
This dish has been haunting me for more than a decade and yet… and in spite of how may Indian friends i've asked how to do it, i don’t have the guts to cook it. Maybe because of too much spices that are involved to grind this and grind that… and the worst.. I don’t even know most of the spices!! And moreso also, the cooking of the rice takes a ritual. You have to soak it first for a period of time, then drain it for at least 1 hour! So, over the period I’m drolling for this dish, we just ran to our fave Indian resto and have their variety of either chicken, mutton or fish. It was lately this past year that I was encouraged by a friend, who cooked it deliciously with beef. It was so tasty that I asked her how. And so she said do this and this, … then put water on the rice.. Then I cut off and asked, ‘how much water?.. she said.. ‘just enough. I just estimated it.’
Toinks! That’s it. that’s the crucial part and she can’t give me the exact amount of water. how can a greenhorn estimate? Then… one day, while strolling leisurely for our grocery… I took time in the Indian section and feast my eyes on their shelves. I picked one packet of masala and read it. My! All those dreadful spices are all in there. Ground! All I have to do is add ginger, garlic and onions.
I can make this! So that packet came home with us along with one packet of basmati rice. And the next day.. I tried for chicken masala. While on the pot.. I rushed to the computer and searched how to cook the basmati rice. And I saw this no-soak-drain style. I printed it and went back to the kitchen and prepared it. Lunch time? Hmm… the household critics loved it. in fact my son said, better than in that resto. This time it chicken masala separated from the rice. So.. from there… -- yah.. step-by- step my friend -- I tried it with mutton. Deliciosa pa rin in their taste buds! So… a little bit elevated and confident… my mind is now set for that long-time-delayed-recipe…Biryani! And olalah!!! I made it one day. Yesterday’s was actually my second attempt. The rituals are so worth it guys. I even invited my brother to have his lunch with us just to get his reaction. From him, a very good cook as he was, his excitement while eating it is so confirming, and so with his Nepalese driver. It’s his first too to eat beef biryani and repeatedly said it’s delicious. These are the magic boxes that helped me finally conquer this simple complicated dish! Again..… what took me so longggg??? 