Meat Balls (Kari Urundai / கறி உருண்டை)

Meat Balls are one of mother's signature recipe. But, all these days I was forfending to do because of the fear of fat (cholesterol) after realizing / experiencing the goodness of Fat. For the first time I attempted to recreate my mother’s recipes in the HFLC style and enjoyed the goodness of meat balls without any guilt. 

Ingredient – 500gms of mined Mutton      ;     2 tsp of ginger garlic paste     ;     chopped medium onion       ;     2 chopped green chili       ;        salt to taste     ;      curry leaves & finely chopped coriander leaves      ;       ½ tsp of turmeric powder      ;      2 tsp of chili powder     ;       10 no’s of chopped cashews     ;      2 tsp of coconut oil       ;        2 tsp of  powdered  fried chana dal       ;    Coconut oil (VCO) for deep fry 

Add turmeric powder to the mined meat and sprinkle with water, pressure cooker for one whistle and remove the cooker from heat.

Meanwhile, fry onion until it change its color. Add green chili, ginger garlic paste, chili powder, curry leaves and coriander leaves and fry for 2 -3 minutes and remove the pan from heat.

Take out the pan from the pressure cooker, strain the water if any. (mutton milagu soup can be made out of this water) add the fried items, cashews, and powdered fried chana dal into the meat and mix well with hand and shape into small balls.

Heat the oil and fry the mutton balls (either shallow or deep fry) till in turns into brown in color. Since, I need the medium chain fatty acids in my diet, I used VCO coconut oil. You may even bake the balls (after brushing with butter or oil) in the 180◦c preheated oven for about 40 min.

Serve them hot with the squeeze of lemon with onion topping or tomato or mint chutney.

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Baked Mutton Biryani

 

I belong to rice eating (southern) part of India. Naturally, most of my friends and relatives also prefer to eat rice rather than (wheat) bread. 

In fact, my favorite food was rice till my marriage. So, my friends and relatives kept asking to share/post a rice based recipe. At the same time, I wanted to be in the baking arena. 

It’s quite a challenging combination, Rice – Baking. For a quite some time, I was thinking to make “diet biryani”. So, why not a Baked Biryani ?

In general, Biryani is known for its richness and aroma. 

Definitely, by baking a large amount of oil or ghee can be reduced. But, I am not sure about the end result. Hence, I want to experiment it with small quantity. 

Since, I’m going to bake; I go with Dum Biryani style. (Usually biryani made differently in different region. But, the key concept is cooking the meat and rice along with various spices, even dry fruits) 

Before, going to ingredient’s and procedure, lets analyze the possible  complications……..will the meat (I specifically chose mutton, because, if it cooked well, chicken and fish are not at all an issue) cook well ? Will the spices emit its aroma and taste without sauté ?

To overcome the complications, I need to marinate the meat well and need to bake a large bottom pan / baking tray so that the heat can penetrate and spread evenly, better chance to cook the meat.

About the spices…..I do not have any idea. Need to check after baking.

Ingredients list :   1 cup of Basmati rice   ;   250gms of Mutton ( chopped and fat removed)   ;  1tsp of  Ginger garlic paste  ;   1 large brown onion  (fried in microwave  with 1 tsp olive oil)  ;    1tsp of chili powder  ;  5no’s  Green chilly   ;   ¼ cup of  Curd     ;   2tsp  of  Coriander powder     ;    Salt to taste    ;   2 tsp of Mint leaves  ;   2 tsp  of Ghee (clarified butter)      ;  2 tbsp of  Lime juice (fresh)

Spices:  1 no Bay leave    ;   1 stick of Cinnamon     ;    5 no’s of Pepper corns  ;   3 no’s of  Star anise   ;    3 cloves of  Green Cardamoms    ;    ½ tsp of Caraway seeds    

  

Mix all the ingredients (except rice) and spices with mutton and marinate about four hours at room temperature.

Cook the rice till three fourth is done. (Important)

Grease the 8" cake pan with Ghee and spread the mutton mixture on top of it spread the rice evenly and wrap it with two aluminum foil.Transfer the pan into 160°C pre-heated oven.

After 15 min of transferring the pan to oven, my kitchen was filled with Aroma of spices, meat and basmati rice. It was good indication. But, I kept my finger crossed for the tender and juiciness of mutton.

After 40 min, I removed the pan from Oven and found the meat was done well. Mixed the rice and meat with wooden spoon and served hot.

It was divine. The perfect Biryani in all means, just a 2 tsp of Ghee ! (In general biryani recipe, the meet is almost cooked with oil and fats)

I hope, I meet the needs for Rice lovers and Requirements of diet conscious minds like my husband.

To my Veggie friend, as usual, you can try this with Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), Mushrooms, Soy Nuggets or Mix Vegetables.