Thursday, April 12, 2007

Biryani. Awesome. Period.



There is an Indian dish that has been lauded through the ages,
one that
each Indian gourmet will swear is unattainable except
in a certain part of
a certain city in India. The cities most often
mentioned
in this context are
varied - Bombay, Hyderabad and
Kashmir
, etc. with an occasional mention
of Poona/Pune by
those seasoned travelers who claim to be 'in the know'.

Just as there are those who swear by their New York, Neapolitan,
Sicilian or
Chicago Pizza, so it is with Biryani. Opinions about
this dish and its worldwide
incarnations are varied and frequently
passionate.


Wikipedia, if it is to be trusted, says the Hyderabadi version
is the
most popular in Southern Asia but also mentions Iraqi, Thai,
Burmese and
Pakistani variations. Naturally no one particular version
can claim to be the
best since the whole experience is tied to the
individual palate; if there
is one thing that all the gourmets seem to agree
on, it's that this is a dish
to be served only on very special occasions.
So the headliner on the menu at
South Asian weddings, Birthdays,
VIP receptions, etc., is almost always Biryani
or a variation of it.
Nothing else seems to fit the bill (speaking in a non-veg context
here).
The same dish respectfully offered to satisfy the palates of the Mughals

also thrived under the British Raj and beyond.

There are thousands of Food Blogs that will describe meals like this
in glowing
terms while providing the recipe, so I will refrain from using
terms like
'succulent', 'slow-roasted' or 'intensely aromatic' and I will
only say one thing
about the ingredients : there are the standard Asian
spices, with Saffron showing
up more often than not, and either
Chicken, Mutton, Shrimp or Vegetables all layered with
long-grain Rice
( preferably Basmati).

My favorite Biryani is the Irani version which includes Potatoes
and
Yogurt, the kind I grew up on from Dorabjees in Pune.

I set out with this post to offer a review about Dorabjees' Biryani but
a little research led me to this excellent page by different authors about
Pune Restaurants at Virtual Tourist.com
. Someone had written a rave
review as I might have written it years ago ! Just goes to show how the
traditional method of preparation remains virtually unchanged through
the ages. End of post, except I'd like to leave you with a few
Biryani Links
:

The Cooks Cottage
My favorite Blogger from Pune who writes, photographs and cooks
all in her own unique style.

Once Upon a Feast
Features a
Mughlai Lamb Biryani recipe by world-renowned Chef,
Author and Actress
Madhur Jaffrey

Gits Vegetable Biryani Mix

Marketed by Mukhtar Tejani, a classmate from my old school and
college days, this is for those folks who are in a hurry or intrigued
enough to attempt this somewhat non-traditional approach. I like to
think of Gits as the leader in worldwide distribution of Pune in a packet.

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