How to cook Hara masala biryani - Food Stories

Biryani, to love or to love a little more?

If you are from the subcontinent, foodie or not, you may have asked yourself this question: What is it about biryani that we love so much?

The legendary Mumtaz Mahal may be credited for the modern day biryani, she believed that it was a complete food and was thus suited best for troop consumption every night, during wartime and peace. That is the story on modern day biryani, but where did it actually originate?

The word biryani comes from the Persian word birian, which means frying the food before cooking it, and by cooking this writer implies the process of dum, the traditional method to make biryani. History suggests that the method of dum and the name comes from Arab or Persian style of cooking, and may have travelled to the Indian subcontinent from Persia through Afghanistan, or from ancient Arabia to Kerala through the Arabian Sea with Arab traders. Nonetheless in Persian, birian means frying before cooking, hence the method to cook biryani.

Today, we boil the rice before the process of dum but historically when biryani was prepared the unwashed rice was initially fried in butter or ghee, before boiling. It was believed that frying the rice gave it a nutty flavor and also burnt the starch gelatinising the outer layer of the rice.

Separately, a lamb leg was set to sit in a marinade of curd, spices and papaya and then cooked to tenderness. Once the meat was cooked, it was layered with the half-cooked rice, garnished with droplets of rose water, saffron and mace, these spices gave it an almost flowery and royal essence, and then sealed in a handi and set on low flame until the rice was fully cooked and plumped, and ready to be served.

Biryani has variations from different regions of the subcontinent, all claiming that their twist on it is the best. Recent history of biryani dating to the 18th and 19th century tells us many a stories as to how the rice dish gained popularity far and wide in the region. Lucknow, was called Awadh and since the Mughuls were ruling at the time, the royal palace introduced us to the Awadhi Biryani. It is also said that before the advent of Mumtaz Mahal, the grand daughter-in-law of the great Akbar, he made Asfa Jahi the Nizaam of the great state of Hyderabad. The Nizaam wanted his state to own the royal dish thus, he had his kitchen give it a twist and the outcome is the legendaryHyderabadi Biryani. Tipu Sultan of Karnataka spread the biryani to Mysore, giving us the Mysoree Biryani, but the most special biryani may be the one that does not have meat, the nawabs of the region hired vegetarian cooks to create the meatless biryani and thus Tahiri came into being.

The people of central Asia lay claim to this dish also and believe that it was Tehmur Lung who brought biryani to North India from Kazakhstan through Afghanistan.

Despite all the different twists to the dish, like the Sindhi Biryani with potatoes, the Memoni Biryani with teez masala, the Kacha Goshat Biryani that is cooked in garammasala spices without tomatoes and the Bho-ri Biryani, very popular in Karachi and Bombay, it is actually Lucknow that lays ultimate claim to it. The Awadhi Dum Biryani is a gift that the Muslims of the Mughul era gave to the northern part of India. The specialty of the Awadhi Dum Biryani is that the meat is also half-cooked like the rice, and the dish is brought to cooking perfection through the dum pukth style of cooking, almost like the ancient times when berian was buried in the ground and cooked to perfection.

I want to share with you a twist on biryani called Hara Masala Biryani. It cooks to perfection; the taste is royal and the aroma Mughlai. I recently ate it at Imran Qureshi’s and Aisha Khalid’s house, in the historic city of Lahore. The first bite of this biryani put me in food heaven, and my gracious hosts offered me tips on this style of biryani, to which I added my love for food, experience, research and some ingredients, conjuring it up for a birthday dinner. It was an instant hit. Here it is from my kitchen to yours:

Hara Masala Biryani

Ingredients:

1 bunch cilantro (hara dhanya)
1 bunch mint (pudina)
10 serrano peppers (hari mirch)
15 blanched almonds (badaam)
2 ½ tbs coconut powder (narial)
1tbsp ginger garlic (lasan, adrak)
1 cup yogurt (dahi)
1 ¼ chicken (approximately 19 to 20 pieces)
3 medium size red onions (laal piyaz)
½ cup to 1/3 cup oil
Salt to taste
½ cup water
3 red potatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp kewra water
½ tsp garam masala powder
2 mugs of Basmati rice

Method:

Slice onions thinly and fry in hot oil until golden brown, set aside half of the fried onions and add ginger garlic and chicken to the other half. Cook on high heat for a few minutes.

In a blender, blend cilantro leaves, mint leaves, green peppers, ½ cup water, blanched almonds, coconut powder, once blended add the green mixture, yogurt and salt to the chicken. Now add peeled and halved potatoes, cooking on high to medium heat, add a little water if masala looks to dry. Cook until oil separates and the chicken and potatoes are tender.

In a separate pot (colander) boil 8 to 10 mugs of water, adding bay leaf, 10 to 15 black peppercorns, 5 to 10 cloves, 5 green cardamoms, 1 black cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick bringing it to boil.

Now add pre-soaked rice to the boiling water keeping the rice to tender crisp phase, still offering resistance to the bite but cooked through, since we cook the rice completely in the dum phase.

