Legacy of the Royal Biryani Continues in India

The Mongolian invasion in India around the 13th century brought with it one good thing, that is they introduced the Indians to the Persian and Afghan food culture.  It is one of the world’s most loved food cuisines that is popular throughout the globe. Bringing about the taste of the royals, Behrouz biryani offers are something you must look out for. The combination of this cuisine along with the Indian ‘tadka’ marked the beginning of the legacy of biryani.  Along with the biryani there came kormas, kebabs, koftas, pulao and much more. It started from the royal kitchen of the Muslim kingdoms of Nizams and Nawabs. Since then there was no looking back. With India’s own tastes and food cultures, there started biryanis of different taste and types. It is believed that there are 50 distinct kinds of biryanis in India itself full of rich aromatic spices.

Although the exact origin of this recipe is lost in time, some believe that it existed even before India did. That is during when Babur ruled, even before the Mughal empire in India. Some people also believe that it was during the period of king Timor, who is known as Tamerlane who brought it down from Kazakhstan via Afghanistan to the Northern India. During the Nizams and the Nawabs period, the cooks never revealed the recipe of their biryani. It was always kept as their secret. So cooks from different places started making their own versions of the dish. This lead to the existence of various types of biryani present in India. The taste and ingredients used to make biryani in Hyderabad are slightly different than the one prepared in Lucknow and Kolkata.

Preparing a plate of biryani is considered some serious art and “culinary masterpiece”! To make the perfect biryani you need to have a lot of patience and cooking skills.  To make biryani that creates magic you must gather these following ingredients: kewra water rose petals, rose water, mint leaves, jasmine flowers, lemon, milk and saffron. These are the essential items you must have for that magical aroma and flavour that any perfect biryani brings out. The most important factors that determine the making of a quality biryani are that it must have the right amount of rice, heat, vessel shape and right cut pieces of the meat. The meat used must be succulent from the thighs of a male goat as well as bones cut into larger pieces. The meat that was used initially are that of peacock, partridge, deer, boar and hare. But later with time, chicken, turkey, prawns, lamb, beef, vegetables, mushrooms and fish replaced them.  The steam used to make the biryani must be its own with a tight lid and additionally sealed with a wheat-flour dough. The spices used must be just about right. It is one of the determining factors of making biryani. The combination of the aromas of spices, mint leaves, ghee, basmati rice is magical.