Last Ramadan I was binging on Middle Eastern recipes, but this year I stumbled upon this YouTube channel called Get Curried and was intrigued by their selection of Indian recipes. At first I wanted to try their butter chicken, but it’s the weekend and I should do something fancier and Mom also suggested I try making briyani.
This isn’t like the briyani I’m used to here in Malaysia. The video says this is a style specific to the Karnataka state of India, and even then looking at the comments there are a bunch of Karnatakans claiming that theirs is more authentic than the rest, so I can’t comment on that. Nonetheless the mixture of flavors from the yoghurt, cilantro and mint, and the heat from the cili padi was really interesting and yummy, and I loved how the rice turned out nicely moist without being mushy.
I found the planning stage most exciting when making this. I started off by mixing the saffron milk, then prepped the ingredients for the green paste. After marinating the chicken I set a small pot of water on the stove, and prepped the rest of the ingredients while the potatoes were boiling. I soaked the rice, then put the pot of water for the rice on the stove, and started on the gravy while waiting for the water come to a boil, which would take about as much time as required for soaking the rice. By the time it was time to add the chicken to the pot, the chicken has been marinating for an hour as planned. So all the tasks were timed quite nicely and the dish was ready 10 minutes before it was time to break fast. It was a lot of fun for me.
Do try this out, whenever you’re feeling like a different style of briyani.
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