani is the great dish of the Deccan and it is made by a method that separates it from every biryani to the north. In the kacchi style, raw marinated meat is laid in the pot and part-boiled rice piled on top; the vessel is sealed with a rope of dough and cooked slowly so that the meat and the rice arrive at doneness together, the rice steaming in the fat and juices rising through it. Nothing is browned first. It is a technique with no margin at all: too little time and the meat is raw, too much and the rice is ruined. The dish belongs to Hyderabad because the city was where two cuisines met. The Deccan sultanates and then the Nizams presided over a court whose cooking drew on Persian and Mughlai technique from the north and on Telugu ingredients from the country around it, and the result is markedly sourer and hotter than a Lucknow or Delhi biryani: yoghurt, lime, fried onion, green chilli, and mint in quantity. The Deccan plateau is not the obvious place for a rice culture. It is dry, black-soil country of millets and sorghum, and its rice comes from irrigation, from the tanks and reservoirs that Kakatiya and later rulers built across Telangana from the twelfth century onwards. That engineering is why a rice court cuisine could exist here at all. The plateau's other great rice food could hardly be more different. Poha, rice parboiled, flattened between rollers, and dried, is eaten for breakfast across Maharashtra and Malwa as kanda poha, ready in ten minutes. Court and kitchen, four hours and ten minutes, both on the same plateau and both built on rice.

Ingredients

Rice

700 g aged basmati rice

Marinade

1 kg bone-in lamb shoulder, cut into 5 cm pieces
400 g full-fat yoghurt, whisked
3 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
6 green chillies, slit
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbsp lime juice
1 large bunch mint leaves, chopped
1 large bunch coriander leaves, chopped
2 tsp garam masala
3 large onions, thinly sliced and fried golden (birista)
150 ml ghee
2.5 tsp fine salt

Whole spices

4 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp shahi jeera (caraway)

To layer

0.5 tsp saffron threads, soaked in 4 tbsp warm milk
3 tbsp ghee, melted, to layer

To seal

200 g plain flour, for sealing

Method

Mix the lamb with the yoghurt, ginger and garlic paste, green chillies, turmeric, chilli powder, lime juice, half the mint and coriander, the garam masala, two thirds of the fried onions, the ghee, and the salt. Marinate for at least four hours, ideally overnight, in the refrigerator.
Bring the marinated lamb back to room temperature, which takes about an hour, and spread it in an even layer in a wide heavy pot.
Soak the rice in cold water for thirty minutes, then drain.
Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil with the whole spices. Add the rice and boil for four to five minutes only, until the grains are soft at the ends but still hard at the core. Drain immediately.
Pile the drained rice evenly over the raw marinated lamb without stirring. Scatter over the remaining mint, coriander, and fried onions, drizzle with the saffron milk and the melted ghee.
Make a stiff dough with the flour and a little water, roll it into a rope, and press it around the rim of the pot. Clamp the lid on tightly so that no steam can escape.
Cook over a high heat for four or five minutes to get the pot going, then reduce to the lowest possible heat, ideally over a heat diffuser or a heavy griddle, and cook for fifty to fifty-five minutes.
Rest, still sealed, for fifteen minutes off the heat, then break the seal at the table.
Serve by digging down through both layers so that each plate gets rice from the top and meat from the bottom, with mirchi ka salan and a plain onion and yoghurt raita.

Notes

The kacchi raw-meat method is what makes this Hyderabadi. The pakki method, where the meat is cooked before layering, is easier, more forgiving, and a different dish. Birista, onions sliced thin and fried slowly to a deep even gold, is worth making properly. Rushed onions taste bitter and the sweetness is central. Bone-in lamb is not negotiable here. The marrow and the collagen are a large part of what the rice absorbs. If you have no ovenproof pot with a tight lid, seal with a double layer of foil under the lid and finish in a 160C oven for the same time.

The Gastrographer

Name: Hyderabadi Biryani
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 700 g aged basmati rice; 1 kg bone-in lamb shoulder, cut into 5 cm pieces; 400 g full-fat yoghurt, whisked; 3 tbsp ginger and garlic paste; 6 green chillies, slit; 1 tsp ground turmeric; 2 tsp red chilli powder; 2 tbsp lime juice; 1 large bunch mint leaves, chopped; 1 large bunch coriander leaves, chopped; 2 tsp garam masala; 3 large onions, thinly sliced and fried golden (birista); 150 ml ghee; 2.5 tsp fine salt; 4 green cardamom pods; 2 black cardamom pods; 1 cinnamon stick; 6 cloves; 2 bay leaves; 1 tsp shahi jeera (caraway); 0.5 tsp saffron threads, soaked in 4 tbsp warm milk; 3 tbsp ghee, melted, to layer; 200 g plain flour, for sealing

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