Kerala Beef Biryani

Can you imagine of a period when biryani was not much famous? Yeah, mom remembered an incident that happened during her child hood.The day was her cousin's marriage (mom now in her fifties) and lunch for the bridegroom's people were arranged at bride's place.At that time biryani was not much a well known dish in Thrissur, and it was mostly cooked by the Muslims of North Kerala. Mom's uncle wanted to serve some thing special on his daughter's marriage day and arranged some chefs to prepare delicious Mutton biryani.All the guests arrived before noon, and when the food served , many of them - especially ladies - started covering nose! Garlic was not widely used that time and the smell of biryani cooked with garlic was so irritating for them.What to serve immediately for those biryani haters, chefs soon prepared rice gruel / rice soup / kanji and served with chammanthi! :) This happened decades back and the people of that period couldn't even imagine of a catering service! Still my grandma - mom's mom - hates garlic, I am always delighted by the thoughts of the few delicious dishes she prepared, specially with lots of small onions / shallots!
When a sweet friend of mine asked for a Beef biryani recipe, soon mom agreed to prepare it.Since I don't eat beef I was little hesitant to do.I just watched everything what she is doing, that I never did before! Every time when she prepared some thing I would ask how much you put that, how much you put this.. like questions but she could never give me a satisfying answer.. A handful of this , a pinch of that etc are her usual answers I get, which would confuse me a lot.. :)



Beef Biryani Ingredients
beef 3/4 kg
onion 6 medium
tomato 4 medium
green chillies 4 or as per taste
garam masala powder 1 tsp
garlic paste 1 Tb sp
ginger paste 1 Tb sp
coriander leaves chopped 1/2 cup
mint leaves chopped 1/4 cup
coconut milk 1 cup medium thick
almonds peeled 1 handful
curd 2 Tbsp
lemonjuice 1 lemon
ghee
salt



Here is how mom prepared it..

For cooking beef,
coriander powder 2 tsp
chilly powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
pepper powder 2 tsp
garam masala 1 tsp
garlic paste 2 tsp
ginger paste 1 tsp
salt
water

Cook everything together, without adding much water.
The water comes from the beef it self will be enough to cook.

For garnishing,
onion chopped finely 1
raisins few
cashews few
ghee little

Heat ghee.
Roast cashews and raisins, remove them.
Fry onion, until it is crisp and little golden brown.

For cooking rice,
basmati or biryani rice 3/4 kg
cardamoms 4
cloves 4
cinnamon sticks 2, 1/2 " pieces
turmeric powder optional
salt
ghee little

Boil water, add the spices, salt and turmeric powder.
Put rice allow to cook.
Add little ghee.
When the rice is 3/4 cooked , check it, and drain.
Keep aside.

For preparing biryani masala,
Chop onion and tomato.
Grind green chillies.
Cut onion into two, then cut lengthwise again and chop.
Make a paste of almonds with coconut milk.
Heat ghee.
Saute onion.
When transparent, saute tomato, with garlic, ginger and green chilly paste.
Put half of coriander leaves and half of mint leaves.
Saute well until the tomatoes are cooked and mashed well.
Add garam masala, cooked beef, curd and the thick almond plus coconut milk solution.
Allow to boil, check salt, turn off heat.
Spread the cooked rice on top of this.
Slightly mix it with the masala, don't mix too much, allow the masala to be in the bottom side.
Pour little pure ghee or RKG on top.
Sprinkle lemon juice and little curd over this.
Spread fried onions, raisins and cashews with remaining coriander leaves and mint leaves.
Cover with aluminium foil.
Close the lid, bake it or keep on a low flame until the steam comes out.
You can check other biryani recipes here to follow layering method.

See other Biryani recipes of Simple & Delicious!