Topic: "Cull yaw" (culled ewe) biryani

[Peripatetic Phil]

I was in Great Cornish Food (adjacent to Waitrose in Truro) recently, and was looking at the butchery counter where I saw "cull yaw".  Having no idea what "cull yaw" was, I asked the butcher and he explained that when a ewe gets too old to breed, some farmers will give her an extra year of life at pasture, after which she is culled and hung.  The result is meat that is as tender as lamb but with all the flavour of mutton and arguably more.  This sounded perfect for a biryani, so I bought 3/4kg shoulder which I then skinned and diced.  The following is basically the recipe from a Shan Mutton Biryani mix, with notes where I deviated.  The results were out of this world.

CULL YAW BIRYANI

1.   Heat 1 cup of ghee/oil and fry 3-4 medium, finely sliced onions (400gm) until light golden.
2.   Add 750 gm bone-in cull yaw, three tablespoons fresh garlic paste, two tablespoons fresh ginger paste and stir-fry for a minute. Add one packet Shan Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix and stir-fry for 5-6 mins.
3.   Add 3-4 cups of water, 1¼ cup (250g) of plain, whipped yoghurt and two medium (250g), peeled and halved potatoes - [I omitted the potatoes]. Cover and cook on low heat until the meat is tender [For this I used an “Instant Pot” clone, slow cook setting, two hours duration].
4.   Add four medium (300g) diced tomatoes [I probably used less], 10 medium/large whole green chillies and 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice (two lemons) [I forgot to add the lemon]. Stir and remove from heat.
5.   Separately:  wash 3½ cups (750g) of Shan Basmati Rice and soak for 30 minutes [or Laila — I didn't bother to wash or soak].  Boil 15 cups (three litres) of water ]Fairly certain that I used far less water than this — 1 cup of basmati rice needs 300 ml water when cooked on the rice setting in an "Instant Pot" or clone if you want no excess water at the end of the cooking period] and stir three tablespoons of Shan salt [I used pink Himalaya] and the soaked rice.  Boil the rice until ¾ cooked [Again, in the Instant Pot clone, 4 minutes on rice setting, with the addition of mixed whole masala — this would have been better put in a strainer container].  Remove and drain thoroughly.
6.   Spread ¾ of the boiled rice in a pot and pour the cooked meat curry over it [I didn’t pour most of the sauce — there was far too much].  Then spread and cover with the remaining rice. Cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
7.   Heat ½ cup of ghee/oil and pour over the rice [I just poured on some of the fatty layer from the sauce — I also added a little green, yellow and red powder food colouring at this stage, and allowed 20 minutes for it to set before stirring].  Mix the rice well bottom to top. Cover and cook for five minutes.

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** Phil.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Nice!  I was back at the Tilted Pan a couple of days ago and bought a few dishes, including some of their chicken biryani.  £5.00. Tried a bit, so lush.  Have put it in the freezer and the plan was to have it for my Christmas dinner.  May go sooner though. Great to hear you are back in the kitchen Phil.

Rob

[Onions]

Sounds tasty Phil, nothing wrong with Big Chunks of Meat. Is culled yaw the Cornish language term for it? I wonder if my east London butcher would have heard of it!

[Peripatetic Phil]

Ah, they were more the conventional biriani size by the time I had finished dicing the shoulder!  Incidentally, bought another 1.5kg today, but failed to spot that diced cull yaw is £2 cheaper than shoulder, despite the latter having bone ...  Ah well.  As to the Cornish language aspect, as an incomer I can only say "I assume so" — the phonemic distance from "culled yew" to "cull yaw" (/kʌld juː/ -> /kʌl jɔː/) is not very great.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Great to hear you are back in the kitchen Phil.

Thank you Rob !  I have even ordered (yet another) Indian cookery book — Cooking with My Indian Mother-in-law: Mastering the Art of Authentic Indian Home Cooking — on the basis that its recipe for ghost biriani and Shan's are very similar.
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** Phil.