NARGISI KOFTA BIRIYANI

Exotic  meal in which eggs stuffed in meatballs (Nargisi Koftas) are served in savory rice in mughlai style. It’s worth the effort in spite of lengthy process.

INGREDIENTS:

For RICE:

3 cups Basmati Rice

4 no.s Cloves

6 no.s Peppercorns

8 no.s Cardamom

For Kofta:

6 no.s Eggs boiled

750g Chicken/Meat mince

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste

¼ tsp Cumin powder

2 Green chillies, finely chopped

1 tsp Coriander powder

1 tsp Red chilly powder

1 tsp Garam masala

5 tbsp onion ,finely chopped

For MASALA:

4 tbsp Ghee

1 Bay leaf

3 Cardamoms

8 Peppercorns

¼ tsp Cumin seeds/Jeera

4 cups Onions, sliced

1 tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste

3 Green chillies

2 Tomatoes

2 tsp Red chilly powder

1 tbsp Coriander powder

½ tsp Turmeric powder

½ cup Curd

1 tsp Garam Masala

2 cups Mint leaves, chopped

A generous pinch of Saffron

A pinch of Yellow color

4 tbsp of Milk

1 tsp Shah Jeera/ Caraway seeds

METHOD:

Boil rice along with the whole masalas and salt until it is 3/4th cooked. Drain and keep aside.

For Koftas, add all ingredients along with salt to a food processor or blender and process for a few seconds until well-blended. Refrigerate this for about 15 minutes.

Make 6 balls out of this minced meat mix.

Take one ball and flatten on a piece of baking sheet into 4” diameter and ½” thick.

Place one whole boiled egg in between and shape them into koftas covering the egg nicely. Make sure that no crack seen.

Keep it aside and repeat the procedure with all other eggs and mince balls.

Deep-fry these koftas in high flame for about 30 seconds or so until it turns brown on all sides.

Drain on a tissue paper.

Deep-fry onions until it turns golden brown and crisp.

Once cooled, crush these onions in a blender. 

For masala, heat ghee on a deep-bottomed pan.

Throw in whole spices and sauté for a few seconds, carefully. If burnt, the whole masala would turn bitter.

Add the crushed onions into it and sauté for a while. Pour a little hot water in that as the onion lost its moisture when fried before and so there is a chance of burning.

Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies to it and sauté for a minute more.

Cook tomatoes in it along with yogurt, red chilly, coriander powder and turmeric powder until the gravy is cooked nicely.

Cook tomatoes in it along with yogurt, red chilly, coriander powder and turmeric powder until the gravy is cooked nicely.

Add water to this if needed.

Pop in garam masala and mint leaves; mix well.

Carefully add the nargisi koftas and cook for about 8-10 minutes until masala gets infused into koftas and is done perfectly.

Soak saffron in warm milk for about 10-15 minutes. Then add a pinch of yellow color to it.

Now, for the dum process, place ¼ of the rice at the bottom of a deep dish; then layer the masala.

Now, layer the half of the remaining rice and sprinkle saffron-milk and a tbsp. of oil here and there. Layer remaining rice on top of that.

Sprinkle a tsp of garam masala and 2 tbsp of oil on top and close the lid.  Let the pot remain so for about ½ an hour until the rice is done perfectly.

Serve with mint or any raita of your choice.

TIPS/VARIATION

Strain chicken mince and make sure no water is left behind; otherwise the koftas may break while shaping them.

You can use either wax paper or cling film to shape koftas so that you get smooth shape.