Kacchi Biryani Dhaka

Kacchi biryani is the most prestigious dish at Old Dhaka weddings and celebrations, the name 'kacchi' meaning 'raw', referring to the technique of layering raw marinated mutton with parboiled rice and steaming them together. This is distinct from pakki biryani (where the meat is pre-cooked). The kacchi technique requires precision: if the heat is too high the meat burns before the rice is done; too low and the rice stays hard. The mutton is marinated overnight in yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, raw papaya paste (for tenderising), fried onions, ghee, milk, almond paste and a heavy hand of spices (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, keora water). Parboiled basmati is layered on top, the pot sealed with dough and steamed on low heat for 90 minutes. The result is rice and meat that have exchanged flavours completely, each grain of rice coated in the mutton's rendered fat and spices.

Fragrant, separate basmati rice each grain glistening with mutton fat, the meat beneath so tender it falls apart with a spoon, the spices layered and complex. The aloo (potato) cooked inside, absorbing all the juices, is the prize piece.

The technique is raw-meat dum (sealed steaming). The mutton is marinated overnight in a mixture of yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, raw papaya paste, fried onions (birista), ghee, milk, almond-cashew paste, sugar, salt and a rich spice blend including whole cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, shahi jeera and keora water. A thick layer of this raw marinated meat is spread at the bottom of a heavy pot. Parboiled basmati rice (70 percent cooked) is layered on top, along with whole boiled eggs, sliced boiled potatoes, more fried onions, ghee, saffron-milk and chopped mint. The pot is sealed with a dough of flour and water around the lid, placed on a tawa (flat griddle) to distribute heat, and steamed on very low heat for 90 minutes. The sealed environment traps all steam; the mutton cooks in the rice's steam while the rice absorbs the mutton's juices from below.