(Credits: Vir Sanghvi)
With terrible effects on my figure, the amazing biryani hunt is currently in its second year. And the second is my respect for Pratibha Karan, the former IAS officer, who I consider to be one of the best home cooks in the country.
As a result, you can picture my joy when these two occurrences coincided. Through the mail, I was delighted to get a copy of Pratibha’s new cookbook, which is all about biryani. Despite the fact that the book is published by Random House, a well-known publisher of cookbooks and diet books, it seems not to have gotten the excessive promotion that is a trademark of the company. Pratibha’s is a truly remarkable work that will undoubtedly become a masterpiece of Indian food literature, and I hope this article will help to establish the balance.
The beginning of biryani is one of my persistent fascinations. In my opinion, the majority of the theories put forth to explain the origins of biryani are false. According to one version, which is untrue, the Mughals introduced biryani to India since the cuisine was already well-known prior to Babur’s arrival. Timur, the Tamerlane of epic verse, brought biryani with him when he arrived to plunder the subcontinent, which is another reason. This is ridiculous. If Timur brought biryani, he must have brought it from his home country. However, there is no evidence of biryani existing anywhere outside of India during that time period.
Although Pratibha admits that biryani, which is an Indian creation, comes from pulao, which Muslim merchants and invaders brought to our nation, she offers no explanation for its origin. She believes that pulao is a dish for the military.
The chefs could not be expected to create complex meals when the troops established camp for the night. As a result, they favored onepot meals in which they prepared rice with any accessible meat or poultry.
At what point did this pulao transform into a biryani, and what is the actual difference? Pratibha is, once again, just making assumptions. Because it provides little insight into the biryani, she dismisses the notion that the name originates from the word “birinj,” which signifies “frying before cooking. ” A more credible explanation attributes the name to the Persian word for rice, “birinj. “
She concludes that there is no hard and quick difference between biryani and pulao. Redolent with gravy, some really wet biryanis cannot be called pulaos, and neither can some others, like the simple peas pulao. However, there is a huge grey area in between the two, and the language used seems arbitrary.
The sole potential difference is that a biryani must be layered, with rice serving as the base and top layers and the meat in between. All of the components are cooked together in a pulao, and there is no layering. Additionally, pulaos are typically simpler foods, whereas biryanis are seen as more lavish fare and are frequently flavored with kewda, rosewater, saffron, and other ingredients.
However, Pratibha is not really interested in the origins of biryani or the semantic differences between biryanis and pulaos. She is more focused on locating the variety of biryanis in India.
The propensity among restaurateurs and food writers alike to portray biryani as a north Indian court dish and to ramble on about the Mughal court or the Nawabs of Avadh is something that always irritates me. Biryani does have a court cuisine tradition, yes.
However, its true value lies in the fact that it is a national Indian cuisine.
There is a biryani almost everywhere in India where there is a Muslim population. The fact that individuals ignore this rich heritage of regional biryanis and concentrate instead on a fictitious Mughal biryani when excellent versions may be found throughout India is always annoying to me.
Biryani isn’t truly a meal from northern India, as Pratibha argues. It is, in its essence, a meal from south India. You would find approximately four fundamental recipes and a few others with slight variations if you were to compile all the biryani recipes from northern India. However, you realize the complete richness of biryani as you head south. The biryanis of Tamil Nadu, the masaledar Andhra biryani (which is a simpler, more grounded dish that is distinct from Hyderabadi biryani), and the exquisitely spiced biryanis of Kerala are all included in addition to the well-known Hyderabadi biryanis.
The reason is obvious. The population of the north primarily consumes wheat. Rice is the preference of the south, which is why south Indian biryanis often employ more intriguing varieties of rice than the north Indian fixation on basmati. Indeed, the biryani is often more intriguing in places with a rice-eating population. The biryanis of east Bengal (currently Bangladesh) are delectable but unjustly ignored, as is the mutton and potato biryani of Calcutta, which is adored by everyone who eats there but little known outside of Bengal.
