Putting potato in Biriyani is typical to Biriyani made in West Bengal, which actually originated from Kolkata. What Rinku made is a Kolkata biriyani, though putting shrimps is not common at all. So, the legend goes that when Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Nawab of Awadh) came to Kolkata after his state was annexed by Lord Dalhousie using the 'Doctrine of Lapse' in 1856, he brought his cooks along with him. The Nawab by this time had grown older and wanted to consume lighter foods. His cooks made the biriyani lighter and added potato, which was kind of an exotic vegetable back then. Hence, biriyani in Kolkata is much lighter and much less spicy than in other parts of India. This is what we commonly consume as biriyani in West Bengal, and yeah, it is kind of criminal not to put a big, fat potato in the biriyani. The potato is really the star of the whole show and we think thrice before sharing it with anyone 😅 And no, the dough isn't supposed to be eaten.
In Kolkata, some places also use boiled eggs in the biriyani because Nawab's enterprising chefs thought of an ingenious way to deal with the shortage of meat. They added potatoes and eggs to the royal repast.
The level 3 Chef shows the problem of the thin line between doing a ''personal take'' on a recipe and actually doing whatever the f*ck she wants. If you go too far away from any traditional recipe it becomes something else
Rinku's biryani is pretty much perfect for the kind of biryani she is going for. Rice being sticky is actually preferred in some parts including myself. fyi there are lots of types of Biryani cooked and prepared different from the other and potatoes goes along with some of them.
Basmati rice is commonly used to make biryani. So soaking the rice is a must. Rinku prepared the Biryani that's commonly eaten in West Bengal. I also find adding shrimp a little uncommon here, but at least it worked.
My family does seafood biryani and so does quite a few other families we know so shrimp or prawns in biryani isn't uncommon for Bengalis. Last week my mom made biryani with magur/catfish (big meaty slices). Sometimes we just aren't in the mood for land meat 🤷🏻♀️
Chef Brain, the dough is only used for sealing the pot, it's not eaten and usually just thrown out. Also, since biryani is cooked in layers, most of the spices and masalas are collected at the bottom layers, that's why generally you see it with both lightly colored and darker colored rice in the same pot. Ideally you would serve people a few scoops from each the light top layers and the dark bottom layers on the plate, and the person is supposed to mix it together while eating it.
Does the dough have any effect on the pot she was using? I have a dutch oven somewhat similar and can’t say I have seen too much steam escaping. If it’s only simmering at low heat for 45 minutes, will that dough do anything at all?
Potatoes in biriyani is done Kolkata style biriyani and there is quite a history behind it: Potatoes in biriyani became very popular in Bengal because of the former _Nawab_ of Awadh(modern day Uttar Pradesh), Wazid Ali Shah who was deported to Bengal in the Metaibruz locality of Kolkata. Wazid Ali Shah was known for being a foodie and liked experimenting with food, so he once had his chefs add potatoes to biriyani and he liked it a lot and from that, Kolkata style biriyani was created.
Just Curious, aren't Potatoes (and Most other Veggies) Usually Added in Veg Biryani? I Am Pretty Sure Uncle Roger Addressed this but I want to make Sure :)
@@TheRealYDA No not really, here in Bengal potatoes in biriyani is a common thing even 5stars like ITC puts potatoes in biriyani here. But like hyderabadi biriyani there are no potatoes. So sometimes the recipe slightly changes according to ur locality in India.
The thing with rose water is..well depends on region. India has so many different type of biryani(not even counting biryani in pakistan which also differs slightly as it goes), that a few basic flavours changes. For example, Biryani in Lucknow region of India is more floral and less spicy. They use aromatic spices like mace, cinnamon sticks, etc over actual "spicy" spices in biryani. So that biryani tends to have generally more rosewater heavy. To balance it out, its paired with Raita(yoghurt side dish) and Saalan(a spicy gravy). So the biryani itself isnt spicy, but you can add Saalan to your taste. Hyderabadi Biryani on the other hand, tends to be flavourful from the get go. It usually doesnt needs Saalan(but some places serve it depending on how spicy they make their biryani) and is only served with Raita(yoghurt) to balance the spicyness. So yea its not that weird to have a biryani heavy in floral notes, rose water, screwpine water(Kewra) and even nuts. Anyway thats just from my experience at restaurants here in india(most indian families wont make authentic biryani at home as it is a lot of work), but I am no expert. If there is someone who knows about it more from a culinary perspective then feel free to enlighten me.
Also, The dough is used to seal the pot, not meant to be eaten.. Some people do like their rice mushy(i dont but my mother does..she always prefers her rice on the softer side). It comes down to the preference tbh. Or its also entirely possible that she didnt intend to do it but ended up overcooking it(i mean it can happen a lot. Indian cooking is mostly experience and intuition. We dont measure stuff or time things to the T..so things like this can happen and is pretty normal tbh).
The potato thing really doesn't matter when it comes to biryani, you can either leave them out or put them. Sometimes biryani has diced carrots, peas and potatoes, especially if the protein is either served on the side or not in bite sized pieces. At least that is how it is as I know it.
