A question for Indian cooks....................?

Question

When ever I prepare mutton biryani , the mutton pieces tend to turn nearly black in colour. It tastes good but I'm not able to find out the reason for this change in meat colour. Tho it tastes good it does not look that appealing.
I marinate the mutton in ginger, garlic, curd, chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and garam masala powder for a few hour before cooking.
Can anyone help me find where the fault lies?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

My guess would be you're "Tinting" the meat when you marinade it with to much of the same "dark" spices. Just the garam masala alone is enough, and you listed the same spices that are already in garam masala, like adding sugar to something that's already sweet, let's just say it's to much of a good thing

Answer 2

Try making biryani this way!
Make sure the meat is very pink n tender!

500 grams of Basmati Rice (washed & drained)
1 kilogram of Mutton (cut into 2" pieces)
1 (2" piece) of Raw Papaya (Kacha Papita) (made into a paste)
5 large Onions (peeled, finely sliced and fried until crisp) (or you may use ready fried onions)
4 sticks of Cinnamon (Dal Cheeni)
2 Big Black Cardamoms (Bari Kaali Ilaichi)
6 small Cardamoms (Choti Ilaichi)
6 Cloves (Long)
2 Bay Leaves (Tezz Patta)
1 tsp. Whole Black Peppers (Kaali Mirch)
1 tsp. Cumin Seeds (Sufaid Zeera)
2 tbsp. Red Chilli Powder (Pisi Lal Mirch)
1 tsp. of Turmeric Powder (Pisi Haldi)
1 tsp. Ginger Paste (Pisi Adrak)
1 tsp. Garlic Paste (Pisa Lehsan)
1 ½ cups Plain Yogurt (beaten)
2 pinches of Saffron (Zaffron) (dissolved in warm water)

For Rice:

A handful of Mint Leaves (Podina) (chopped)
1 Big Black Cardamom (Kaali Baari Ilaichi)
2 Cinnamon Sticks (Dal Cheeni)
2 Small Cardamoms (Choti Ilaichi)
3 Cloves (Loung)
A handful of Kothmir
Salt (to taste)
5 tbsp. Clarified Butter (Ghee) or Refined Oil


To the mutton add the beaten curd, ginger-garlic paste, raw papaya paste, chilli powder, haldi, powdered masala, salt and half of the crushed fried onions. Allow the mutton to marinate for 3 hours.

Heat water (2 ½ times more than the rice). As soon as it boils, add the whole masala, rice and salt to taste.

Cook the rice till ¾ done and then drain in the colander.

Remove the whole masala. Melt the clarified butter and set aside.

Assemble

Take a heavy-bottomed pot and add the marinated mutton and ½ of the melted clarified butter.

Cover with chopped pudina and kothmir, fried onion and slit green chillies and juice of half a lemon. Spread the rice over this. Sprinkle the remaining clarified butter, saffron milk and lemon juice. Cover and seal the pot with atta paste. Place over high heat for 20-25minutes.

Lower heat and cook for another 45 minutes.


Good Luck.