Masterclass – Mutton Pullav Nati style

If you have seen my posts of Carnivore Diaries, nati or military style food is my absolute favorite with their rustic tastes and flavors.    One of the most prominent and mandatory staple dish to order is the ragi mudde (balls made out of ragi or finger millet) pullav (not biryani) which can be either mutton or chicken but any self respecting nati (country) foodie will rather have mutton over chicken anytime but I will leave you to your preference.

Now what makes a biryani different from a pullao. Where do I begin? There are fights between biryani fanatics about the differences and one man’s biryani is another man’s pullav. Like politics you just can’t win . For me biryani is sandwiching rice between two layers of spiced meat so it absorbs all the delightful juices and flavors of the spiced meat. Ideally no water is added in the biryani while layering it that way. It’s a dum way of cooking

The nati pullav is mixing the stock in the rice and cooking it with the meat so the rice becomes flavorful. It’s just a difference of technique. Another difference could be the spice used. Traditionally pullao uses less spice and more heat  e.g chillies, pepper allows the flavor of the meat/vegetable to come through.  The spices like lichens (patthar ka phool), cinnamon, cardamom which are considered high end is not added.  Also the skillful use of mutton fat instead of oil also gives a lovely flavor to all of the nati dishes.

As the city was bound in chains because of covid-19, the hotels closed downa nd so did the travel. One could only only reminisce about the good things. The good part was this situation made many of us roll up our sleeves and do something to make it more tolerable.

This pullav is inspired from the legendary Hanumanthu mutton pullav of Mysore as well as the famous Gundu pullav from the Uru which was served in a leaf bowl and is now know as the Donne Biryani.

Well here I made a mutton pullav and I was extremely happy with the flavor and texture of the pullav in terms of rice and meat.

Lets make it shall we?

How to make the nati mutton pullav?

Ingredients

1 Mutton –  1/2 kg (you can scale up of course)

The pullav has a lot of weak link and can easily go wrong with the wrong ingredient.  The main will be the quality of meat.  A young goat which is tender gets cooked faster and tastes much better. I also keep the pieces a little smaller than the regular so it cooks faster and better

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5. Frosties

2 Jeeraga Samba Rice – About 1/2 kg

Again wars and fought over which rice is better, Basmati or the Jeeraga Samba rice. Basmati is typically used in North India while the Jeeraga Samba is preferred in the South. Also this rice is more rustic, short-grained and absorbs flavor while having a good texture. Even the TN belt with its famous Ambur and Dindigal biryani uses Jeeraga Samba.

3. Chillies, onions, coriander leaves, mint leaves – lots of it, the more the merrier

Ginger Garlic paste – Making a ginger garlic paste at home gives the best flavors to any food over the store bought ones but thankfully it’s not a show stopper

4. Any drink of your choice – No that doesn’t go into the pullav, it goes inside you.   I was having a fenny with limca, chilli and a salt rim when I made this.

The Marination

Marination is important.  Marination is a tenderizing process where the ingredients get to work their magic on the meat and the tenderizers like lemon and curd makes the meat really tender, juicy and melt in the mouth.  The more time the marination happens, the better the result. Red meat need more marination time compared to seafood or chicken. I find an overnight marination works wonders which ever meat it is.  I sometimes keep it even for 24 hours so the result is a succulent, juicy goodness.  Grated raw papaya is also a brilliant tenderizer without adding its own flavor  to the mutton. A pinch of shavings will be enough for half kilo of mutton.

I marinated the mutton with 2 tablespoons of ginger garlic paste, green chillies, mint leaves, coriander leaves (typically 1:1 ratio but this time I had a lot more of mint than coriander), coriander powder, cumin powder, pink salt (any salt will do but I use this for my everyday cooking) and about 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 3 tbs pepper.  Tucked it away in the fridge till the next night.

Steps

1. Take a nice large gulp of the fenny to get you setup and into the cooking mode

2. Soak the jeeraga samba rice in water for half hour. Good work, take a sip of the fenny

3. Start cutting onions into thin slices. The more the merrier.  Careful with that finger…  Once you do this successfully reward yourself with a large sip

4. Now take the marinated mutton and boil it… I put in a good amount (at least 4 cups of water) while boiling so I get the mutton stock as well. Its 2 cups of liquid for every one cup of rice . I even store this for other dishes and is good for about 3-4 days. Three whistles in the pressure cooker worked just perfect for me. Many people have some issues with cooking with the pressure cooker and other worries. I don’t mind using the pressure cooking anytime, anywhere.  I don’t have the patience for open pot cooking even though its a good excuse for more drinks.  The OPOS (one pot one shot) is all about the innovative use of pressure cooker.  Keep track of the whistles while having the drink

5. Take the rest of the coriander, mint, slice some ginger, cloves, cardamom, pepper, green chilli and make a paste. Take that sip of life and smack your lips.you may taste the paste as touchings but you have not added salt so it might taste weird with the drink..   Make sure to refill that glass if its over. At this point you might start wondering what the paste is for. Let me remind you, its for the mutton, its not touchings.

6. I believe in re-using the vessel to minimize work after.  Once the mutton is half done, take it all out and as much of the liquid as much as you can. No need to wash the cooker.  Those flavors will help too.  Put a little ground nut oil, about 2 tablespoons ( I love using this oil for its flavor and for pullao. It just works great for me) Add the finely sliced onions till its its pale gold and smells aromatic, add the paste that you prepared.  Add about a table spoon of the ginger garlic paste and keep frying.  Adjust the salt at this stage. You can also add more mint and coriander leaves at this point. A little extra is always safe since the rice does not have salt but remember the mutton marinade had salt.  Yeah its not rocket science but it will feel like once you have  that thirst.

Now take only the pieces of the mutton and fry them till everything comes together in a frenzy of  aromas.   Now add the rice and mix it nicely as well.  finally add the stock. I added about 1 litre of stock to this, gave it a final swirl and then closed the cooker for about 3-4 whistles.  Your nose is the best instrument for deciding whether to continue more whistles or not.Reward yourself with more sips of fenny. Good job !

7. Let the pressure settle and open the lid for that whiff of heavenly breeze.   Mix everything nicely so the rice and meat come together.   You may choose to make a raitha but I didn’t need it.    Have a celebratory gulp just for getting this done.

Pro tip

1. Keep checking for salt at every stage but don’t over do it. There is nothing that goes more wrong that an overkill with salt.  TASTE, TASTE, TASTE, Keep that spoon handy and keep checking.
2. The flavor of the pullav comes from their extreme usage of coriander and mint leaves. So be generous with them.. Dont avoid green chilli since it forms the flavor. Use atleast 1 if your family is not that heat friendly and prefer lower levels. I added 4

 

Let me know  how it turned out for you in the comments below.