🥳 Congrats on getting out of pre-diabetic status! Having worked in the medical field in the south, it's so frustrating seeing ppl suffer when many can fix it through diet and lifestyle choices alone. I've seen ppl lose a foot and still refuse to change, despite their family begging them to. Really does speak to how strong willed you have to be to stick to specific diets and exercise for your optimal health.
My dad was pre-diabetic for years, he decided to take three whole hour long walks a day to try and lose some weight, instead of just not having his chips and beer every day while he watched tv. He otherwise had a decent healthy diet, and has been doing intermittent fasting for a decade. I truly to this day don't understand the mental gymnastics that man goes through sometimes.
Chef Brian I've seen this video, of all the recopies shown here, the worst biryani is the chef's version. Using another grain to make an indulgent dish "healthy" really ruins the whole experience of eating biryani. Honestly, you can make biryani with most Indian rice, Basmati and Pilaf rice are great because they usually have a nice aroma, which makes up a part of the experience of eating biryani, and of all the biryani, the worst and least appetizing looking is the chef's, its left watery and the green color just looks like she threw in rice with the husk on. If you serve watery or gluggy biryani here its the same as asking for well done steak in a Texan steakhouse.
Congrats on not being pre-diabetic! I was pre-diabetic when I was 10 and it freaked me out when I learned that. It isn't easy to break out of that but I'm glad you did. Mad respect my friend
Great video chef! However I want to let you know about one very common misconception regarding Biryani that you'll find everywhere you go. It is that Basmati rice is mandatory to make Biryani, and this is something that has been accepted by pretty much every Indian chef for some reason. But in actuality, basmati should be the last type of rice that should be used for a Biryani, since a biryani is all about the flavor of the masalas' and the chicken and the onions. Basmati rice has it's own strong and unique fragrance, which dampens the flavor of the spices and just ruins something that could've been a great Biryani. Using basmati rice for Biryani was just a royal thing in the past to show off their wealth and oppulence, and when the middle class in the Indian subcontinent reached a position where they could afford basmati, they started using it instead of other lower quality rices which go really well with a Biryani. A proper traditional recipe would never use basmati.
This is kind of region specific in India. Lucknow and Kolkata biriyani definitely use basmati rice. South India however has a lot of varieties of Biriyani. I am not sure what rice is used for Hyderabadi biriyani. But the rice is definitely long. But other types of biriyani like that found in Dindigul (Tamil Nadu) and Thalassery (Kerala) use a different type of rice. Also south India has very spicy type of Biriyani. Whereas Lucknowi (Awadh style) and Kolkata biriyani is mostly about the flavour of the rice and smell of the spices used for the protein and also the succulent Potato which has to have the taste of spices reach inside. Also everyone has loads of preferences based on where they have grown up. Someone who has grown up with Kolkata biriyani, may not immediately like south indian style biriyani because of the missing Potato and different taste. But it can be an acquired taste if you live in that region long enough.
Late to the party but this knob commenting is talking nonesense. You were right and this commie still claims India was an advanced civilisation before the British arrived and civilised the shithole.
I think the only exception to not using core ingredients like rice for biryani are the channels that do recipes for different allergies or intolerances that find replacements for the ingredients that cause problems.
The dough is never consumed, it’s just used to seal the vessel. Potatoes are used in some variants of Biryani, especially in the Bengal region. Rice is the main component of Biryani, it’s not Biryani without rice. I’d actually never heard of Freekeh before I watched Uncle Roger’s video, I’ve never seen it here in India.
I think the carrot-peas usage is due to a confusion between pulao (pilaf) and biriyani. The broth cooking technique is, again, for a yakhni pulao. Biriyani just uses a bit of jus-like-thingy at the base to jump-start the resteaming process. The heat is being circulated in the airtight pot in the biriyani. In my part of India, we discard the seal but Sohla el- Wayly says that her mom puts it in the biriyani to mimic faux meat. So guess people eat it in some regions
Old video, but I think what messed up Rinku here is indeed the use of an induction stove. I had to go back to check it. She was probably used to gas stoves and tried to compensate with the cooking of her rice and so the results went that way with the rest of the dish getting domino-effect with it. It seems to me like if she didn't had issues with the rice, her Biryani would've been the best example.
Although basmati rice is regularly used, there are other varieties that are used around India. South India uses a different rice called Jeeraga samba, while the east uses a variety called chota basmati (smaller basmati) that gives each biryani distinct flavour .
@@daebaksiot5154 of the thousands of varieties of grain available in India freekha is not available nor is it used. Mostly aged long grain varietes of rice are used.
It still suprises me how much UR knows about the set food without beeing certified chef. Just a lot of research etc has helped him so far that the comedic effect from him is like 5% and other 95% is looking like a professional commentary. Love to see you also doing these vids because I think watching UR only would leave some questions in the air. :) So very nice combo.
