Chettinad Dum Mutton Briyani

Chettinad dishes are always famous for their flavourful dishes, i wanted to make out some briyani with mutton as chettinad style of briyani and i prepared some spicy briyani with mutton pieces..Initially i want to prepare as dum briyani, but finally i tried to make out as similar as dum briyani by using oven...i have prepared the gravy with spices and mutton pieces in stove top, once i added the soaked and washed basmati rice to the gravy, i arranged immediately the vessel in which i cooked the mutton gravy to the preheated oven, closed with wet cloth and lid, cooked in oven for half an hour..We really enjoyed having this spicy mutton briyani for our lunch with onion raita...

1/2kg Mutton pieces
2nos Onion(big & chopped lengthwise)
3nos Tomatoes (chopped finely)
3nos Green chillies (slit opened)
3cups Basmati rice
3cups Coconut milk
2cups Mutton cooked water

1/4tsp Orange food colour
1/4cup Ghee
Oil
Salt

For Marination:
1tbsp Red chilli powder
1+1/2tbsp Coriander powder
1tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Ginger garlic paste
1tbsp Salt
1/2cup Thick curd

For Tempering:
2nos Bayleaves
2nos Cinnamon stick
5nos Cloves
3nos Cardamoms
1tsp Fennel seeds
1bunch Mint leaves (chopped)

Marinate the mutton pieces to the given ingredients under 'for marination'and let them sit for two hours, i do prepare this marination overnite, next day pressure cook the marinated mutton pieces without water for 3whistles...meanwhile soak the basmati rice for 10minutes, drain the water completely..

In a large kadai, add 2tbsp of the ghee and fry the rice for few minutes, keep aside...In the same kadai, heat the remaining ghee and enough oil, add the spices one by one given ' for tempering' and let it fry..now add the chopped onions, slit opened chillies,food colourand chopped tomatoes with enough salt to the spices and cook until the onions turns transculent and tomatoes turns mushy..add the already cooked mutton pieces without the cooked water, cook everything in simmer for few minutes with lid closed...add the coconut milk and mutton cooked water to the cooking mutton pieces and bring everything to boil..Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350F...add the already fried basmati rice to the cooking mutton gravy, stir gently until the rice get well mixed..

Tie the kadai with a wet cloth and close the kadai with lid, arrange the kadai in the middle rack of the oven and let it sit for 30minutes (stir in between twice)until the water get absorbs..

Serve hot with any sort of raitas!!!