Recipe: Kashmiri Mutanjan

A very popular non vegetarian recipe from the Kashmiri cuisine.

Ingredients:

• 250 g Rice
• 500 g Lamb (cubed)
• 2 large Onions (quartered)
• 2 piece Cinnamon Sticks
• 12 Cloves
• 12 Peppercorns
• 6-7 Cardamoms
• ½ tsp Coriander Powder
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Lemon (juice)
• 1 tsp Almonds, crushed
• ½ tsp Saffron (soaked in 1/4 tbsp milk)
• 4 tbsp Ghee
• Salt, to taste

How to make Kashmiri Mutanjan:

• Take a medium sized bowl and add onions, cinnamon, cloves, 8 peppercorns, 4 cardamoms, and coriander in it. Now, take a clean cotton cloth and tie all the above ingredients to make a potli. Keep it aside.
• Now, heat a pan and put the potli prepared along with lamb, salt and enough water to cover it. Cook it till the water is reduced to half and let it cool a bit.
• Remove the potli and squeeze out the flavor in the pan itself.
• Add sugar and lemon juice in the same pan and cook it till it gets syrupy and glazy. Keep it aside.
• Take another deep pan and boil rice in water with the other left spices and some salt. Cook till the rice is half done and then drain out the water.
• Take a casserole and grease it. Now, arrange a layer of rice, then the lamb and again the layer of remaining rice.
• Pour saffron milk over top, sprinkle crushed almonds over it, cover it tightly and let it bake at 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes.
• Serve hot.