@@ChefBrianTsao I just clued in that there's outro music (I'm deaf) and I wonder what kind of music it is. I just leave once the autocraptions end Yes, I meant autocraptions. Anytime you don't have the captions done by a person they become autocraptions. RUclips at its very best gives you a hunk of words with no punctuation at all so it's never easy to read, and it can be much worse than that. Access matters!
3:15 Biriyani doesn't always have to be with Basmati rice, although it's most widely used. Here in Bangladesh, we use small grain aromatic rice called 'Chinigura' or 'Kalijira' rice. I believe some parts of south India, people also use similar types of small grain rice. But I never heard of using Freekeh grain for biriyani ever in my entire life except this epicurious video. And the rice cooking technique, it's cooked from 50-80%, depending on the type of biriyani. And there are many varieties all over the subcontinent.
But again it's on the authentication and what's widely known and widely used/commonly. It's why some things just don't belong if your looking for authentic
About a decade or more ago, I had an idea for a book similar to this video series. Having a few friends who were executive/development chefs, taking their recipes and boiling them down to home cook status. Easier ingredients, easier methods, everyday things you'd find in a home kitchen... Doing them as side by side recipes so you could see the changes. That way, the home cook could decide where to make the changes for the 'harder' or more expensive ingredients. Timing never worked out...
The dough isn't made to be eaten; it's just for the seal. You may have seen some very old-fashioned version where the dough is the lid itself, but that hasn't been common for a long time. (It's similar to how pastry was often just a cooking vessel in medieval and renaissance European cooking; it's not uncommon to find something like a pot pie from the period that's really just a stew cooked with a thick "paste" to hold it together in an oven, which eventually evolved into a "paste" more suitable for eating _with_ the filling, which we now call "pastry.") The technique called "dum" is just using dough to seal the lid to the pot, and it tends not to brown very much due to the steam from inside the pot keeping it moist. Rosewater is very common in Indian cooking, but Rinku added it three separate times, including a massive amount at the end, way too much. Frying rice before cooking it is also pretty common in Indian cooking. A lot of Indian cooking is about adding aroma, including both techniques like pre-toasting rice and ingredients like bay and rosewater. It's especially important in biryani, where the rice is supposed to be _different_ from the protein, but not actually bland in comparison, which is why, for example, it's spiced separately. It shouldn't be done with the par-cooked rice for biryani, though; if you're not skipping the toasting step, it should be done _before_ the par-cook. It's more common to skip it, though, since even fairly basic biryani is already so complex. And, iirc, Fatima said that her family never put potatoes in biryani, but her in-laws say it's not biryani without potatoes, so that's why she puts potatoes in hers.
That level 3 is one of those occasions where they're just putting a twist for the sake of putting a twist, it's a gimmik, it's not reinterpreting nor advancing the dish. I feel like that's a common trend among chefs to try and be recognized.
I agree and at times it can be quite annoying. I would rather see them cook a meal correctly than add a twist to the recipe. Sometimes, it's just them spending a whole lot of money to make the pro chef look more fancy.
Agreed, if I were to put my twist on this, I would have kept the basmati rice and assembly but switch up the flavor profile to Szechuan or Xin Jiang. Again, just as “Chef Brian Tsao’s Biryani”
The dough is not meant to be consumed but it's to be used as a seal the pot as Uncle Roger mentioned "dum". To be honest Rinku's version was the closest recipe but I think as you mentioned, the rice was overcooked. There's a couple of Indian chefs on RUclips who do have a more authentic method of making this dish and those recipes are amazing.
even though I started cooking only a few years ago, I have been researching about different foods(especially Indian) since a long time. So there are like million different types of biryanis in India itself, as it was quickly adopted all over the sub-continent. Starting with the most famous and historical Hyderabadi Biryani, which mostly contain just rice and meat (lamb or chicken) and no vegetables, (extremely spicy). The Bengaluru biryani, is similar to Hyderabadi biryani but is a bit mellowed down on the spice due to the addition ofd coriander and mint leaves. Biryani in Tamil Nadu has a strong aroma due to the fresh spices grown in the region. The Kerala style biryani or the malabar biryani is again aromatic but is known for its lightness. Kolkata biryani is known for its use of potatoes, eggs and meat (mostly chicken). Not that spicy but has a strong aroma. The famous Lucknowi biryani, is known for its strong flavours but the milder use of spices. Bombay Biryani, mostly known for its mild sweetness and spices. Mughlai biryani is known to be as old (even older) as the Hyderabadi biryani. The meat is cooked in rich spices and flavours. I would love to discuss about other types of biryanis if you are interested. PS. This isn't even half of the types of biryanis in India.😁😁
the dough rinku is using is to seal the pot. sometimes people just cover the pot with dough without the lid or they do it like rinku. either works really. and the dough is not meant for consumption either. its for sealing only. i have no idea why she added pistashios. usually hyderabadi biryani has cashews in it but most biryani's i know do not add either because the biryani just becomes sweet with it. biryani is all about eye watering spice
I have used the dough around the rim to seal many dishes like Coq au vin and Cassoulet and even good old chicken and dumplings it is a great method to keep moisture in the dish while concentrating the flavour of any dish I apply it to but I always take the dough I used for sealing the roasting pot and let it cool then put it in a bag and crush it with a rolling pin and feed it to my chickens or just leave it on the back porch for any passing critter can have something to eat .. it is always gone by morning ...lol good video
17:12 the dough is not meant to be eaten, that's not edible at all and not fit for human consumption. The dough is only used to seal the pot while making the briyani.
