Thalapakatti Mutton Biryani

There was a time when “Friday Biryani” was a thing. Every Friday without fail, I used to make biryani. Then it got changed to “fortnightly biryani”, then “monthly biryani”, then “quarterly biryani”, then “special occasion biryani” and finally “no biryani” at all!

It’s been ages since I cooked biryani at home. I’m not sure how and when it happened, I mean the stage of “no biryani”. I guess the abundance of Kerala restaurants in Bahrain is to be blamed for the same ;)

I’ve been reading/hearing a lot about Thalapakatti Biriyani and wanted to try it. Ever since Suguna at Kannammacooks posted it, I’ve been planning to make it and finally, I got around to it! Yey!

Btw, have I told you Suguna and Jose were college mates? Yeah, Jose was her senior and I still remember the time (this was way before her starting the blog) when Jose told me about his college mate who makes amazing cakes and bakes. That’s how I got introduced to her. I love her blog for her easy and straightforward recipes and how she explains each recipe in detail.

So, this time when we were in Bangalore, I finally met her in person. Though I knew her to be a friendly person through our online interactions, in person I realized she is lovely and a very down-to-earth person with so much of warmth. We had a great time with her and her little boy :)

Now, coming to this recipe… This Thalappakatti Biriyani recipe comes from a chef called Nagendran of Thalapakatti hotel in Dindigul (source: Kannamma Cooks). And I completely agree to what Suguna said about this on her blog.

This biryani has a very distinctive flavor from all the other biryani. The flavor mainly comes from the Seeraga Samba rice which is very similar to the Jeerakashala or Kaima rice which is used in Malabar Biryani. Also, the masala for biryani is quite different from the regular biryani masala.

There are no onions and tomatoes and unlike the Kerala biryanis, the “masala” part is not there. Since the rice is cooked in the stock of mutton, it absorbs the flavor of mutton completely. Make sure you use good quality mutton with bone since the flavor of mutton is a major part of this biryani.

We really enjoyed this biryani and what I liked most about it is, the entire cooking is done in a pressure cooker, so cleaning up was easier. Also, there is no slicing of onions, that’s a big plus for me ;)

Hope you will also try and enjoy this biryani.

Recipe adapted verbatim from here and you can read my notes in the “notes” section of the recipe

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Thalapakatti Mutton Biryani

Tamilnadu Dindigul style Thalapakatti Mutton Biryani recipe using one pot.

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Course: Lunch, Main Course

Cuisine: Indian, South Indian, Tamilian

Author: Maria Jose Martin

Ingredients

• ▢ Measurements used – 1 cup rice = 250 ml
• ▢ For the Masala
• ▢ 5 Green Chillies
• ▢ 3 small two inch cinnamon sticks
• ▢ 3 cardamom
• ▢ 3 cloves
• ▢ 1/8th th of a nutmeg (Jaadhika(Do not use too much))
• ▢ 1 small piece Mace (Jaadhi Pathiri (refer notes))
• ▢ 2 inch piece grams ginger
• ▢ 10-15 crushed Garlic (refer notes)
• ▢ 15 shallots (small onions)
• ▢ Main Ingredients
• ▢ 500 ml Seeraga Samba Rice (refer notes)
• ▢ 500 grams Mutton with bone
• ▢ Other Ingredients
• ▢ 2 tablespoon Ghee
• ▢ 3 tablespoon Sunflower Oil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
• ▢ ½ cup curd
• ▢ 1½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 hand full Mint Leaves
• ▢ 2 hand full Coriander Leaves
• ▢ Juice of half a lime

Instructions

• ▢
  Before starting to cook, wash and soak the rice for at-least half an hour. Drain the rice and keep aside.
  

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  Grind all the ingredients listed under masala paste with half a cup of water(refer notes). Set aside.
  

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  Heat oil and ghee in a pressure cooker and add in the Thalappakatti Biriyani Masala paste. Add in the mutton to the pan.
  

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  Add in two cups of water and add in the salt. Add in the plain yogurt and red chilli powder. Check out Chicken Biryani
  

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  Mix well and cook the mutton in the masala for 20 minutes on a medium flame. Remove the cooker from heat and wait for the pressure to settle.
  

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  Remove the cooked meat to a bowl and roughly measure how much liquid is left behind. Check out Malabar Mutton Biryani
  

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  Mine had about 1.5 cups of liquid (refer notes). Just measure roughly. It need not be accurate.
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  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 mixture (refer notes). Add in the chopped coriander leaves and the mint leaves. Let the mixture come to a boil.
  

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  Add back the meat and let it come to a boil again. Check for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. (I added 1/2 tsp salt at this stage)
  

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  Add the soaked and drained rice to the pan. Wait for it to boil. Add in the lime juice.
  

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  Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for the first four minutes on medium flame.
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  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.
  

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  After the rest, Enjoy Thalappakatti Biriyani!

Notes

I used Jeerakashala (kaima) rice for this recipe. Since I used big garlic, I used only 7-8 cloves. I didnt use mace. I used only 1/3 cup of water for grinding the masala. 

I had roughly 1 3/4 cup of gravy left after cooking mutton, so I added 2 1/4 cups of water to the remaining gravy to cook rice. The total water qty should be double the qty of rice. For 2 cups of rice, you need 4 cups of water. 

I used Aluminium pressure cooker and the rice got a little stuck at the bottom. 

Tried this recipe? Let others know by…mentioning @mariasmenu or tagging #mariasmenu

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