Hyderabad has numerous varieties especially when it comes to Biryanis. I have tried making a wide range of different styles of Hyderabadi Biryanis. Each one has its own distinct flavor and ingredients. I always love how beautifully the heritage of Nizams is displayed in Hyderabadi food.
The dishes are not just rich in ingredients but also the recipes show how rich the food culture has been with the Nizams. We always hear stories of how generous the Nizams were when it came to entertaining and welcoming their guests. How lavish their Dastarkhaan or tables were. The curries, Haleem, so many varieties of sweet dishes that are served with oodles of dry fruits and cooked in clarified Butter are evidence of how much effort the Nizams made their Khansamas/chefs put into food.
The Nizams were very influential. The history showcases the rich taste not just in Gems and Jewelry, but also in food. The use of Milk solids, Ghee, Dry fruits of different kinds is pretty common in most dishes. This dish has a paste of poppy seeds, cashews and coconut. Though the spice level isn’t too high, the Biryani uses a paste of green chilies and you can always increase the green chilies if you wish to make it spicier. Using Kewra with food color makes the Biryani smell rich and inviting as well. Besides that the Biryani is pretty easy to make. This dish is great for Beginners too. Enjoy!!!
Chicken as a curry is made in so many varieties that sometimes it amazes me how people from different regions in just one state make so many different dishes, with every dish varying in flavor from the other. The basis of making these curries are basically the availability of ingredients in that region.
I am from the northern west part of India, Rajasthan. Its a desert part so every time we make a Chicken curry, its mostly Yogurt based, which I think is because back in the days there weren’t many ways of getting any fresh vegetables, like Tomatoes and since water was always scarce, growing your own was difficult as well. Since there weren’t any fresh veggies, we barely have any Chicken dishes that are cooked with vegetables.
On the other hand, Mr. Parveez is from the southern part of India and there is loads of greenery and fresh vegetables are always available, so most of the dishes are tomato based and also use a lot of other green vegetables and thus we get loads of chicken curry which aren’t just protein rich but also have loads of fiber. Honestly, I feel my in laws eat very healthy. There is always a green veggie curry for morning breakfast and the lunch and dinner also comprises of green leafy vegetables cooked as a curry or mixed in with other veggies or Daal or cooked with Chicken or Meat.
This Chhilli Daal happens to be one such curry. These green beans are also known as Surti Papdi Lilva or Valor Lilva. We get the frozen pack here and they aren’t much big in size either. Addition to that, I also have to clean and peel it when I bring them home which is a tedious job. I guess I feel it more because in India, they are bigger in size, more flavorful and on top of everything they are peeled by the vegetable vendors which makes it so convenient.
This Chicken curry is just so delicious and nutritious, one of my Mother in law’s favorite as well and honestly, mine too. This is my mother in law’s recipe, only that I made some changes to it which she loves as well, I just made it more greener and nutritious. The curry has Fried onions that are further cooked with Ginger garlic paste and spices. Once the Chicken is added, wait till its half cooked, add in the daal/beans and further add the Tomato-coconut puree and cook further for a few minutes. Usually at this point the original recipe for this curry is concluded. But the changes I made to the recipe are that I added methi leaves/ fenugreek leaves and Dill leaves. With Methi, I add fresh if I have it and if not then I use Kasoori Methi. In both cases, the flavor of the dish is not compromised. Serve it with Plain boiled Rice or Roti or Parantha. We love it all ways and I am sure you will too. This is something different and completely worth trying. Enjoy!!!
Halwa Poori is a traditional Bangalore dish, popularly made by Muslim
families specially during weddings. During a wedding, a no. of food items go
from the Bride’s side to the Groom’s side, which also includes Halwa Poori.
There are also numerous occasions when they are made at home, but they kind of
always need a special reason. I have no idea where the tradition came from, but
it does have a little Mughlai influence and that’s why the traditions are
carried on by Muslim families.
The reason probably is also because it a tedious job making them, requires
time and effort and usually made in a large batch too. When made, its always
distributed among relatives, friends and neighbors. When I first saw Halwa
Poori, it reminded me of Diwali Gujiya and honestly I have never been a fan of
Gujiya. I always found them too coconuty and I also felt that it was always too
dry and the dry coconut would start falling out if not careful. I also felt
that if there was something that was nicer, softer and sweeter and Halwa Poori
seemed to be a perfect answer to it.
Halwa is made of Chana daal, coconut, Khoya, Milk and sugar cooked together
in ghee/ Oil. The poori is made from All purpose flour. The halwa is filled in
the poori and then sealed and fried. The traditional recipe is great and
awesome if you are serving a large no. of people in a day or two. After that
they kind of get a little mushy unless you keep them in a perfect airtight
container.
When I started making Halwa Poori, it always is great in taste. And then I decided to bring a little twist to this recipe and instead of the regular dough, I switched to Puff pastry dough. So there is also a recipe with Halwa Puff Pastry. And, for the Halwa, I can make and refrigerate it for up to 15-20 days. The Halwa can also be eaten minus the poori or puff pastry.
I hope you enjoy making this as much I do..Its definitely a great recipe.
Halwa Poori is a traditional Bangalore dish, popularly made by Muslim families specially during weddings. During a wedding, a no. of food items go from the Bride’s side to the Groom’s side, which also includes Halwa Poori. There are also numerous occasions when they are made at home, but they kind of always need a special reason. I have no idea where the tradition came from, but it does have a little Mughlai influence and that’s why the traditions are carried on by Muslim families.