Same thing with using elbow macaroni (soaking them in cold water before use). Learned that tip from AB and when I tried it, wow, much more yield with the pasta.
Biryani culture varies even the rice varies diff micro cultures use local rice available to them. The most well known biryani is hyderabadi which uses mutton basmati rice and onions and potatoes saffron and even rose water as places change even the protein changes and rice choices and what you add in the biryani too for most common people chicken is widely used and saffron may or may not be used. It's just a lot of things go into biryani and every place has its mark or its identity with biryani and how it's executed. There is one striking biryani tho made by chef imtiaz (he's from a long line of bawarchi's which are basically chefs which cook for nawabs or rulers) basically boiled eggs stuffed inside a quail, which stuffed inside a chicken, which is then stuffed inside a whole goat. And then the whole affair is put on basmati rice saffron milk is added then cooked in the dum technique (using that pastry seal) and then kofta or Indian meatballs are added after the whole thing is done. This i saw in the Gordon Ramsays escape in India
While I would be ok with using other grains I would agree with you that the fluffiness of the rice is a key component to biryani so if another grain were to be used it would have to be one that is similiar to basmati in terms of having a light fluffy texture and freekeh is definitely too heavy texturally for that.
The problem with Rose water is that it's an aromatic water... If you cook it too much, it's going to lose it's essence... So it's important that all these aromatic/essence waters (similar to added smoke) be added a little later when making dishes that need longer cooking time.
About your thought process, I've been watching some of Vincenzo's videos recently and in one of them he talked about how he approached the process similarly, because sometimes he does veer of from the strict traditional recipes in some cases (like his vegetarian zucchini carbonara, I made it with edits to make it vegan, it was great) but you still have to follow the correct procedure, the ingredients have to make sense and be added in about the same time as for a traditional one. As a vegan I made a lot of non-vegan recipes vegan and that's how I approach it too.
The Previous Biryani Video, Then Lemons in the Thumbnail Threw me off, but a fellow commenter said it is quite good and only missing a few ingredients that would make it perfect (I am also from a different Region of India so I should probably not Jump to Conclusions Next Time 🥶). Can't Say the Same about this.... And Yes Chef, I now Agree to Disagree about my Previous Comment 😆
The homecook Rinku put some liquid when she made the layer of rice, potatoes and shrimp when she cooked it in the sealed pot. She didn't need to put any extra liquid in there. Because the rice was almost 80% cooked and shrimps cook so easily, the moisture inside them would've been enough to steam and cook them. And the potatoes needed to be pre cooked, generally those are deep fried before they are put inside the layer.
One thing I'll say regarding gloves: I've worked in a lot of restaurants for 15 years now, and while it is a lot more common in "fancy" restaurants, in most diner-style/pub restaurants you'll rarely see the cooks where gloves (in my experience). Gloves get worn for prep work either because the restaurant will have a cut-glove policy or because you don't want your fingers to get too wet while handling knives, but in a majority of the restaurants I've ever worked (again, at least for more diner/pub-style), it's pretty rare to see someone wearing gloves on the line. And before anyone says "well maybe where YOU worked is gross!" I'm basically a traveling bartender at this point in my career, I have worked at more places than I can count in like 6-7 different states in the US, plus a couple in the UK. Wearing gloves on the line is the exception, not the norm. I guess my point is that, in all likelihood, at most restaurants, someone touched your food before it was brought to your table. You have to trust that they're professionals and keep themselves and their station clean (which, in my experience, is the case in the vast majority of cases). If you're such a germaphobe that the idea of someone touching your food is too much to handle, you probably shouldn't eat out.
As a person with contamination OCD, I just look up the cleanliness rating. And if it's a 5/5, then I trust the cooks are washing hands like reasonable people do. I myself would find gloves cumbersome. I wash my hands all the time when cooking because of my OCD and I find it weird that anyone working with food wouldn't be doing that. But still, after watching Ramsey's show I can't fully trust establishments unless someone's checked them and given them a full approval.
Shrimp biryani is very rarely made, since it is so hard to overcook it. The difficult part is both the meat and rice are not fully cooked before layering, after layering you do cook it on slow flame on full cover for at least 20+ mins, this is called '"Dum" where you don't let the moisture escape and the rice absorbs all the flavor overtime. This is hard to nail with shrimps since they overcook easily, the meat and rice need to be cooked perfectly at the same time. Chicken or lamb have a strong flavor on their own so basically the "Dum" is like simulating the using of meat stock where the flavor spread on the rice without using water (Note that this is traditionally done, some biryani versions do use a lot of watery gravy and cook raw rice along with meat). What's also missing big time is Brown Onions, they are very heavily used in every type of biryani, they enhance the biryani a lot, also since onions take a lot of time to cook so it is prebrowned beforehand but it has a different flavor than just slightly cooked onions. Traditionally people do use dry fruits, nut & raisins but this is done on bigger festive seasons, celebrations.
