I’m here specifically to talk to you about a very traditional favorite of mine, which also is a favorite of the entire diaspora in the Indian subcontinent. It’s Biryani.

MUTTON BIRYANI

We’re going to make it with lamb today because it’s my personal favorite. So in Emirates we serve a Biryani in all 3 classes – in first, business, and economy. We take pride, it’s one of our signature dishes. We do a chicken, a lamb, and a seafood biryani.

So a little bit of ghee in a hot pan.

GHEE

We add our meat to it.

MUTTON

So here we go, I’m going to put that in. We’re going to start with some onions [Adds onions to pan]

CHOPPED ONIONS

and ginger garlic. [Spoons in ginger, garlic]

GINGER GARLIC

Now fried onions of course, the more the merrier. The more fried onions, the much nicer your sauce or your gravy. It really makes a big difference. [Stirring] Fresh chopped tomatoes without the seeds.

CHOPPED TOMATOES

So as the tomatoes break down, we add a little bit of yoghurt.

YOGHURT

The yoghurt does two things. One, it adds creaminess to the sauce, and the second thing of course, it also acts as a tenderizer for the meat.

Once you’ve got the right consistency, then you can gradually add [Pours water into pan] some water.

BOILING WATER

Reduce the heat at that time. Let it slow cook again. You have to cook it slowly, otherwise it will shrink fast and the boil will pop out and the meat will get tough. So you want to cook it very slowly. So once you reduce it down, you then cover it up. [Covers pan with tin foil] What we will do is we’ll pop it the oven, about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 180 degrees Celsius oven, for about 35 to 40 minutes.

So now that we have the meat in the oven cooking, we can start working on the rice. Rice, also a very important ingredient of course because it’s the foundation ingredient of the Biryani. The main criteria you want to look at is the rice is basmati.

AGED, LONG GRAIN BASMATI RICE

The rice is aged and it is long grain. To make proper long grain, separated rice, you have to make sure you soak it. So here I have soaked it for about 45 minutes to an hour in lukewarm or normal room temperature water. We’re going to start off with a pot of boiling water.

BOILING WATER

The garam masala whole inside. So there goes the black cardamom, green cardamom, some cinnamon sticks. I love the aroma.

GARAM MASALA, BLACK CARDAMOM, GREEN CARDAMOM, CINNAMON STICKS, BLACK PEPPERCORNS, CLOVES

I love these ingredients. I mean they make me happy. Some black peppercorns and some cloves. So as it comes to a boil, it’ll sort of remove all the essential oils from these dried spices and flavor the water. So here you go. So while it’s got its boil, we’re going to use the strainer and strain it out so the flavor is incorporated into the water. And then the hot water goes back inside. [Pours water back into pot] Some more ghee, secret ingredient, if you want to call it.

GHEE

Our rice. [Spoons rice into pot]

RICE

While this is cooking I’ll talk to you about the 2 ingredients that we’ll put later. The flavoring ingredients. There’s 2 things. One is saffron of course. We’ve taken these whole lovely grains of saffron and then we soak it in milk or water and come up with a nice saffron liquid or saffron color or saffron essence, as you may call it.

SAFFRON WATER, SAFFRON, WATER OR MILK

There’s another flavor which we call kewra.

KEWRA WATER

It’s a cactus-like plant which has a lot of flavor, so we actually distill this juice that comes out of it and then we get this lovely aromatic that comes out of this plant called kewra. So once we have the rice in the pot, we will get it steamed by wrapping it. [Covers pot] There you go.

So here’s our mutton that’s been cooking in the oven. Let’s open it up and see what surprise we have. Smell that. Beautiful. When the masala or the sauce or the gravy is done, it starts oozing its oils or the fat, and that’s the sign that it’s there. Don’t get scared if you have too much ghee or too much oil on the surface of the dish. I mean, it is something that will be absorbed by the rice and that’s the nature of the dish. You’re going to have a lovely time, believe me.

So here you go. So while this is simmering off, we will add the kewra water [Uncovers rice pot] and the saffron to the rice.

SAFFRON WATER

Just a little bit on different spots. Just a little bit. [Splashes saffron water]

KEWRA WATER

I mean too much will overpower it, too little will not give you the experience that you’re looking for. Once you’ve done that, you can see the rice, individual grains all separated. You just toss it lightly, very lightly. Once both the components are ready, we will then get into assembling it together. Assembling is equally important as cooking it, because that’s when the final product comes out. I mean, if you don’t assemble it right, it’s probably not going to give the same experience that you want it to be. It’s levels, it’s layers. So you’re going to start with the rice. [Layers rice in serving dish]

RICE

So one layer of rice. A little bit of ghee again.

GHEE

Just that flavor inside. Some ginger.

GINGER

A little bit of fried onions.

FRIED ONIONS

Some chopped coriander.

CHOPPED CORIANDER

Chopped mint.

CHOPPED MINT

Cashew nuts.

CASHEW NUTS

Raisins

RAISINS

A little bit of saffron.

SAFFRON

Meat.

MUTTON

And then you continue that again. Rice, ginger, friend onions, coriander and mint, and the raisins, cashew nuts and some saffron. [Adds mutton to serving dish] And then on the final layer you only put fried onions, raisins and cashew nuts. There you go. So once you have this assembled, we will put it in the oven for about 10 or 15 minutes. Slow oven of course. About 120, 140.

So there you go. Now we’ve got the Biryani ready out of the oven. Hot. Nice. So let’s open it up. [Lifts white lid of serving dish] Wonderful aroma. [Wafts steam toward face] I’m hungry now. It’s a signature for us. It could be on any route from Dubai or coming into Dubai, so enjoy. Thank you very much.

[Steaming dish of Biryani with dipping sauce on platter]

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