And last but not least, there are the biryanis of Mumbai. We think of Gujaratis as an aggressively and exclusively Hindu community because of Narendra Modi. However, there are really a large number of Gujarati Muslims, each with their own cuisine. The Memons, Bohras, Khojas, and other Gujarati trading groups are also included. They each have their own unique style of biryani. The biryanis available in Mumbai’s dhabas and at street stands are significantly impacted by the Gujarati tradition and have nothing to do with any myths concerning the Mughal empire. However, we still view their biryanis as having descended from Tamerlane, etc.
Frequently, we overlook the fact that the trading communities maintained connections with the Middle East that were completely separate from the Delhi Sultanate, the Lodi dynasty, or the Mughals. Long before the invaders, Arab traders visited India. Their impact defined the Muslim cuisines of coastal areas. The Muslims of the Kerala coast, for example, had no connection to the Nizam of Hyderabad or any of the dynasties of northern India.
Their biryanis are almost completely dissimilar from those in Lucknow, and they use cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, and even star anise to give them their flavor. And lastly, there’s the age-old discussion regarding kachcha biryani, in which the rice is cooked with raw meat, and pukka biryani, in which the meat and rice are prepared separately before being put together and steamed for a few minutes to complete the dish. According to some purists, the only authentic biryani is a kachcha biryani. A genuine biryani is a pretentious pulao.
From Pratibha’s book and its collection of recipes, it is evident that the great majority of biryanis are pukka biryanis, even if this is an ancient disagreement that I don’t want to discuss here. Although the kachcha biryani is the most well-known biryani in Hyderabad, there are still a lot of pukka biryanis in the city.
As a result, I’m unsure if the purists are correct in omitting the biryanis of Muslim communities from outside Hyderabad from consideration.
This is the ideal book for you if you enjoy cooking since it isn’t written by a hotel chef or a professional cook, as is the case with most cookbooks. Because Pratibha prepares the majority of her meals at home, her recipes are simple for the average cook to follow.
One more thing: Before penning the inside jacket flap, someone at Random House should have given the book a thorough reading. The fact that the biryani’s origins are debatable is Pratibha’s main argument. (Where did the biryanis of south India originate? Was it the Mughals or Tamerlane? ) The most she is prepared to state is that it is “widely believed” that the Mughals were the originators of the biryani tradition. Therefore, why should Random House assert categorically that biryani “originated in the Mughal court, flowering in the jagirs of Avadh… “? Furthermore, the balance is off, despite the fact that I enjoyed the images. There are not enough pictures of the biryanis from the west, particularly the ones from Bombay and Gujarat.
Preparation time: 25-30 minutes
Marination time: 5-6 hours and cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Serves: 8-10
1 kg mutton, a mix of medium sized pieces from the goat’s shoulder, a few chops and a few marrowbones with some meat on; 1 tbs ginger paste; 1 1/2 tbs garlic paste; 1 tbs raw green papaya (skin and pulp together), ground fine A 4 onions, finely sliced; 15 green chillies, ground; 1/2 cup fresh green coriander, chopped; 1/3 cup mint leaves; 1 tsp garam masala; 500 gm yoghurt, whisked; juice of 3 limes 650 gm long grain rice; a liberal pinch of saffron soaked in 1/2 cup milk; 2 tbs ghee; 150 gm oil; salt
Method
1. Marinate the meat: Wash the meat and put it in a colander for the water to drain. Add ginger, garlic, and papaya paste. Mix and rub it well into the meat. Set it aside. Heat 150 gm oil. Add the sliced onions and fry till golden brown. Remove and allow to cool slightly, then crush the onions. Add the crushed onions and all the ingredients at A and salt to the meat. Also add the oil in which the onions were fried to the meat. Mix and leave to mari- nate for 5-6 hours.
2. Prepare the rice: Wash and soak the rice in water for about 20 minutes. Boil 3 1/2 litres of water with salt and 1 tsp of oil.
Once the water starts boiling, add the rice and cook for about 3 minutes till it is 20 per cent done. Drain the water and transfer the rice to a flat pan.
