Mutton Akhni Pulav | Kokni Style Mutton Pulav

If you enter a kokni muslim household on Fridays between 11 am to 2 pm, I bet you'll get a severe hunger attack due the tempting aroma of traditional Friday lunches being prepared and served. Though biryani is a popular go to Friday meal nowadays, there are many other traditional dishes like dal gosht, masacha saalna, sukka mutton and of course Pulav, that have been relished for decades and still haven't lost their charm. In fact, Kokni Akhni Pulav is so much popular that you can find this as main course in wedding feats, paired with papads and kachumber and spicy lemon pickle! Oops! I am drooling already! 😋😋😋

Yakhni is pronounced Akhni in kokni dialect and it means the broth or stock. As the meat is first cooked with ginger garlic paste with enough water to later cook the rice in that same broth or mutton stock hence the Pulav is called Akhni Pulav or simply Akhni.

Fine kolam rice is an ideal choice for making Akhni but if you cannot get kolam rice you can use regular basmati rice as well. Meat has to be tender and juicy with minimum bones. Mutton leg or shoulder is recommended but
it's entirely up to you to choose your meat. It's better of you slow cook the meat to get rich and flavour broth but to save time you can use pressure cook though it will somewhat affect the taste. Traditionally Akhni is cooked in heavy bottomed metal vessels called degh or handi on wood fire but our generation is not lucky enough to savour those flavours due to our sedentary lifestyle and having the ease of extremely easy to use gas stove hence you can use non stick pots to skip hassle of scraping and washing the burnt bottoms of the pots. Enough said now time to share the treasured recipe 😉

Mutton Akhni Pulav Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 kg Mutton
• 600 grams Rice
• 2 large Onions
• 2 medium sized Tomatoes
• 1/4th cup Cooking Oil (or Ghee)
• 2 tablespoons Ginger Garlic Paste
• 2-3 Green Chillies
• 4-5 Cloves
• 6-8 Black Pepper Corns
• 2x2" sticks of Cinnamon
• 4-5 Black Cardamom Pods
• 1 teaspoon Black Cumin seeds (Shah Jeera)
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 2-3 Pandan Leaves (Khana Patti)
• 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• Salt as per taste
• 1.5 litre Water or as required
• 2 large Potatoes (optional)

Method:

1. Clean and wash the meat, add ginger garlic paste and little salt and slow cook in 1.5 litre water till tender. Keep it tightly covered so that water doesn't dries up. If using pressure adjust the water accordingly but remember you will need this water for cooking rice. Cook for 4-5 whistles.

2. Finely slice the onions and chop the tomatoes.

3. Heat oil in a pot and add cinnamon sticks, black pepper corns, cardamom pods, bay leaves, cumin seeds, cloves and slit green chilies, let crackle for a few seconds then add chopped onion and braise till translucent golden colour.

4. Then add chopped tomatoes and saute well till it starts leaving the oil. Now add salt and turmeric powder. If using potatoes then wash them well and cut one potato into 4 large pieces with skin. Add the potatoes at this stage and cool covered for 10-15 minutes on low flame till potatoes are almost tender.

5. Wash and soak rice for about 20 minutes. Drain all the water and add the rice to onion tomato mixture. Saute for 3-5 minutes on medium low flame.

6. Now add boiled meat with all the broth (yakhni) and stir well. Let the rice cook in this broth. If required, add some more water. Add pandan leaves for flavour. When rice is 80 percent done, cover and lower the flame and cook on din for half an hour. Simple, rustic and full of flavour Mutton Akhni Pulav is ready to serve. 😀

Note:
i) I used exactly one and half litres water and cooked the meat in pressure cooker I did not have to use any extra water while cooking.
ii) I did not use potatoes this time so can't see them in plate ;)
iii) you can pour melted Desi ghee over Akhni just before serving.