Drain rice, layer the pot with rice, layer with chicken and masala, add the second layer of rice, sprinkle garam masala powder, fried onions, kewra water, seal pot with foil and lid. Notching full heat for 5 minutes and medium to low heat for 15 to complete the dum.

Let sit for 10 minute, and serve.

By: BISMA TIRMIZI

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How to cook Lahori Fish

Sometimes a season, a picture, a memory can bring the taste of a particular food with it. One can almost taste it, smell it, savour it and the understanding that the only thing standing between me and the food is a delightful realisation, that now all I have to do is pick up the ingredients, put on an apron and get cooking; and voila, Lahori Fish is ready to be served.

Lahori Fish, this one sent me to the kitchen fast and to the grocery store faster. Once the fish, my favourite white meat, was set to marinade it gave me some time to research the history behind this delicious dish.

What’s the story of the fried fish? Is it its tender yet crisp texture that keeps us coming back for more? Or perhaps the simple fact that once caught, or bought, it takes a dash of butter, red pepper, salt, garlic, ginger and ten minutes on the skillet or karahi and you have dinner that’s a winner!

It is famously said in Don Quixote Hunger is the best sauce in the world and since peasants have a lot of it they always eat with zeal and zest. Yes, fish was a food of the coastal poor, and the ones living by rivers and lakes. And then ironically fresh fish jumped ship and became rich man’s food.

The bawarchees from the house of Mughals, under the influence of the cooks of Awadh, modern day Lucknow, decided to marinade the treasures of the sea and cooked and presented it to royal perfection, to the utter delight of the nawabs who joined Akbar for zohrana (lunch) and aashaiya (dinner) often.

But what about the simple city folk, the people of Lahore and of course Amritsar, sitting some thirty miles from Lahore, where fish was a frequent dinner delight in autumn, winter and spring?

In order to claim fish as their own dish they took to the hawandasta (mortar) powdered a few indigenous spices and set it to marinade in the cold winters of Lahore. The fish was then dipped in rice flour and besan (gram flour), and finally double fried it to orange perfection. What is the purpose of double frying it? In order to get the extra crispiness and crunch that enhances the taste significantly.

In the sub continent, particularly Punjab Rahu the sweet river fish is the most popular choice for the Lahori Fish. It is believed that the abundance of this river fish, from Darya-e-Ravi, and the blessing of cool glorious weather of the region from autumn to spring and of course basant, the festive celebration to welcome spring, inspired the Punjabi cooks to create the Lahori Fish.

History tells us that spring was the time when the locals enjoyed eating fried pakoras,kachorian, purian, all kinds of pakwans (batter fried or fried foods), and thus they decided to batter fry Rahu, and gave the batter an orange yellow hue, the colour that represents basant. This double battered fried fish became very popular in Punjab on both sides of the border.

Presented as street food, affordable, quick and scrumptious, however as its popularity grew it poised as a lavish dinner dish served with pride at celebrations across Pakistan.

In Indian Punjab this delectable fish, or a very similar tasting fish to the Lahori Fish, is very popular and goes by the name of Amritsari Fish. It is a fish from River Biyaas, double fried in a besan batter to orange golden perfection and served with green chutney.

It is a popular street favourite, therefore to presume that the people on both sides of the Wagah Border love this delicious batter delight is a safe assumption. It is served withhari chutney or imli (tamarind) chutney, or both if one wants an extra zing.

Winters in my neck of the woods are very 'Lahoreisque', dry, cold and glorious, so when my taste buds demanded a taste of Punjab I succumbed with pleasure. A quick call to my khala (maternal aunt) in Faisalabad and I had an authentic recipe. To my delight my friend Sandeep from Indian Punjab volunteered as the taste-tester representing Amritsari Fish, while I did the honour of taste testing my very own Lahori Fish. We both left the table happy campers. Here’s from my kitchen to yours.

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6)

1lbs fish fillets (6 to 8 pieces)

Spices for Marinade

1tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp crushed cumin
½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp crushed dhanya seeds
½ tsp ajwain
1tsp crushed anaardaana
2 to 3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
Salt to taste
1 tsp chopped green chilli

Ingredients for batter

1 cup besan
3 tbsp rice flour
½ tsp haldi
½ tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp baking powder
1tsp crushed garlic
1 egg
3 tbsp oil
1 ½ to 2 ½ mugs ice cold water, keeping the consistency like that of pakora batter
2 tsp orange colour
Salt to taste

Method

Wash fish and let dry, mix marinade and rub on fish, and let it rest six to eight hours in the fridge. Mix the batter by adding cold water and dip the fish fillets in the mixture. Heat oil and fry fillets for eight to 10 minutes, remove from fryer and leave it on oil absorbent paper towels until fillets are at room temperature. Reheat oil and refry fish fillets on high heat for two to four minutes. Remove from fryer and serve hot with hari or imli chutney,Lahori or Amritsari style.

By: BISMA TIRMIZI

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