Nawabi Pulao (The Royal Pilaf)

This recipe is from last week's 'Thursday' magazine. It won Sajida Wasim Shaikh a gift voucher of R.O. 20/- to the Golden Oryx restaurant here in Oman! 'Nawabi' is an Indian(Hindi) word which means "Royal" as in, "Of the Nawabs"(i.e., people belonging to the Royal family). Preparing and cooking this pilaf takes a long time, but seeing the tempting picture in the magazine and reading this recipe, does make me feel very sure that this one's the "jackpot" of all the non-vegetarian pilaf recipes I have so far come across/tried. I'm sure you'll like this!

• Ready In: 6 hrs
• Serves: 16-18

Ingredients

• 1  kg  mutton
• 1  kg chicken
• 2  cups plain low-fat yogurt, beaten
• 6  tablespoons  green masala (ginger, garlic and green chilli paste)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 7  onions, finely chopped
• 4  cups basmati rice
• 1⁄2 cup frozen green pea
• 1  teaspoon  coriander
• 1  teaspoon cumin powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon garam masala powder
•  salt
•  oil or  ghee

Directions

1. Marinate the mutton and chicken for 2-3 hours with 2 tbsp.
2. of the green masala and a little yogurt.
3. Take a little oil/ghee in a dish.
4. Now add the whole garam masala.
5. Add onions.
6. Stir fry till they are pinkish-brown.
7. Add turmeric powder followed by the remaining green masala and fry for 2 minutes.
8. Add mutton and cook till the mutton is half cooked.
9. Add a little water if necessary as the gravy has to be dry.
10. Add chicken and the leftover yogurt.
11. Cook till the mutton and chicken are tender.
12. Add the corriander-cumin and garam masala powders.
13. Add finely chopped corriander leaves and mix well.
14. Keep aside.
15. Now prepare the rice.
16. Cook the rice separately till it is almost done.
17. Season with whole garam masala and greenpeas fried in ghee.
18. Mix it well with the rice.
19. Now comes the part I love.
20. Put a layer of rice on the gravy in the dish in which the gravy was prepared.
21. Close the lid.
22. Keep the container on dum/steam as we do for biryani (in the traditional way) till the rice is completely cooked.
23. This takes about 15 minutes.
24. Serve hot with cucumber-tomato raita/your favourite raita.
25. ENJOY!