Bittman does Biryani

[Monica Bhide]

Mark had done a sweet piece on Biryani today for the NYTIMES

Here is the link Under the lid, New Delhi

[Vikram]

Am I the only person in the world who finds Biriani a somewhat overrated dish? Of course, I realise that this is partly because its so badly prepared so often.

Its such a standard big occasion dish - I shudder to think how many birthday parties and impromptu drinking sessions I went through in my youth where the only food item was usually a big pot of entirely indifferent biriani - that every restaurant will make a version and make it badly.

Further antagonism was probably bred at innumerable press lunches and media dinners which, as a journalist, I have been fated to attend. There is a particularly gruesome line-up at these events - paneer makhani, kala dhal, vegetable jalfarezi, and so on, with a bulky tray of biriani glowering in one corner.

Possibly these commercial birianis are bad is because there's too much temptation to skimp on ingredients by reusing whatever's lying around. I am always suspicious of these big messy throw everything into the pot dishes - you're given a salespitch of 'hearty and warming', in practice its usually 'stale and reused'.

But even when this isn't the case, when the biriani has been made from scratch by a good cook, too often I find the result greasy, messy and, my real complaint - monotonous. There is little real play of flavour and too much damn rice. I actually like plain rice, I love the delicate flavour of real aged basmati. But you don't get it here, its all overwhelmed by the spices, and yet there's too much rice to give it the interest of a main course.

Perhaps there are lesser known birianis that are better. Madhur Jaffrey describes a really delicious sounding one in her latest book that's made with raw meat from the start. I can remember a misty morning on the road up the Yercaud hills where we relished packets of vegetable biriani picked up a few hours back in Salem town below.

And the birianis I almost like the most are the delicate birianis of Hyderabad as eaten in old restaurants near Charminar. They have an understated, dry elegance that almost wins me over to birianis, but never quite. What do others feel? Do they really like it or are they just pretending?

vikram

[babka]

Further antagonism was probably bred at innumerable press lunches and media dinners which, as a journalist, I have been fated to attend. There is a particularly gruesome line-up at these events - paneer makhani, kala dhal, vegetable jalfarezi, and so on, with a bulky tray of biriani glowering in one corner.

man, I wanna be a journalist in India. here in the U.S., we get stale bread coated with limp iceberg lettuce, a cardboard tomato slice, and a roll of slimy turkey, with little foil packets of chemicals posing as mayonnaise and sugar-choked disks with dark chunks of sugar masquerading as chocolate on the side.

oh, and the world's smallest diet coke bottles. Served warm.

Edited January 21, 2004 by babka (log)

[Toasted]

I have to agree with you that most restaurant biryani's are boring. When I

make biryani at home I use a recipe from "Sunday's at the Moosewood

Restaurant" that is very good. I always tend to use less rice than suggested

too.

[mongo_jones]

And the birianis I almost like the most are the delicate birianis of Hyderabad as eaten in old restaurants near Charminar. They have an understated, dry elegance that almost wins me over to birianis, but never quite. What do others feel? Do they really like it or are they just pretending?

vikram

hyderabadi biryanis are my favorite biryanis too. you don't have to be in hyderabad to get them though--the matka pir folks in delhi do an amazing job too.

i also like malabar biryanis.

but the soggy, take-meat-curry-and-rice-and-bake-them together biryanis i can do without. this, sadly, is almost entirely what's available in the u.s.

[trillium]

I've had some godawful ones at functions and even cabbie restaurants. I make my friend's mum's biryani. They're Gujarati by way of Bombay and it's the raw spiced lamb baked with rice version. I don't know if that falls under the curry with rice section. It's pretty damn good, but a lot of work because I fry the crisped onions you mix with the meat myself instead of buying them pre-made. The Singaporean in the house waxes nostalgic all the time about biryani in S'pore. It's some south Indian chicken version and comes with a seperate thing of "gravy" that he's wondering if it's some sort of riff of off eggplant sambar. Every Indian Singaporean recipe we've tried hasn't been "it".

regards,

trillium

[mongo_jones]

