Biryani

[Smita Nordwall]

A thought just popped into my head: Is there any historical relationship at all between biryani and paella? Southern Indian cuisine was heavily influenced by the Portuguese, and vice-versa, so it seems plausible. I still remember the best paella I've ever eaten: a home-cooked version helmed by Janet Cam and about five of her friends - they were cooking for almost two days, and produced the largest circular tray of food I've ever seen in my life. It was just about perfect, and was one of the greatest things I've ever eaten.

Don, it's an interesting thought but biryani is actually a northern Indian dish. Most likely brought over from Persia by the Mughals.  It has some very strong footing in Iranian rice dishes. Granted, some of the best biryani in India comes from Hydrabad, a city some what to the south. But when Hydrabad was a princely state, it was ruled by a Muslim, the Nizzam of Hydrabad -- hence the heavily Mughal influence.

[DonRocks]

Don, it's an interesting thought but biryani is actually a northern Indian dish. Most likely brought over from Persia by the Mughals.  It has some very strong footing in Iranian rice dishes. Granted, some of the best biryani in India comes from Hydrabad, a city some what to the south. But when Hydrabad was a princely state, it was ruled by a Muslim, the Nizzam of Hydrabad -- hence the heavily Mughal influence.

How do you reconcile the first two sentences in the Wikipedia entry for Mughlai Cuisine? Everything you say seems to make sense; I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around it all.

So even though Mughlai cuisine is prominent in Hyderabad, it came over and down from the northeast?

[Smita Nordwall]

How do you reconcile the first two sentences in the Wikipedia entry for Mughlai Cuisine? Everything you say seems to make sense; I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around it all.

So even though Mughlai cuisine is prominent in Hyderabad, it came over and down from the northeast?

Perhaps this bit of history about the Nizam's family will make sense: The Asaf Jah dynasty was of Parso-tajik origin from the region around Samarkand in modern-day Uzbekistan, The dynasty was founded by Mir Qamar-ud-Din Siddiqi, a viceroy of the Deccan under the Mughal Empire from 1713 to 1721. He intermittently ruled after Aurangzeb's death in 1707. In 1724, Mughal control lapsed, and Asaf Jah declared himself independent in Hyderabad.

[sandynva]

i can attest that i too have always heard that some of the best mughal food, particularly biryani, is from hydrabad. indeed, in india the chefs who specialize in biryani will often tout connections to hydrabad. and i too heard that biryani came over from persia.

And if you think about it, the hydrabad thing makes sense--mughalai food is a bit of a hybrid cuisine, that probably developed to cater to the rulers and those close to them. so, wherever the court went would become a source of mughalai food. and also in france, didn't some of the most refined cuisine develop from the courts, and the chefs catering to the aristocrats? it would make sense if it did there, and if the same happened in india--where the court went also went some of the most refined, formal foods.

i also have some quibbles with the statement that the portugese heavily influenced southern indian food. first, when i think of south indian food i think of pongal, idli, dosa, avial, etc. and i don't think that segment of food was that portugese influenced. there's the famous vindaloo, but im trying to think of other dishes that seem portugese and failing, and also i'm not sure how many people actually make vindaloo at home. maybe many do, but i don't know that it was a staple for any of my friends.  my husband's family is from goa, and their food seems to have portugese influence, though mostly in the desserts--they actually bake breads and cakes for desserts (many flavored with rose water), which, in my experience, is atypical for indians.

[weezy]

Don, if you want really good biryani, you need to finagle a dinner invitation from fishinnards.  He brought some to one of the picnics a few years ago and I still remember it, it was so delicious.

