Irani Kebab Berry Pulao

Recipe by Gautam Anand

Ingredients
For the kebab
•    250 g minced mutton (kheema), finely ground
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 eggs • 6 bread slices
• 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1/2 bunch coriander
• 1/2 bunch mint
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp each: turmeric (haldi) powder and garam masala powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder (do not include if you do not prefer chillies)
• oil, for deep frying

For the mutton gravy
•  500 g mutton, boneless
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, boiled and pureed
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tbsp ground green chilli paste
•    1 tsp cumin paste
• 3 cloves • 2 tbsp biryani masala 
• 1 tsp Parsi dhania-jeera powder (Note: if you don’t have this masala, then use 1 tsp from this recipe: roast 100 g whole coriander (sabut dhania) and 50 g whole cumin (sabut jeera)/ 2:1 ratio and powder; add to it 1 heaped tsp garam masala and mix well)
• 1” cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp each: red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt (you can add more salt, if required)

For berry pulao
•    100 g Zereshk berries
• 100 g fried onions
• 1/2 tsp saffron
• 500 g Basmati rice
• 2 tsp warm milk
• 1 tbsp cooking oil or butter
•    1 large onion, sliced, crispy fried and set aside
• 10 stalks green coriander, roots cut off, washed and set aside
• 6 mint sprigs with stem, roots cut off (or 12-15 mint leaves), washed and set aside

Method
For the kebab
Add all the ingredients to the mutton kheema and mix well.
Take the bread slices and soak them in water. Squeeze out the water and add to the kheema mixture.
Marinate for 45 minutes.
Make shapes of small flat kebab roundels (coin-shaped); should not be bigger than 1.5” each.
Heat oil, deep-fry kebabs till golden brown, remove and drain on paper. Set aside.

For the mutton gravy
Add salt and all pastes (ginger-garlic, cumin, chilli and cumin) to the boneless meat pieces.
For the best taste, marinate the mutton at least 8 hours or one night before cooking.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker.
Fry the chopped onions until they are translucent and soft.
Add salt, all dry spices and the cinnamon stick and mix for 5 minutes.
Then add mutton pieces, stir for a minute, and add tomato puree. Continue stirring for few minutes.
Add a small cup of water so that the spices do not stick to the bottom of the cooker.
Seal the cooker and cook on high flame for 1 whistle, medium flame for two whistles, and then on slow flame for 20 minutes (around 35 minutes in all).
Turn off the flame and set the pressure cooker aside. Do not open the cooker or force-release the pressure, to allow the meat to continue to cook in its own heat.

For berry pulao
Fill a large pot with water, add salt and bring to a boil.
Add cooking oil to the boiling water, add the rice grains.
Cook until it is 3/4 done. Strain out the water.
In a small pan, dry-roast the saffron briefly. Warm milk and add it to the saffron; stir.
This yellow milk mixture is to be spread thinly over the rice. After 5 minutes, mix the grains of rice so there are white and yellow grains visible. Set aside.
Fry onions and set aside.
Lightly sauté the berries and set aside.

Layering the pulao
This is a layered pulao, and we need at least 3 to 4 layers.
Take a large flat utensil or pan with a lid (similar to a lid used to cook dum biryani).
Add some oil and heat, add the first layer of some of the cooked meat gravy (gravy only) and top it with a layer of rice.
On top of the rice, spread out a sprinkling of the sautéed berries and golden-brown onions.
On top of that, add some of the mutton chunks with the gravy and some of the kebabs.
Top this layer again with the rice and repeat this to form at least two layers.
On the final rice layer, spread out coriander stalks, mint sprigs, and remaining berries.
Using kitchen foil, seal the utensil, place the lid tightly, seal four spots of the lid with dough.
Place a large cooking vessel (tawa) on the flame, add water in the tawa when hot, then place the sealed utensil on the tawa.
Allow the rice to cook fully for 20 minutes on medium flame.
Serve hot.