At the recent wedding in Kottayam which Annikki and I had the good fortune to attend, biriyani was served to the 6000 guests by India's most renowned biriyani maker. We were seated in tables of 8, and the piping hot biriyani serving plates, reflecting exactly how biriyani shoud be prepared and served, turned up simultaneously at the 800 tables in the Malayala Manorama compound.
There was not a single complaint, as even the vegetarian biriyani served up was of a class that was unmatched.
Rajen, my cousin, son of the illustrious Kerala Cookery expert, the late Mrs. K. M. Mathew, told me that some weeks before the event they had a dry run so as to see the quality of the biriyani. It had been a disaster as everything was wrong. The poor expert was chided. So he made the biriyani for the wedding day with a vengence to overcome his poor showing earlier.
Biriyani is a very specific dish. Although it may vary a little based on the locality, the aroma and the presentation will always be similar.
Here is a typical recipe to produce a biriyani (modified from Mrs. K. M. Mathew's book Modern Kerala Dishes published in 19779 - First Edition):
Chicken Birityani
Ingredients:
Method:
- Biriyani rice 6 cups level
- 2 medium tender chicken 1 kg
- Sultanas 1/ cup
Carrots and beans diced into 5 cm cubes and half cooked
Dalda and Ghee in equal proportion (or pure ghee) 1 and half cups
- Onions sliced thin and long 1/4 kg (3 cups)'
- Cloves 18
Cinnamon 6 pieces
Cardamoms 12
- Dry chillis ground 3/4 tablespoon
Coriander paste 1 tablespoon
Garlic paste 1 dessertspoon
Ginger paste 1 dessertspoon
Tumeric paste 1/2 tablespoon
- Tomatoes (medium) 3
- Curd 1 cup
- Salt to taste
- Coconut paste 3 dessertspoons
Cashewnut paste 1 dessertspoon
Green chillis 4
Mint leaves 3/4 cup
Coriander leaves 1/4 cup
Lime juice 1 dessertspoon
- Saffron Few strands
Cashewnuts Handful
Sultanas Handful
Burnt onion strips
- Kurma
Lightly fry sultanas in 1 and a quarter cups of ghee and remove. Add sliced onion and when it turns brown saute the spices. Saute the masala pastes adding one by one and then the tomatoes. Add the chicken cut into pieces and fry for a few minutes. Mix in the curd and the salt. Cook the kurma with the pan covered. When the meat is nearly done add the coconut paste mixed in half a cup of water followed by the rest of the ingredients in the ninth item. The kurma is ready when the meat is well-cooked and the gravy is about 2 cups.
- Rice
Parboil the rice in salted boiling water, drain and spread in a flat tray. Mix the sultanas, carrots and beans in the rice.
- Final preparation
Spread the meat from the kurma in an aluminium pan. Spread a layer of rice over it and pour the gravy. Cover with the remaining rice. Sprinkle the saffron, the cashew nuts and the browned onions on the top. Spread a wet cloth over the rice. Cover the pan and bake for an hour at 250 degrees Centigrade or place hot coal over and under the pan and keep for half an hour. The rice should not get too dry while final cooking.
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| From Jacob's Blog |
The picture depicts the importance of keeping the meat at the botton and putting a layer of rice, pouring the gravy and adding the rest of the rice is crucial. The result is a strata of beautiful colours of rice from aan almost white and beautiful gold at the top to a lovely golden brown at the bottom. Around the saffron you will see a lovely tinge of golden red. The garnishing with burnt onions and sultanas is usually accompanied by a hard boiled egg, whole or sliced.
When I lived in Bangalore, I used to attend the weddings of many of my Muslim friends. Always, the key of the wedding lunch or dinner was the biriyani, usually mutton, not chicken. The quality of this was outstanding. My dear friend and former partner, the late Mir Hafeez Hussain, son of the late Justice Mir Iqbal Hussan (famous when he headed the Devraj Urs Commission), used to take me to meet the special cooks who were called to make the biriyani. I used to enjoy watching them make such huge quantities, never sacrificing the quality. It was they that explained to me the secret of making an outstanding biriyani!
It is said the success of the marriage hinged on the quality of the biriyani served to the guests!
Recently, I ordered biriyani in an Indian Restaurant in Oulu. They served me a pot which was covered with fresh vegetables. I could not see what I thought would be the beautiful colours of the rice. There was no traditional smell of biriyani anywhere near my table! When I cut into the dish, what I got was a terrible mish mash of curry and rice hash. Certainly not a biriyani, but a goulash. Definitely not worth the € 14 they charged for the dish! Although they had obtained most of the spices, the preparation was certainly not a biriyani.
It would be better to take this off the menu if they are unable to prepare a genuine biriyani, as the colour layering of the rice from top to bottom and the wonderful aromatic smell of the saffron is the absolute essential of a biriyani.
Being the King of all Indian dishes, without the saffron and cashewnuts sprinkled on the top of the golden yellow rice, and visible, it cannot to be in one's faintest dreams, considered to be a biriyani.
