Aambur, is a town in the district of Vellore in Northern Tamil Nadu. Its a signature Biryani is made originally from zeera sambha rice.
As the story goes, Ambur/Vaniyambadi biryani is a type of biryani cooked in neighboring towns of Ambur & Vaniyambadi in the Vellore district in the north-eastern part of Tamil Nadu, which has a high Muslim population. It was introduced by the Nawabs of Arcot who once ruled the place. There are also some stories that believe that Mughal soldiers once while they were down in the southern region of India, craved Biryani and ended up with this recipe as they had to make up their favorite dish with locally available spices and rice, hence the use of Zeera sambha.
The Ambur biryani is accompanied with ‘dalcha’, khatte baingan curry or raitha. It has a distinctive aroma and is considered light on the stomach. The usage of spice is moderate and curd is used as a gravy base. It also has a higher ratio of meat to rice.
Now continuing with my story, as most of you who follow me know that I love tryong new recipes of Biryani. So this one day, while watching an Indian TV channel, my hubby, Mr. Parveez came across a restaurant serving Ambur Biryani and it happened to be a Friday morning, [every Friday without a miss, I cook biryani for dinner] and he facetimes me from his office while I am out for grocery shopping, “Baccha , can you look up for Ambur Biryani and make that today?”
While I am always happy to try something new, I also get upset if I have to rearrange my shopping list. To my surprise, when I found the recipe, it didn’t use any fancy ingredients and I basically had them all at home. Making the Biryani was so easy, that I looked through the recipe twice after being done to make sure I wasn’t missing on anything. Its definitely pleases the crowd and easy to make too. So, if you are a Biryani fan like me, this is a must try.