gin of biryani, the most plausible one seems to be that it was brought to India by the Moghul conquerer, Taimur the Lame from Persia, when he invaded India in the 14th century. "Birian" means fried before cooking in Persian.
However, once it landed here, the biryani was nurtured and made more and more flavourful by the Mughal dynasty in India. From the northernmost reaches of India, to its southernmost shores, and from its eastern corners to its western boundaries, biryani is cooked everywhere, taking in the spices, cooking styles, and flavours of the regions where it's prepared.
Lucknow, which was a prime Mughal bastion in north India, saw the emergence of Lucknowi or Awadhi biryani. When the British invaded India, this biryani travelled to Calcutta (now Kolkata), the capital of Bengal, in eastern India. There, it entered the kitchen of ordinary folks, who replaced the meat with potatoes. And that's how biryani in Calcutta still has potatoes in it. Along with the meat and rice of course.
This heavenly delicacy made its journey down south, when the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb invaded the south. He installed an authority figure called the Nizam ul Mulk there, who emerged as the ruler of the southern Indian province of Hyderabad later. It was in the Nizam's kitchen that the famous Hyderabadi biryani had its origins. There are two main kinds of H'badi biryani--Katchi biryani, in which the meat is marinated in curd (yoghurt) and then steamed with the rice; and Pakki biryani, which has the meat cooked first with all the different spices, and then the rice is simmered with the gravy of the cooked meat and is sealed in an earthen pot with saffron.
How will you know if you cooked the perfect biryani? Here are a couple of tips:
1) It should be aromatic. With Basmati rice and all those fragrant spices, that shouldn't be a trouble.
and here's the more important one:
2) Drop a handful of biryani (okay, a spoonful would do) on a hard surface. If no two grains of rice stick to each other, pat yourself on the back. Your biryani has cleared the age-old test.
wiki The word Biryani derives from the Persian word “Biran” which translates to “Fried before Cooking” therefore it is mogul in origin. It is believed that this was brought to Northern India either via Afghanistan, or possibly by the Arab traders via the Arabian Sea to Calicut.
Over the years many regions have developed their own unique recipes, I have to say that I love all the ones that I have tasted so far. I personally like the version that is called Achnie Philauf, but I may be biased as that is a recipe I can cook from scratch.
Enjoy Biryani’s and let me know your personal favourite. wow...interesting long read there...Im of Indian origin and not even i knew this, thanks to the person who left the long answer !! Isnt Desi Chef cool? She has lots of good info and receipes.
Plus she's an Indian gal to boot!