I've had some godawful ones at functions and even cabbie restaurants. I make my friend's mum's biryani. They're Gujarati by way of Bombay and it's the raw spiced lamb baked with rice version. I don't know if that falls under the curry with rice section. It's pretty damn good, but a lot of work because I fry the crisped onions you mix with the meat myself instead of buying them pre-made. The Singaporean in the house waxes nostalgic all the time about biryani in S'pore. It's some south Indian chicken version and comes with a seperate thing of "gravy" that he's wondering if it's some sort of riff of off eggplant sambar. Every Indian Singaporean recipe we've tried hasn't been "it".

regards,

trillium

the classic hyderabadi biryani comes with a side of "korma" or gravy. sometimes also with mirch ka salan.

[BBhasin]

I will take a good biryani any day. Wonderful subltle flavors with chunks of meat done just right, each grain of rice long and seperated, infused with gentle flavors of the goat, spices, safron and kewra. Dotted with nuts and raisins, with flecks of caramalized onion,mint and fresh corriander. A little kachumbar and some boondi raita on the side and it's heaven right here!

After that mouthful I have to confess though, that not all my attempts have resulted in such a praiseworthy product. Many a time I have toiled long and hard only to be rewarded with a mush of rice or undercooked and tough meat which has resulted only in my greater respect for a good biryani and high regard for those who do it for a living and have mastered it to get it right every time.

bhasin

[mongo_jones]

i should add that the bengali muslim biryani is also amazing. almost completely dry with the flavor of the meat and fried onions, plus some pods of black cardamom and a little tamarind, infusing the grains of basmati.

[v. gautam]

Vikram,

This demented creature, having just posted a huge bunch of nonsense elsewhere on this forum, dare not torment friends with its lunacy for a long while here. But before dying, I pray that I get to meet you and Mongo in person. Want to go over the minutiae of Kolkata non-Bengali Muslim Biriyani point by point, cuts of meat, texture of fat, soaking of rice, texture [yes] of yakhni, use of khoa, mace and white pepper; will take minimum of 2 hours, at which point, you both will be forced to strangle me [smile], and I shall die happy, having passed on the torch. Dear friend, from an epicure such as you, “too much rice” is a non-sequiter (spelling?).

Gautam.

P.S. Bittman’s dish appears to be a pulao; Punjab is renowned for its chicken pulao, but that not biriyani. Would it be permissible to suggest that only chevon or lamb enters a biriyani, not poultry? As well, without the saffron-kewra, mace-nutmeg, cassia leaf-white pepper, shahzeera-khoya duets in the overall symphony, the undertones buttressing the overtones of cardamom-clove –cassia and meat fat, the richness cut by alu bokhara [sour plums], aged ghee and gelatinous [but not mushy meat, the fat especially not completely custardy but balanced on the cusp of doing so] etc.etc. defines this work of art and technique.

Without meaning to offend, I would venture that Bittman's recipe is symptomatic of that disturbing trend that trivializes biriyani until nothing is left of it original self; here we have frozen foods labeling themselves “chicken biriyani OVER brown rice”; a very sad day.

Edited January 24, 2004 by v. gautam (log)

[mongo_jones]

But before dying, I pray that I get to meet you and Mongo in person.

and I shall die happy, having passed on the torch. Dear friend, from an epicure such as you, “too much rice” is a non-sequiter (spelling?).

Gautam.

well, meeting me may speed the passing...

but why all this talk tonight of passing on and passing on the torch? in any case i am supremely unqualified to receive it. vikram, maybe but certainly not me (and this isn't false modesty--just the unvarnished facts). i do hope, and i'm sure i speak for everyone here, you'll continue to expose us to more of your knowledge about the histories, geographies and political economies of bengali food.

[v. gautam]

mongo, dear friend,

bhanaye buddhu gautama, atishaya kAtara, dayA jAni nA chorobi moye;

Have you seen the old movie, Vidyapati, in both the Maithil and Bengali versions, with Kananbala'a songs? The thought of your Maithil retaainer and his litties {darbhanga = dvara-banga, as may know] brings this line to mind, especially useful re: zakat. Please treat bouma to this movie, and please persuade her to post her own take of he experiences in India!!!!

regards.