Biryani is my second most beloved dish at Indian restaurants, so I was hell-bent on cooking it myself before my month with
Indian Cooking was through. Jaffrey says that
Lamb and Rice Casserole (Mughlai Lamb Biryani) (pg 204)
is usually served at feasts, but I figured it being Saturday was a good enough excuse. It had to be on a Saturday, because it took allllll daaaaay looooong to make. I won't give you the blow by blow. Just know that it is a lengthy process. Not exceptionally labor intensive, but involving periodic measuring, seasoning, and browning, then leaving things to soak or simmer or bake for 1-3 hours, depending upon the step.
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| The eggs didn't jive with the rest of the flavors, in my opinion. |
I'm certain that this did not come out as it was meant to. The rice was mushy. It's not supposed to be. I'm not sure what went wrong. I followed the nerve-wrackingly precise instructions to a T (soak for 3 hours, drain, rinse, boil rapidly for exactly six minutes, then
quickly pile the rice on top of the lamb, drizzle a saffron/milk mixture and browned onions over the top, cover, and bake for an hour.) Maybe I wasn't quick enough. All I know is that the rice was fully cooked after it's 6 minutes of boiling, and baking it for an hour after that turned it into pudding. Jaffrey said to use long grain rice. I interpreted that as normal white long grain rice. I'm wondering if I was meant to use some heartier type that takes longer to cook?
If this dish came together in an hour, I may not have minded the result. This took four hours. For that type of time commitment, I expect it to work. The flavors were delicious, but the consistency of that rice really ruined things for me.
Conclusion: Just okay. I won't make this again. Biryani is restaurant food, not home food.
I am pretty sure the long grained rice is basmati, not US white rice, as basmati is really integral to a biryani dish. I would not be discouraged -if you like Biryani- just try again with basmati and don't bake it as long. If you are cooking from an Indian cookbook you might as well learn how to make Indian basmati rice perfectly- that is half the recipe in many cases. http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/basmati/
ReplyDeleteI would agree that it was supposed to be basmati rice, except that in other recipes, when she wants basmati, she specifies basmati, and in some she says "long grain or basmati", so I know she's not using the two interchangeably. Maybe it was a typo.
DeleteWhat was the brand of rice you used?
DeleteSorry this wasn't quite what you wanted it to be :-(
ReplyDeleteI have never had biryani...Sorry it wasn't what you expected! The dish sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThat's one thing I've noticed about Indian food. Even making butter chicken takes several hours. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer Ei. Especially for your favourite. 6 minutes seems like an awfully short amount of time for your rice to be fully cooked. Perhaps try a brown rice? That takes FOREVER in my opinion. Might change the flavour too much? Doesn't altitude change how fast rice cooks? I might be making that up and even if it is true not sure what effect that would have with you.
ReplyDeleteWell, the rice soaked for three hours, then boiled for 6 minutes, so the soaking did most of the softening, methinks. I agree that brown rice takes a lifetime. I don't think altitude was a factor. Nary so much as a hill in sight.
DeleteI think the clue that you need to use basmati is the long soaking instruction- basmati is always soaked before cooking. I still think an hour is too long to bake any rice except for wild rice, so I am surprised it would ever work unless there is very little liquid. I think you should try this again- either stovetop or else try less baking time. Just because her recipe was funky doesn't mean you can't perfect this-by adapting another recipe. Check out Youtube for Indian chefs- and watch a lot of them- technique and ingredients in Asian/Indian cuisine are so important to get right that without a personal instructor it is very difficult.
DeleteOh no, I wonder what the problem was! I cook with basmati all the time, (Tilda is what I have currently but I also love Mahatma) and I don't soak it...hmmm. I've only had vegetable biryani at restaurants and only once or twice so this has me wanting to give it a try at home and try to trouble shoot for you. I have Madhum Jaffrey's World Vegetarian and think I'm going to pull it off the shelf this afternoon and look for a veg biryani to try. Sorry this took all day, I know how that goes and then to have something turn out because of the texture is such a desappointment.
ReplyDeleteWell that stinks. My expectations rise in direct proportion to the amount of time I spent in the kitchen so I don't blame you for being disappointed. Maybe that's why some of my favorite recipes are the easy ones :-)
ReplyDelete