Lucknow food is inspired by Nawabs and only for the ones who have tasted the food know what a great taste the Nawabs had. Its the “Tehzeeb” or the culture and traditions of Lucknow that has us all enjoy the delicious cuisines even more. Kanpur has a lot of influence from the Lucknowi cuisine as well, specially for the Non vegetarian food.
The Nawabs of Lucknow were also ruling and settled in areas of Kanpur and therefore, after them the Khansamas also moved and settled in Kanpur. The good thing about moving to a new place is that you get to be more innovative with your recipe and the new ingredients helps you be more creative.
I believe food can be made with a lot of work, love, passion but, what makes the mark is the presentation of the dish, the words that describes the dish and most of all the person who cooks and serves. Nawabs have always been a people of nazakat and nawazish, and it flows in their cuisine.
This Biryani recipe is pretty simple and is great for beginners. The recipe is made in ghee which can be easily substituted with any oil you like. The recipe is rich, like most Nawabi cuisine.
Food and Purani Dilli go hand in hand. No person in this world can enter purani Dilli and come out hungry. The hustling Jama’a Masjid area or the area connecting to Chandni chowk or Sadar Bazaar offer food for all. whether you are a vegetarian or a non vegetarian, whether you are in mood for parantha or just a plate of kebab or plain simple juice/tea…You find them all.
Its a place where only the brave hearts can survive. I still remember my time in Purani Dilli as a kid and I used to hate being on the cycle riksha. It takes major skills to survive sitting on those small seats with bags and get through without falling each time the rikshawala applies break, which is just around 20 times a minute…LOLzzz. But, trust me, the food is worth more and you will find the trip an amazing experience.
If you do ever visit, do try the awesome non vegetarian restaurants opposite Jama’a Masjid and also ask the riksha wala to take you to paranthe wali gali. The lane has almost every parantha that exists and is a parantha heaven for every foodie.
Coming back to this Biryani. I believe the original recipe for this Biryani is definitely the Mughals trying the initial ways of cooking Biryani. My reasoning is comparing this dish to many rice and meat based dishes cooked in the Middle east, where in a similar manner the meat is 50% cooked and is tenderized using raw papaya or Vinegar and then the rice, which is only 20% cooked, is layered on top of the half cooked meat and the steam generated from cooking the meat cooks the rice. The recipe is pretty hassle free and simple.
If you still are confused with any step or would like to learn how to cook this dish, feel free to contact me.
Hyderabad is popular for its food, especially for the Biryani. But did you know that Hyderabad itself offers at least 100 varieties of Biryanis. And trust me, each Biryani is completely different in taste from the other. The cooking style, the spices and different times of adding the spice changes the complete taste and to understand that better, you have to be a Biryani lover like me.
This recipe is among one of my favorites, honestly I think they all are and it gets really hard to choose between them. My younger one loves the idea of having potatoes in his Biryani. I have no idea which side he gets it from because me or Mr. Parveez are strictly “meat lovers only” when it comes to our Biryanis and as much as my younger son loves Potatoes, he wouldn’t ever eat vegetable Biryani to save his life. Yupp!!! Its quiet funny . So, this Biryani is one of his favorites.
Korma is essentially , a yogurt based curry to which musk melon seeds, poppy seeds and cashew nuts have been added. It is to this curry that rice is added making the flavor amazing.
Its always worth trying a new flavor. Just make sure you read all the instructions and follow the steps strictly to enjoy the same taste as we did. You can always contact me if you miss out something or need help.
Hyderabad is the fist place that comes to our mind when we think of Biryani in India. But, did you ever know that Hyderabad itself makes numerous kinds of Biryanis and every Biryani differs from the other one.
Though I have never been to Hyderabad, I love the Biryanis that I try at different places. Hyderabadis love using coconut, poppy seeds and nuts in their Biryanis and while reading more about the authentic Biryani recipes, I found that khuskhus or poppy seeds make an important ingredient to one of the Biryanis. I felt the idea was different and the Biryani would come out slightly creamy since poppy seeds give creamy texture to a dish when added. Also, the fragrance of saffron and star anise is a beautiful touch to the dish.
I have always loved saffron. The fragrance, the flavor, the texture and the ability to bring out so much color to a dish is simply amazing. Unless you have used saffron, you’d never know how magical a few strands of this super expensive spice is.
Growing up, my mom always had abundance of this super expensive spice. My maternal grandmother would always send loads as gifts or bring them each time she would visit or when we visited her in UK. I have never seen my mom run out of saffron. So, my love for it has been before I entered the world of cooking. One of the most annoying things I did, once I started cooking was using saffron for making tea. My mother never liked it much but then the tea would be so amazingly delicious that she would forget to tell me off after a sip. It was much later when I realized how expensive saffron is and that it should be used sparingly. But even that didn’t make much of a difference to me using saffron. It sounds ridiculous, but I had my hubby buy 500 gms of saffron from Spice souk in Dubai…LOLzzz
So, finally I got things ready and decided to make the fabulous khuskhus Biryani. It was an instant hit. This Biryani is also great for people who do not like their Biryani too spicy. Though I have tried to make this Biryani in a simple manner so its easy for everyone to follow, but at times it gets a little complicated and therefore I wouldn’t recommend this to be your first Biryani. But, do eventually try it.
Every region has their own spices and generally their food has very prominent flavor of those spices, either individual or a mixture of the spices.
Coorg is a beautiful hill station in Karnataka. We visited Coorg in 2015 and the place just doesn’t have amazing scenic views, it also has one of the most beautiful Monastery that we have ever visited. Coorg serves wonderful coffee as well. Coorg has many coffee plantations and it offers coffee powder that is spiced up with cinnamon powder and cloves powder.