Loved this video Biryani is just more than a food , it's emotion , flavour everything far and beyond and in between. Surely waiting for you trying to make one . ❤
The others did good but the professional chef did a really bad job when it comes to basic, she messed the whole thing and process about why biryani is called biryani.
Cool! I'm gonna make my own version of a classic hamburger! It starts with a quinoa patty. It's my version of a hamburger, so I can just do that, right? I'm also gonna use English muffins for the bun. Best version of a classic burger EVER. There's a limit to how much you can make something "your take" or "a version of" a dish. Past a certain point, you've simply got to say you're making something else.
The epicurious level 1-3 series very often goes like this: level 1: "cheat" version of an authentic dish level 2: close to or actual authentic dish level 3: dish that was vaguely inspired by the ingredients that once were on the same table as the authentic dish
Frying raw soaked rice makes the end result less sticky. She may have added water more than needed. Potato is supposed to become creamy soft and tastes great when eaten with spicier biryani. Rice and potato both complements spicy gravy. There's a type of biryani covered only with dough, it's called parda(curtain) biryani. Nad no dough is for consumption.
Ok, here are my findings about biryani. There were 4 basic styles of cooking biryani. 1. Northern style or Lucknow style. This uses long grain aromatic basmati as the base and has layers of protein (chicken, lamb, egg, veg or some kind of combo. A broth which gives it color and spices. More rice on top and slow cooked in a hermetically sealed environment. 2. Central Indian or Hyderabadi style. This may or may not use basmati and layering is not important. The broth is mixed evenly through the rice.and looks like egg fried rice. 3. South Indian or Malyali style. Here again, rice can be anything as long as it's white and has good structure. Here the rice is stuffed inside the meat and long steamed. 4. Eastern Indian or Bengali style. This one may use small grain aromatic rice like gobindabhog. The difference with Lucknow style is the use of mustard oil and favouring prawns and shrimps over other meats. People cooking at home in India may come up with their own cooking style and or ingredients but mostly follow one of these 4 methods.
Australian here, and we always have potato in Biriyani. I use the dough method for sealing a lot of dishes - French, English whatever. Keeps it moist when your lids don't seal properly.
Some of these camera movements you got going in here are making me feel like I'm playing the drinking game when I'm not. Always love your videos though and really enjoy your sense of humor and the knowledge you impart.
Regarding Thai Cuisine, from what I recall, my father used to prepare dishes such as Hainanese chicken rice by first frying the rice with some fragrant ingredients before cooking it in broth. Therefore, I have no issues with the level 2 woman who also fried her rice with those spices. ☺
There are 28 states in India and almost every state has slight variation to their biryani recepies. Also, not every state uses basmati rice. there are lot of different rice type grown locally which are used in different states.
I love the part of mister level1 amateur cook chopping the potatoes only to realize that you need to peel it first 😅 his expression was super priceless XD
The Indian lady’s recipe is solid just missing some technique. I wouldn’t be shocked if it still tasted delicious though. Probably would come out even better if she was cooking it at home for her family. Now I want to make this for dinner tomorrow.
In Latin America and some Arabic traditions, we toast the rice in oil to achieve a nuttier flavor and loose grains of rice. Depending on the spice mix, this also toasts the spices.
I love rose water-and candied violets, and rose and violet creams, which are impossible to get in this country. It’s great in Middle Eastern cooking, and it really jazzes up butter cookies. I read somewhere that Americans used to use rose water instead of vanilla up to midway through the nineteenth century, because it was so expensive and hard to get hold of. (PAlso, when they began selling vanilla in the US, I bet most of it was molasses with water. The stuff they could get away with before the Pure Food Act would curl your hair. There’s a great book about this called The Poison Squad. That said, Uncle Roger is right. That is WAY too much rose water. A little goes a long way.
Like veggie peels, The dough used to seal the "dum" is disposed off. Also meats that marinate well or vegtables that can soak in flavors like potatoes are prefered
The steam from inside kept the dough seal wet and preventing the full cooking, and if you keep the heat under the pot instead of flames licking the side of the pot, it won't burn or bake.
I guess its the restaurants who decide if they want to put potato in biriyani or not. Restaurants near my home even put 1 boiled egg in together with meat and 1 potato slice.
@@ChefBrianTsao It is usually whole egg. In different regions of India you will find different types of biriyani. Most known biriyanis are Hyderabadi Biriyani, Lucknowi biriyani, Malabar biriyani, Kolkata Biriyani. Kolkata Biriyani is the only version I know which traditionally uses potatoes and eggs in it along with the choice of meat(usually chicken or mutton). Each biriyani is unique in its own way from their method of preparation to the ingridients being used.
