ISO Mughlai Biryani

A good tahchin beats bryani anytime.

Apples & oranges. Both have their own merits.

Oh hell no. :wink:

That’s not what I’m referring to above. That is cooking a specific type of meat in sauce to be layered in with, or mixed with the rice to create the biryani. What I’m talking about is Indian restaurants who take their “standard chicken curry” listed on their menu, and mix it with some rice and serve it, calling it chicken biryani (same with lamb). We know a number of Indian restaurant owners, and almost all of them do this. They say it’s not financially worth spending all the time making a separate biryani that’s only ordered a couple times a day.

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Have you tried Zafran Pot in Culver City? Pretty sure they don’t do this. The chicken biryani is good and the veggie biryani great. I order it “extra masala spicy.”

I see… Yeah, that sucks.

@boogiebaby, @MyAnnoyingOpinions:

Would Bangladeshi Kacchi (sp?) biriyani with the big chunks of marinated mutton be what Ipse is looking for, maybe? Unless I’m mistaken, isn’t Bangladeshi food Mughlai inspired?

i don’t think it’s what he’s looking for but bangladeshi/bengali muslim biryani is basically awadhi biryani. (after the british deposed wajid ali shah, he and his retinue landed up in calcutta.) it’s a much milder style of biryani, very similar to hyderabadi kacchi biryani. i quite like the style and have always enjoyed alladin’s version of it (though i wouldn’t make over-large claims for it in the abstract).

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i suspect that what ipsedixit is looking for under the “mughlai” name is actually west punjabi-style, heavily spiced biryani which he is most likely to find in pakistani places in l.a.

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I have not tried it, but since they tout themselves as a biryani restaurant, they can’t really get away with that either. But, I’m curious how they are able to add extra spices to your order unless they are cooking it to order, which could take a while. What do they do differently when you order it “extra masala spicy” compared to their normal version?

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Maybe @ipsedixit can provide a description of what he’s looking for. After all, the Mughal Empire was quit far flung for several hundred years and was exposed to plenty of Persion cultural influence. (If I remember correctly.)

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Tahri/Tehri is not a biryani, as far as I know. It’s a vegetarian rice dish, but it’s prepared more along the lines of a pulao than a biryani. It’s one of those quick clean out the vegetable drawer type of things. I make it with cauliflower and potatoes sometimes.

Interesting.

And I don’t mean to quibble, and I ask this with no hint of snark or sarcasm (ok, just a pinch, but that’s just my innate nature cuz, y’know, I’m the devil incarnate), but isn’t biryani just a “rice dish” or more precisely a highly seasoned rice dish?

So without getting ourselves down a logomachy rabbit hole, is there really any difference, other than pure nomenclature, between a “vegetarian rice dish” versus a vegetarian biryani?

The lines can get very blurry between pulao and biryani (sort of like how languages spoken in villages 100 miles apart in either direction are completely mutually intelligible but not so much 1000 miles apart). But, basically, a biryani–as it’s developed over time–is a layered rice dish with meat (whereas pulao is more like fried rice). But there’s nothing wrong with thinking of tahari as vegetable biryani and depending on who you read, may even have begun that way.

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Here’s a good piece on biryani from Vir Sanghvi, perhaps the best-known and most influential Indian food writer: Vir Sanghvi

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It seems like they layer in more of the curry/vegetable mix with the rice before cooking it all in the dum. But the cooking time is only 15-20 minutes, so I’m not sure. I’ll ask the woman who runs the place the next time I see her – she’s a total sweetheart.

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Fooda has LA Biryani in our office building today… but they dont look so good… and they didn’t even bring any biryani

Thank you for sharing.

That’s an interesting article.

The Dilliwala Mughlai biryani is much different than Zam Zam and the Biryani Pot Express Hyderabadi. I am not sure what makes it Mughlai style, but I do know that eaten with the raita they serve with it, it is incredibly delicious. My head is sweating right now just thinking about it. :fire::fire::fire:

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It’s in the preparation. Biryani is a more complex dish, more spices, longer prep time, and then layered to finish cooking. Pulao is much simpler, less spices, and everything is cooked together, not layered. Also, biriyani is traditionally made with basmati rice, but a pulao can be made with regular rice or basmati. Biryani tends to be a special dish due to the complexity, whereas a pulao can be thought of as an everyday kind of meal.