This Masala is a mixture of different spices and is used in Coorg Biryani and a few curries too. The masala is pretty easy to make and can easily be stored in an airtight container at a cool and dry place.
Biryani is a gift from the Mughals to India, but certain recipes are so purely Indian that when you try making them, you know that they are just inspired by Biryani as a cooking method and not really the recipe. Sometimes, when you cook these recipes by combining them, the final result comes out so fabulous that you question for not trying your hand on it before.
Chicken Tikka is and official tikka starter that I believe is the first kebab anyone tries when they try Chicken kebabs. And, Chicken Tikka Masala is a favorite chicken curry for all ages. My boys love Chicken tikka masala any day, any time.
So, One fine day I decided to take a step further and make Biryani with flavors of Chicken Tikka Masala. The curry is made with boneless chicken, but I chose to make Biryani with regular chicken with bones. So, if you choose to go boneless with this one, its fine too.
Though, I was a little nervous at first but the Biryani came out amazing. The taste is something every one who loves Chicken Tikka Masala would love and since we normally consume the curry with Naan, this being with Rice makes it taste super amazing.
Hyderabad is very popular for its Non vegetarian food, mainly Biryani. Hyderabad is the first place that comes to our mind when we think of good Biryani. When I started researching more about Biryanis, I found out the numerous Biryanis that Hyderabad offers, which are not just Non vegetarian but also vegetarian.
I have tried a variety of Hyderabadi Biryanis and each one is delicious and completely different from each other. The recipes also has “Baghare Baingan”, an eggplant dish cooked with peanuts and tamarind and “Khatte Baingan”, another recipe of eggplant, where eggplant is cooked with tomatoes and tamarind. Biryanis are served with different sides including Raita and Dalcha too.
Different Biryanis and different flavors, so much to try and everything so deliciously fantastic that picking one to be my absolute favorite is impossible.
While growing up, I had a distant family and once a year, every Eid to be precise, they would have a gathering at their place. The lady was from Delhi and a fantastic cook. The best thing was that she always made a dish, that was uncommon in our families. It was always some new variety that belonged to Delhi and other states. For many of you, who aren’t aware, the non vegetarian dishes cooked in one state of India differ completely from the ones cooked in another state, even if we are neighboring state. So, I was 12 and that was the first time I tried Achaari chicken curry.
Now, I am a big fan of Achaar/ pickle. When we got married, I would drive Mr. Parveez crazy with the amount of pickle I consumed. So, to a person like me, eating chicken in Achaar flavor was indeed food from heaven. I really laugh at myself when I remember how I got after my mother to find the recipe and make the dish, which she did and it was always one of favorites. But, the story doesn’t end here.
Now when I am all set to try out new recipes, one fine day I decided to make Biryani out of this masala. As much as the idea sounds absurd and crazy, the Biryani came out delicious. The yakhni has strong flavor of fennel seeds and fenugreek. Its isn’t sour as what usually pickles are, so don’t fear trying out this recipe imagining the taste of boiled rice and pickle, coz it isn’t the same taste. The spice level is medium and i have had loads of people who pick this one to be one of the first dishes they learnt how to cook from me.
Its one of my best food experiments ever. Please feel free to ask if you’d like to make it with mutton/fish.
Dawoodi Bohras are a Shia Muslim community. Most people from this community are settled India and Pakistan. As much as the people are loving, they are very generous hosts and love serving their guests to the best of their ability. We happen to have few friends from the community and we love their food.
My Mom had a best friend who passed away a few years ago and also happened to be a Bohri Muslim. She was a super fabulous cook and made amazing food and some of her recipes were just hard to make since, it missed out the flavors of her hand. I still remember tasting my first home baked bread at her house and the way she smothered the butter on the bread slice and I loved each bite of that slice. May her soul rest in peace.
So, with all the fabulous people around me, surprisingly no one cooked Biryani. Now, as a Biryani lover I had so much about how their families cooked Biryani in those Big “deg” [a big vessel made of copper or iron] but, they just couldn’t get down to following the hard recipe to make the same Biryani.
I have never met another crazy woman like me, who goes around collecting recipes from different places and communities. I bet sometimes people find that super annoying and honestly, after so much research I have lost the count to how many trials of different Biryanis I have done. Some got wasted since they weren’t so good. But, the collection I offer are from the best ones I made and they came out to be super delicious and fabulous.
Coming back to the Bohri Biryani. After a lot of research from different people, I made this Biryani which is as good as it can be from a Bohri family. Bohri Biryani uses Nutmeg and Mace. So, if its your preference to not use it, then its your personal choice but otherwise Bohri Muslims are allowed to consume both the spices. Do try it and if you miss out on anything or find anything confusing, feel free to ask.
This Biryani is from Bihar. I got the recipe while I was reading a book on Bihari cuisine by a famous chef who hails from the state. Its a shame, but Bihar isn’t very popular for its non vegetarian cuisine. Like, most of us, when we talk about Bihar’s cuisine, we do not go beyond Litti chokha. The fact is that Bihar offers some of the best recipes for kebabs and Biryani.
The flavors are pretty spicy, like the Bihari movies and for sure would make any Biryani lover super happy. Its one of best Biryani recipes and pretty easy for beginners too. You could always make a little change to the spice level to suit your taste buds. You could always ask for changes you’d like to make, if you aren’t too sure. After all, Biryani is a way big of a dish for anyone to mess up. You have to be very careful before you start.
