Dish-Covery: Biryani

What are the stories behind the #1 Indian takeout dish?

While I have traced some ancestral pathways across North America to Western Europe, I have yet to visit the furthest outpost of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean nor spent much time in my parents’ natal South Africa. Lucky for me, I met my roots at the kitchen table where I was introduced to many of the Cape Malay and Indian foods that they enjoyed in their youth. As We Eat’s explorations on the immigrant journey of rice brought up happy thoughts of a rice-filled family favorite: biryani.

Photo by Shourav Sheikh on Unsplash

What is Biryani?

Biryani is a rice-based dish originating from Muslim food culture across the Indian subcontinent. The basic structure of the dish involves frying long grain rice (typically basmati) with onion and spices before layering the rice with (or without) meat, eggs, potatoes, lentils, and vegetables. The final dish is garnished with fresh coriander (cilantro), fried onions, and garam masala and is served as the main dish.

It would be hard to deny that a fully composed biryani does resemble pilau dishes that we previously explored in Dish-Covery: Pilaf; an idea further evidenced by dispute over the origins of the biryani name.