7:18, actually India has many kinds of Biriyani recipes and there are those especially the Bengali style where potatoes are used along with meat... End result is that you get to eat the most delicious potato ever cause it would have all the flavours of the other ingredients :) 9:16, and we do put some vegetables in our biriyanis but just for the flavours... Meat still remains the star... In vegetarian Biriyanis, we put more vegetables to cover the quantity of meat as well cause we want the vegetables to dominate there...
Great video as always, Chef! And, although I know this channel is all about the food, as a fellow musician, I have a music question for you! I can't help but notice all the music stuff on the walls behind you, and I think Loss Becomes' music is pretty great, so I was just wondering what bands influenced you when you started playing music? Rock on, Chef Brian🤘
Oh man, too many to name… early years Green Day, Marilyn Manson, No Doubt, Third Eye Blind, Biggie, Jay Z Later on Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Metallica, Slipknot, etc… Now I listen to everything and anything
@@ChefBrianTsao That's a lot of awesome bands and musicians! I think influence and inspiration can come from anywhere, so that's very interesting! Thanks for sharing
This was a rough Biryani. I am friend with a proff chef whos specialty is Biryani. She is also from that part of Asia and it is to die for. This was just sad.
My mom use potato when she makes chicken biriyani but with mutton,she doesn't. There are different methods and recipes for biriyani changing from region to region. So I'm okay with methods as long as it tastes good.😂
Speaking from a nutrition standpoint, if I want to boost fiber content in refined grains like white rice, I just add some ground flaxseeds - full of fiber, contains healthy fats to boost nutrient bioavailability, and has a nutty flavour while not affecting the texture too drastically. For example, with every 100g of cooked freekeh, you can add about 10g of ground flaxseeds to 100g of cooked basmati rice and the fiber content alone ends up comparable. This isn't even considering price differential; where I live, freekeh and bulgur wheat is three times as expensive as any variety of rice and is not as widely available.
The most important thing to me in Briyani is the rice. A perfectly cooked Briyani is so delicious and fragrant you could eat it without even any meat or potatoes. The best one I have eaten is a Kerala style Malabar briyani which came with Cashew nuts and raisins. It was so delicious I ate the rice on its own.
There is. Although I am a big chicken/mutton biryani fan, veg biryani is in fact a thing. The reason I disagree with all the "veg biryani is pulao and not biryani" is because of the way it is cooked. The cooking method of pulao is different than a biryani, and is made with less spices comparatively. You CANNOT call a chicken pulao, biryani. Similarly, you cannot call veg biryani, pulao.
In Kolkata, West Bengal which is in the eastern region of the country of India, we use potato as a extra carb element, so you can smash a part of the potato which has absorbed all the flavours of the biryani (incl the meat flavour) and pickup some rice and little chunk of meat and eat it together. Basically, its carb + carb + protein....
Dough is not consumed. Basmati is not necessary, in india there are variants which doesn't use basmati for eg: Donne briyani or Nati style briyani. But rice is a must.
Things like heavy grains I might use as stuffing with nuts, roasted garlic, and greens for chicken or stuffed pork chops, maybe some spices and herbs. That slightly chewy texture with lightly blanched greens would go great with tender grilled or roasted meat, poultry, or fish.
yeah you can add rose water. in Bangladesh we use "Kewra water" in biriyani. and having Potatoes in biriyani is a must in our region. yes there is a version of biriyani made in pot which has a cover of dough all over. we call it "Parda(veil/curtain) biriyani " its just a decorative idea. just to make biriyani more fancy though it does adds some flavour enhancement.
As an adult I find it funny that there are so many varieties of potatoes and they have different uses. As a child growing up in 12:08 the 70's we had 1 variety... the "garden tater" and it was used for everything calling for a potato.
We use rose water and kewra water.u can even make it colorful usually we put the indian tricolor using food color or better yet saffron soaked in little bitbof milk
7:29 it's both. some recipes/regions always have potatoes, and some never do. this indian lady seems bengali influenced in many of her recipes... they often do add potato. also, many more rustic regional recipes don't use basmati.
I just learnt that Freekeh is used in some Levatine and north African cusine for pilaf which is similar to Briyani but that is like saying paella or Rissoto is similar to Biriyani different cultures use different Rices /Grains . I have never seen in India
Uncle Rogers pointed it correctly that there should not be carrots peas in the biryani... as the biryani already has so many ingredients so adding vegetables will complicate the dish and the actual taste and texture of the biryani would not be there... we don't even put coriander.. you need to smell the biryani not the mint. that's why its served with raita there is a reason for everything
What the Freekeh is Freekeh 🤢? Biryani is a luxurious dish mainly done for special occasions. Sealing the pot with dough is making Dum Biryani. You don't eat the dough. Too much rose water. Little goes a long way. Not sure why home cook fried the rice. That's more pilau method. Also Biryani cooks put hot charcoal on the lid of the pot. Again techniques vary. Your friend, Fatima's recipe is spot on. If you She is coming on as a guest, you should show her this & Kays Special Fried Rice Mark 1. BTW Mr Chilli Jams' banana leaf fish, you need to gently saute the spice mix otherwise spices feel raw.