[Fishinnards]

There is most certainly an historical connection between paella and biryani. Zora posted this article on Facebook awhile back, The Mexican Kitchen's Islamic Connections, a fascinating read about the connections between Mexican and Indian food. Here are some quotes relevant to the discussion;

"The high cuisine of medieval Islam, one of the most sophisticated the world had seen, flourished from the eighth century on. It originated in Baghdad, where cooks had the advantage of being able to adapt a Persian cuisine that had developed over the past thousand years, and it was quickly adopted in the other cities of Islam. With the diffusion of Islam, the cuisine was transplanted to new territories. One of the most important was the Iberian Peninsula, whose southern two-thirds came under Arab rule in the eighth century. Watered by five rivers and greener than either their arid homelands or the other lands they had conquered, al-Andalus, as Muslim Spain was called, held out to the Arab and Berber settlers the promise of being a culinary paradise on earth. In the valleys, farmers grew wheat, grapes and olives. In the hills, shepherds tended the sheep and goats that the Arabs favored for meat dishes."

"The Muslims also introduced rice for fine pilafs, sugar for drinks and sweets, saffron to add aroma and color to their dishes and a wide variety of their favorite fruits and vegetables, including apricots, oranges, limes, artichokes, carrots, spinach and eggplant. They grew coriander, mint, thyme, fennel, cumin and caraway; the spices and aromatics that they could not grow"”such as black pepper, cinnamon, spikenard, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, galingale, musk and camphor"”they imported."

"In the court kitchens of Cí³rdoba and Granada, cooks could now produce the dishes of high Islamic cuisine. There were the pilaus, made by frying rice or thin wheat noodles and then simmering them in an aromatic liquid until it was fully absorbed. Another family of dishes consisted of delicate dumplings (albondigas) of meats pounded with seasonings. And there were the most characteristic meat dishes: meltingly tender spicy stews. Flavored with a variety of herbs and spices, these stews were cooked in earthenware pots nestled in circular holes in charcoal-heated masonry bench stoves. Some were green with spinach and coriander. Others were golden with saffron. And the most complex were flavored with cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, almonds and raisins and thickened with eggs or breadcrumbs."

"It is small wonder that Spanish Christians eyed the cuisine of the Muslims with envy. Over the centuries, they adopted their rice and noodle pilaus, their albondigas, their aromatic stews of lamb, kid and chicken, and their sharbats, jams, fruit pastes, alfenique and marzipan. The modifications that they introduced, such as adding pork to the list of meats, baking raised breads instead of flat breads and distilling wine and molasses instead of flower petals, did not change the basic structure of the cuisine. By the late Middle Ages, this Christian version of the cuisine of al-Andalus was famous as the finest in Europe. In 1611, Francisco Martí­nez Montií±o, the head cook of King Philip III, recorded it in the 500 densely packed pages of his Arte de Cocina, Pasteleria, Vizcocheria, y Conserveria (Art of Cooking, Cake Making, Biscuit Making and Conserving)."

[sandynva]

Thanks for posting that article, but what it confirms is that paella and biryani are both connected to islamic/persian rice dishes. So biryani and paella are related in the sense that they share the persian rice dishes as an ancestor (so they are cousins, if you will) but biryani wasn't influenced by or brought over by the portugese.

[Fishinnards]

Thanks for posting that article, but what it confirms is that paella and biryani are both connected to islamic/persian rice dishes. So biryani and paella are related in the sense that they share the persian rice dishes as an ancestor (so they are cousins, if you will) but biryani wasn't influenced by or brought over by the portugese.

You are correct, Paella is a result of Asian (and middle eastern) influence on European cooking, not the other way around. The biggest influence the Portuguese had on South Asian cuisine is introducing chilli peppers.

[Smita Nordwall]

You are correct, Paella is a result of Asian (and middle eastern) influence on European cooking, not the other way around. The biggest influence the Portuguese had on South Asian cuisine is introducing chilli peppers.

And potatoes, Eric. Don't forget potatoes. Where would Indian street food be without potatoes?

[KeithA]

This is a very interesting discussion on the history of the dish.  But I'll ask the more immediate questions:

1. anyone have a really good biryani recipe?

2. which restaurant in DC (nearby suburbs) serves the best biryani?

Personally, I've always enjoyed Indique's lamb biryani.

[porcupine]

KeithA, I haven't made it in years, but used to love the chicken biryani from Madhur Jaffrey's  An Invitation to Indian Cooking.  And, if you're willing to accept "meat baked under rice" as a basic definition of the dish, try the quabili pallow from Faryab in Bethesda.