The reason probably is also because it a tedious job making them, requires time and effort and usually made in a large batch too. When made, its always distributed among relatives, friends and neighbors. When I first saw Halwa Poori, it reminded me of Diwali Gujiya and honestly I have never been a fan of Gujiya. I always found them too coconuty and I also felt that it was always too dry and the dry coconut would start falling out if not careful. I also felt that if there was something that was nicer, softer and sweeter and Halwa Poori seemed to be a perfect answer to it.
Halwa is made of Chana daal, coconut, Khoya, Milk and sugar cooked together in ghee/ Oil. The poori is made from All purpose flour. The halwa is filled in the poori and then sealed and fried. The traditional recipe is great and awesome if you are serving a large no. of people in a day or two. After that they kind of get a little mushy unless you keep them in a perfect airtight container.
Initially when I started making Halwa Poori, t was hard to make them for just the two of us, Mr. Parveez and me. Making 10 would be more than enough and would last us more than a week and usually by day 2 we would be dead bored and didn’t feel like eating more. So, this is when I felt that the Halwa poori needs a twist and I changed it to halwa Puff Pastry. The good thing about that is that I can always make the dough for puff pastry and keep it in my freezer. And, for the Halwa, I can make and refrigerate it for up to 15-20 days. This way we make the puff pastry whenever we want, eat them warm and fresh and we can also use the Halwa as just halwa minus the poori or puff pastry.
I hope you enjoy making this as much I do..Its definitely a great recipe.
I belong to Rajasthan and I love almost all dishes that are from Rajasthan. Though Jodhpur, my home town is very popular for its Laal Maas, but its also very well known for its “asli ghee mein bani dishes”. One of my all time favorite is Malai Kofta. My home town, Jodhpur has some super amazing small restaurants that serve super delicious Malai Kofta. These restaurants are so small that they will never show up on a google map, but a true Jodhpuri knows how to get around and satisfy their taste buds.
Growing up, I loved going to all those restaurants, it was just so much fun and now, every time I visit my hometown, I revisit all these restaurants for the love of my hometown food. this is the closest I could get to the Malai Kofta flavor of Marwar.
“Har Khana kuchh kehta hai…Kuchh meethi yaadein…kuchh kisse…har bachpan ke unchuhe hisse…”
Every dish has a story…some beautiful memories…some childhood stories that you remember with every flavor….This dish belongs to my better half’s, Mr. Parveez’s hometown, Bengaluru. The name has been derived from Tamilian word “Chaaru” that stands for curry.
Living in USA, we Indians learn how to substitute few ingredients with what we have back home to what’s available in our grocery store. So, one day I found a new addition to our local grocer’s Veggie section. Like a little happy child in candy land, I called up my husband informing him about the drumstick leaves, asking him if they can be used.
You might find it extremely funny to read, but I normally text and call him when I am at grocery store. I actually became pretty popular among workers at the store since they always see me clicking pictures and texting someone [my husband] and then come back to the section to pick what I clicked. I really don’t know what kind of husbands take their wives calls in one time because it never happens with me. I usually get a call back after 5 minutes, with a patent dialogue “phone was on silent” or “Dekha nahi” [I didn’t pay attention] or a text back saying “meeting”. And as much as I feel that he should attend me before the rest of the world, I let it go…LOLzzz… Not really, the poor guy works very hard and I know if it isn’t work, he would make sure he talks to me first.
Ohh sorry, the story took a sweet romantic turn, lets get back to the main story. So, I call him all happy that I found drumstick leaves and he got super excited and asked me to buy them.
Once home, he asks me to make this dish which we normally make with spinach [equally flavorful, though]. This dish is healthy and its great for diets or low carb diets. The good thing about this dish is that this two dishes in one. This dish gives out a dry dish and a liquid daal type dish that makes it easy to eat with Rice and parantha/phulkas.
With each bite, he remembered his childhood of how his mother prepared this from the fresh leaves plucked from the neighbor’s tree….childhood flavors stay for life.
While I am always on a lookout for new Biryanis that have been made since the invention of this awesome dish, some recipes are just so fascinating that when you read about how they were cooked in olden days, its just hard to not try cooking them.
The land of Hyderabad offers so many varieties of Biryanis and this Biryani happens to be one of the delicious Biryanis that it offers. The Nawabs are always known to have food that is rich. Using cashews and poppy seeds not only adds a lot of flavor to a dish but also makes the yakhni very creamy and rich.
Biryani is inspired by cuisines from Persia. Recipes that have cashews and poppy seeds resemble the closest since the Mughlai recipes had loads of dry fruits and nuts added to their cuisine. Down south, Hyderabad serves the most Biryanis. This recipe is not like Hyderabadi dumm Biryani and not too spicy either but the taste is still lovely and the flavors are divine.
I am from North of India, Rajasthan, to be precise. There was just one kind Biryani that my mom made, similar masalas with either mutton or chicken and always served with Boondi Raita. Once I got married, everything changed. I got introduced to the real Biryani world. Getting married to a family who are vaguely connected to the Mughals [believe me] and a good food loving family.
I got introduced to not just varieties of Biryanis, that are almost close to the language dialects of our country with basic ingredients being the same, while spices, marination time and other requirements change and the result each time is fabulous biryani with different taste, leaving you craving for a new and different biryani every time.
So, coming back to Biryani accompaniments, I also discovered new side dished for Biryani, like Khatte Baingan, Cucumber Raita, Onion Tomato Raita, Dahi ki chutney, Mirch ka salan and Dalcha. Earlier, Mr. Parveez would always make Dalcha when I made Biryani. He took a lot of pride and would always be more than happy showing off his cooking skills, specially since its one of the few things that only he made. Until one day, my high tech husband had a last minute work call and he came out with the secret recipe and I made it…Its easy, thought you might find it difficult the first time but you get the hang of it and trust me, it makes you perfect Biryani outstanding.