About the dough seal she used, I have never seen such kind of seal, most of the people use kitchen cloth or if they are using dough they use it to cover up the whole top of the pot and yes the dough is also finely cooked and can be eaten.
Putting potato in Biriyani is typical to Biriyani made in West Bengal, which actually originated from Kolkata. What Rinku made is a Kolkata biriyani, though putting shrimps is not common at all.
So, the legend goes that when Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Nawab of Awadh) came to Kolkata after his state was annexed by Lord Dalhousie using the 'Doctrine of Lapse' in 1856, he brought his cooks along with him. The Nawab by this time had grown older and wanted to consume lighter foods. His cooks made the biriyani lighter and added potato, which was kind of an exotic vegetable back then. Hence, biriyani in Kolkata is much lighter and much less spicy than in other parts of India.
This is what we commonly consume as biriyani in West Bengal, and yeah, it is kind of criminal not to put a big, fat potato in the biriyani. The potato is really the star of the whole show and we think thrice before sharing it with anyone 😅
And no, the dough isn't supposed to be eaten.
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Couples break up over sharing the potato , that's how important it is .
And we use Chandramukhi potato for this biriyani. Very tender , very fragrant.
@@subratanandy2142 But the Rose water is still excessive I feel.
Prawn can be in biryani though, but then there shouldn't be other meats in it.
In Kolkata, some places also use boiled eggs in the biriyani because Nawab's enterprising chefs thought of an ingenious way to deal with the shortage of meat. They added potatoes and eggs to the royal repast.
The level 3 Chef shows the problem of the thin line between doing a ''personal take'' on a recipe and actually doing whatever the f*ck she wants. If you go too far away from any traditional recipe it becomes something else
As I commented above, as soon as she used the word "diversity" I knew it was going to be hipster woke shit.
Yep
i always like to use beef to make my fried chicken
It's like when people butcher the national anthem at sports events because they try too hard to put their "own spin" on it
@@executioner_ecgbert884LOL what
Its only a matter of time Uncle Roger judges Korean cuisine :) But its also a matter of time Jaime touches Korean food *shivers
The impending doom
lol
He already touched. Jamie Oliver made Korean fried rice with BBQ sauce and Sriracha
Imagine Jack touching Korean food.
@@CidVeldoril dont give him ideas
You remember Chef Ranveer Brar saying, BIRYANI comes from the word BIRINJ which means Rice. A professional chef doing that is unbelievable
Chef: "Don't roast me too hard."
Us: "Sorry, we're still too busy roasting that level 3."
😂😂😂😂
@@ChefBrianTsaolevel 3 lady shouldn’t visit india or Pakistan…🤣🤣even taliban will boycott her😂😂
“Different culture make rice differently. Just some culture is wrong.” -Uncle Roger 😂
I am naive enough to get this joke...About what culture he is talking about?
@@jayeshmarathe2744 *WHITE*
Obviously Jamie Oliver's culture @@jayeshmarathe2744
@@jayeshmarathe2744your wrong
@@thatkiwi8378None of the people in this video are white, genius
Rinku's biryani is pretty much perfect for the kind of biryani she is going for. Rice being sticky is actually preferred in some parts including myself. fyi there are lots of types of Biryani cooked and prepared different from the other and potatoes goes along with some of them.
Basmati rice is commonly used to make biryani. So soaking the rice is a must. Rinku prepared the Biryani that's commonly eaten in West Bengal.
I also find adding shrimp a little uncommon here, but at least it worked.
Shrimp biriyani exists
@@depressedrocksenjoyer9472 he said uncommon
I'm gonna have to find me some biryani with shrimp because I've never heard of it but that sounds yummm. I'm used to potatoes though.
My family does seafood biryani and so does quite a few other families we know so shrimp or prawns in biryani isn't uncommon for Bengalis. Last week my mom made biryani with magur/catfish (big meaty slices). Sometimes we just aren't in the mood for land meat 🤷🏻♀️
@@matcha_ I’ve never heard anyone say land meat before but it makes sense never thought bout that
Chef Brain, the dough is only used for sealing the pot, it's not eaten and usually just thrown out. Also, since biryani is cooked in layers, most of the spices and masalas are collected at the bottom layers, that's why generally you see it with both lightly colored and darker colored rice in the same pot.
Ideally you would serve people a few scoops from each the light top layers and the dark bottom layers on the plate, and the person is supposed to mix it together while eating it.
#chefbrain
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, that is a trick I learned for Dutch oven cooking, the dough forms a gasket like seal trapping the moisture in.
Never eat the dough. It's not even cooked, so you'll end up with a fucked up gut xD
Does the dough have any effect on the pot she was using? I have a dutch oven somewhat similar and can’t say I have seen too much steam escaping. If it’s only simmering at low heat for 45 minutes, will that dough do anything at all?
