Mom’s Famous Biryani

In our family and friends, my mom has become famous for her biryani recipe. While cooking is traditionally known as a “girl's activity” among Pakistanis, I have an immense curiosity to learn, especially when it comes to “making”. Due to this, I started cooking at a very young age. Starting off with simple things like eggs and moving onto more difficult dishes like Hakka chili chicken and different types of Pakistani curries.

As no one else in my family has taken much interest in cooking, I have become the de facto sous-chef amongst the Ahmeds.

Why hasn’t anyone else learned this recipe?

Nobody cares

First and foremost, because nobody else really cares. Everyone thinks my mom will keep cooking and when she stops, we’ll eat biryani made by someone else (wives, sisters, etc. since only women are allowed to cook, obviously). However, to me, my mother’s specific recipe is much better than anyone else’s (sorry to any aunties reading this), so, I felt that it must be passed down and become a legacy for our family.

Nobody can cook

Secondly, I am the only person in our family who has taken any genuine interest in cooking. My sister is basically allergic to the kitchen (quite ironic for a traditional Pakistani household) and my brother can cook to survive as he lived alone for university. However, he doesn’t have any particular interest in it to learn exquisite dishes. My father falls in the same category as my brother. My wife is a wild card at the moment as we currently do not live together, so, we’ll see if she takes the same interest as me.

The recipe isn’t a recipe

Thirdly, like most Pakistani mothers (and chefs in general), my mother doesn’t cook through “recipes”. She doesn’t have a set formula to cook biryani, she doesn’t measure out ingredients and she doesn’t even know what most ingredients are called (in English at least). For this reason, in order to learn how to make her biryani, you would have to cook it with her a few times and learn by doing. Without an interest in cooking, nobody has time for that.

What did I do?

As I mentioned, the only way to learn this “recipe” is by doing and repetition. However, I wanted to try and change that. I learned by asking my mom to show me how to make the biryani and spending the required hours with her, watching how it’s made, and asking questions. After this, I asked her to let me make it and to be on stand-by with me to correct any mistakes. Once I had done this, I was confident in making it on my own and was able to do so.

What I did differently throughout this process was document all the steps, ingredients, and quantities to the best of my ability. As with any complex dish, a recipe will never do you justice as you have to learn what we call andaza in Urdu. This roughly translates to “approximate estimation” and in a cooking context it means the ability to know, through experience; the quantities of ingredients, cooking time, etc. This documentation serves as a way for this recipe to be passed down more easily, however, it will never be made as it should be unless taught by someone who was taught by someone else back to my mother. The chain probably goes back even further to my grandmother and to her mother etc. I’ll probably be the first male on this chain which is exciting.

An interesting side note about this chain concept is; the hadith (sayings) of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH (Peace Be Upon Him) are also transmitted to us in the same way. There are scholars in today’s time who know the chains of many ahadith from themselves back to the Prophet PBUH. (i.e. They know all the names of the people who narrated the hadith from the Prophet PBUH to them)

The Recipe

Biryani consists of three distinct steps:

1. Korma (Meat Curry)
2. Rice
3. Layering

For this reason, everything will be divided into these sub-categories.

This specific recipe will serve about 12 people and you can divide or multiply the quantities as required for a smaller or larger serving size (Biryani is not intended to be made for a single serving). Also, all ingredient quantities are rough, I’ve never used a measuring cup to make Biryani (you’d probably get laughed at if someone saw you measuring stuff out for Biryani). I will also provide Urdu names for ingredients that I’m not sure of names in English.

Ingredients

Korma

• 1/2 cup oil (vegetable or sunflower)
• 400 mL of 3% Yogurt (about 1/2 of a generic carton)
• 1 pack of Shan Sindhi Biryani Masala (Shan is common masala brand)
• 1 pack of National Korma Masala (National is common masala brand)
• 4 lbs. veal with bone (cut into chunks)
• 4-5 regular sized onions
• 4-5 Cardamom pods
• 2 Dried red button chillies
• 3-4 tablespoons of ginger-garlic paste
• 3 curry leaves
• 1L water
• 4-5 potatoes (optional)

Rice

• 6 cups Basmati rice
• 15 cups water
• Salt (maybe 1/3 cup?)
• 4-5 Cardamom pods
• 4-5 Black cardamom pods (Baree elaichi)
• 1/4 cup black cumin seeds (Kala zeera)
• 2-3 Star anise (Badyan ka phool)
• 1/5 cup peppercorn
• 1/4 vinegar (can be substituted with lemon juice)

Layering

• 4-5 sliced tomatoes
• 10-15 mint leaves
• 2 pinches orange food coloring
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 4-5 drops Kewra essence (can be found in international aisle)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 lemon
• 8-9 Green chilis

Utensils

Most of the utensils required for making biryani should be available in the common household kitchen, however, I will mention them here anyway:

• 2 large pots, 3-5 liters in volume
• Large oven safe dish with a lid (the ones used by caterin services)
• Aluminum foil
• Strainer
• Oven and Stove
• Large metal or wood spoon to stir with

Steps

Korma

1. Add oil to a large pot on high heat
2. Once the oil starts to let off smoke, add all the onions (julienned), button chilli, cardamom and curry leaves
3. Cook the onion mixture until it starts to give off a nice smell and have slightly started to change color (do not let them start to brown)
4. Add all the meat
5. Cook until meat starts to change to grey-ish color
6. Add ginger-garlic paste
7. Mix both of the masala packets into the yogurt and add to the pot
8. Add the 1L of water
9. Cook on med-high heat until meat is tenderized and almost completely evaporated (should be very little liquid gravy, about 1.5 hours)
10. Remove the meat to a separate container and cook potatoes in the gravy until slightly softened (if you want potatoes), add the meat back in afterwards

Rice

1. Rest rice in 8 cups of water to clean off any starch on them (1-2 hours, should be done prior to cooking)
2. Add water to the second large pot on high heat
3. Add salt, black and regular cardamom, black cumin seeds, star anise and peppercorn to the water
4. Let the water start to boil
5. Strain the rice and add it to the water
6. Add vinegar/lemon juice
7. Let the rice cook until 75% done (rice has just started to enlarge but is not puffy; use discretion)

Layering

1. Preheat oven to 390 F
2. In a small bowl, mix food coloring, kewra, milk, garam masala and a little bit of oil
3. In the large oven-safe dish, drizzle some of the korma oil on the bottom of the dish (enough to coat the bottom)
4. Add a small layer of rice (just enough to cover the bottom, 1/6 of the total?) (Layer 1)
5. Layer coriander, chilis and 3/4 of the tomatoes (sliced) on top of Layer 1 (Layer 2)
6. Layer half of the korma (Layer 3)
7. Layer two-thirds of the rice (Layer 4)
8. Layer the remaining tomatoes and mint (Layer 6)
9. Layer the remaining rice (should be very little left, about as much as the first layer) (Layer 7)
10. Drizzle the food color mixture on top as well as lemon juice if you feel you may have overcooked the rice (prevents the rice from breaking)
11. Optional: Drizzle some raw Shan Sindhi Biryani Masala on top if you feel the korma did not have enough masala
12. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and the lid (must be air-tight)
13. Bake for roughly 30 mins to 1 hour (until your whole house smells lovely)
14. Remove from the oven and mix with a large spoon (be careful not to break the rice, dig the spoon to the bottom and flip to the top)

Enjoy with yogurt mixed with water, salt, black pepper, and garam masala (commonly known as raita)! You can also have some onions julienned with lemon juice as a garnish.