Mutanjan is a sweet rice recipe derived from the pages of Kashmiri cuisine. Kashmiri Mutanjan Recipe includes mutton as well. It can serve as a one pot meal and your guests would surely enjoy eating this dish. You can put potatoes to the dish and make the meal more filling. I made this dish lightly spiced as I was planning to serve this to my daughter (a toddler) as well. This lightly spiced version was surely a hit. My husband and me, found it too good. I found striking similarities between mutanjan preparation and biryani preparation. The difference being in taste, former is sweet and the later is spicy and savory kind. Both have become my favorite now.
Total cooking time for Kashmiri Mutanjan Recipe: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients for Kashmiri Mutanjan Recipe cooked for 2 people:
1. 1.5 cups of rice (long grain rice)
2. 250 gms mutton pieces
3. Salt
4. Red chilly powder – 1 tsp
5. 3 tablespoon beaten curd
6. 1 tsp rosewater
7. 2 tbsp sugar (I cook it lightly sweet)
8. 4 peppercorns, 6 cloves, 2 green cardamoms, 2 cinnamon sticks
9. 1 black cardamon, 1 bay leaf, 1 mace
10. 4 tsp ginger and garlic paste
11. 1 onion – sliced
12. Oil / ghee – 3 tbsp
13. Saffron water – 1/4 cup with 6 – 7 strands of saffron
14. 1/2 lime juice
Kashmiri Mutanjan Recipe – The method:
1. Marinate the mutton with curd, salt and chilly powder
2. Soak rice for 30 minutes in water
3. Heat oil in a wok (non-stick pan preferably) and add pepper corns, whole garam masala ( green cardamom, cinnamon, clove )
4. Add onion slices and fry till color changes to brown
5. Add mutton pieces, extra marinade and ginger garlic paste. Stir fry till water is evaporated (you can cover cook in between)
6. Add Water (3 – 4 cups) and cover cook till mutton is soft and water dries up mostly
7. In another pan, add 2 cups water and sugar and boil the mixture to make a slightly sweet sugar syrup. Switch off the flame. Add lime juice, rose water and cover with a lid
8. In rice pot, boil water with mace, bay leaf and black cardamom. Add the rice in boiling water and cook till rice is 50% cooked and is al dente. Drain water (Here, you can add peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon as well, but as I chose it to be less spicy, I did not add them. Trust me, this light version was perfect for the taste buds. Sometimes, you win when you do not over do 🙂 )
9. Now, add half cooked rice to the non-stick where mutton is cooked. Add sugar syrup and saffron water. Cover cook in simmer mode for 20 minutes more or till rice is cooked. Serve hot!