3. Assemble and serve: Take a heavy bottomed pan and transfer the marinated meat with the marinade to the pan. Start cooking on high flame, stirring continuously, till the contents come to a boil. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of water and when the dish starts to boil again, lower heat and spread the rice over the meat. Cover with a tight fitting lid and place a heavy stone on it to prevent the steam from escaping.
Cook on dum for about half an hour. Sprinkle the saffron milk over the rice and dot the rice with ghee. Cover once again with a tight fitting lid. Cook further on slow flame for about 15 minutes till the meat and rice are done and steaming hot. Take out the biryani in large chunks from the sides without mixing to retain its multi-hued glory. Serve steaming hot.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6
12 medium sized prawns, cleaned and deveined; juice of half a lime; 250 gm long grain rice; 3 onions finely sliced; 1 tsp garam masala A 1 tbs ginger paste; 1 tbs garlic paste; 1 tsp turmer- ic powder; 3 tsp red chilli power; 6 green chillies, slit; 4 dry whole red chillies 2 tomatoes chopped; 1/2 cup yoghurt, whisked; a few sprigs of fresh green coriander, chopped; a few mint leaves; 2 tbs ghee; 4-5 tbs thick cream; 50 gm ghee-oil, mixed; salt
Method
1. Marinate the prawns: Wash and drain the prawns. Mix the prawns with lime juice and a little salt and marinate for 5-10 minutes. Wash and drain the water and set aside.
2. Soak the rice: Soak rice in water for about 15- 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Cook the prawns: Heat ghee-oil in a heavy bot- tomed pan and fry the onions till golden brown. Add garam masala followed by all the ingredients at A, salt, and the prawns. Fry for about a minute, then add the chopped tomatoes and fry for 1-2 minutes.
Add yoghurt, salt, and about 1 glass of water and cook.
4. Assemble and serve: When the liquid gets re- duced by about 25 per cent, add rice, chopped co- riander and mint and mix. Also add a little water up to 1 inch above the surface of rice. Once the water starts to boil, cover and cook first on medium flame for 2-3 minutes and then on slow flame for about 15- 20 minutes till the rice is done. Top it with 2 tbs ghee, 4-5 tbs cream, then cover and let it stand for 5 min- utes. Open and serve hot.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 10-12
1 kg mutton, cut into medium sized pieces; 1 bay leaf; 4-5 cardamoms; 6 cloves; two 1-inch cin- namon sticks; 4-5 onions, chopped; 1 1/2 tbs ginger paste; 1 tbs garlic paste; 3 tomatoes chopped; 1 tsp red chilli powder; 1 tsp coriander powder; 1 tsp cumin powder; 3-4 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunky pieces; 1 kg rice; 1/2 tsp turmeric powder; juice of half a lime; 100 gm oil; salt
Method
1. Cook the meat: Wash the meat and put it in a colander for all the water to drain. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the whole spices, followed in a few seconds by the chopped onions. When the onions turn brown, add the ginger and garlic paste and in a few seconds add the tomatoes. When the tomatoes get soft and somewhat cooked after 4-5 minutes, add salt, red chilli, coriander and cumin powder fol- lowed by the meat. Mix and cook, stirring now and then till the spices become homogenous and the oil starts to surface. Add a little water, cover tightly, and cook for about 30 minutes till the meat is three-fourths done. At this stage, add the potatoes and cook further for another 10-15 minutes till the potatoes and the meat are done, leaving about 1 1/2 cups of gravy.
2. Prepare the rice: When the meat is cook- ing, boil 4-5 litres of water. Add salt, turmeric, and the juice of half a lime. When the water starts boiling, add the rice and cook for about 9-10 minutes till it is done. Drain the water.
3. Assemble and serve: Now place the meat in the middle of a flat pan (tawa), simmering on slow flame. Place the cooked rice around the meat. Take small portions of meat and rice, mix and serve hot accompanied by sliced onions and lemon wedges. The extra meat can be served on the side with the biryani.