Potatoes in biriyani is done Kolkata style biriyani and there is quite a history behind it:
Potatoes in biriyani became very popular in Bengal because of the former _Nawab_ of Awadh(modern day Uttar Pradesh), Wazid Ali Shah who was deported to Bengal in the Metaibruz locality of Kolkata. Wazid Ali Shah was known for being a foodie and liked experimenting with food, so he once had his chefs add potatoes to biriyani and he liked it a lot and from that, Kolkata style biriyani was created.
Just Curious, aren't Potatoes (and Most other Veggies) Usually Added in Veg Biryani? I Am Pretty Sure Uncle Roger Addressed this but I want to make Sure :)
@@TheRealYDA no not really
Love how you randomly call out jack
@@TheRealYDA No not really, here in Bengal potatoes in biriyani is a common thing even 5stars like ITC puts potatoes in biriyani here. But like hyderabadi biriyani there are no potatoes. So sometimes the recipe slightly changes according to ur locality in India.
@@luci4rJod That Makes Sense! I am From the South Side btw :)
The thing with rose water is..well depends on region. India has so many different type of biryani(not even counting biryani in pakistan which also differs slightly as it goes), that a few basic flavours changes. For example, Biryani in Lucknow region of India is more floral and less spicy. They use aromatic spices like mace, cinnamon sticks, etc over actual "spicy" spices in biryani. So that biryani tends to have generally more rosewater heavy. To balance it out, its paired with Raita(yoghurt side dish) and Saalan(a spicy gravy). So the biryani itself isnt spicy, but you can add Saalan to your taste.
Hyderabadi Biryani on the other hand, tends to be flavourful from the get go. It usually doesnt needs Saalan(but some places serve it depending on how spicy they make their biryani) and is only served with Raita(yoghurt) to balance the spicyness.
So yea its not that weird to have a biryani heavy in floral notes, rose water, screwpine water(Kewra) and even nuts.
Anyway thats just from my experience at restaurants here in india(most indian families wont make authentic biryani at home as it is a lot of work), but I am no expert. If there is someone who knows about it more from a culinary perspective then feel free to enlighten me.
Also,
The dough is used to seal the pot, not meant to be eaten..
Some people do like their rice mushy(i dont but my mother does..she always prefers her rice on the softer side). It comes down to the preference tbh. Or its also entirely possible that she didnt intend to do it but ended up overcooking it(i mean it can happen a lot. Indian cooking is mostly experience and intuition. We dont measure stuff or time things to the T..so things like this can happen and is pretty normal tbh).
The potato thing really doesn't matter when it comes to biryani, you can either leave them out or put them. Sometimes biryani has diced carrots, peas and potatoes, especially if the protein is either served on the side or not in bite sized pieces. At least that is how it is as I know it.
🥳 Congrats on getting out of pre-diabetic status! Having worked in the medical field in the south, it's so frustrating seeing ppl suffer when many can fix it through diet and lifestyle choices alone. I've seen ppl lose a foot and still refuse to change, despite their family begging them to. Really does speak to how strong willed you have to be to stick to specific diets and exercise for your optimal health.
Thank you! Got a little girl and I need to be there for her!
My dad was pre-diabetic for years, he decided to take three whole hour long walks a day to try and lose some weight, instead of just not having his chips and beer every day while he watched tv. He otherwise had a decent healthy diet, and has been doing intermittent fasting for a decade.
I truly to this day don't understand the mental gymnastics that man goes through sometimes.
Chef Brian I've seen this video, of all the recopies shown here, the worst biryani is the chef's version. Using another grain to make an indulgent dish "healthy" really ruins the whole experience of eating biryani. Honestly, you can make biryani with most Indian rice, Basmati and Pilaf rice are great because they usually have a nice aroma, which makes up a part of the experience of eating biryani, and of all the biryani, the worst and least appetizing looking is the chef's, its left watery and the green color just looks like she threw in rice with the husk on. If you serve watery or gluggy biryani here its the same as asking for well done steak in a Texan steakhouse.
... so you get shot?
@@divineretribution9605 to the gist of it yes.
I Literally was Screaming internally When I Saw that, Like Seriously, WHO EATS BIRYANI TO BE HEALTHY 😭💀
Yeah it looked very.... unappealing cuz it looks just like throw up or something
Congrats on not being pre-diabetic! I was pre-diabetic when I was 10 and it freaked me out when I learned that. It isn't easy to break out of that but I'm glad you did. Mad respect my friend
Yes! Thank you!🙏
Great video chef! However I want to let you know about one very common misconception regarding Biryani that you'll find everywhere you go. It is that Basmati rice is mandatory to make Biryani, and this is something that has been accepted by pretty much every Indian chef for some reason. But in actuality, basmati should be the last type of rice that should be used for a Biryani, since a biryani is all about the flavor of the masalas' and the chicken and the onions. Basmati rice has it's own strong and unique fragrance, which dampens the flavor of the spices and just ruins something that could've been a great Biryani. Using basmati rice for Biryani was just a royal thing in the past to show off their wealth and oppulence, and when the middle class in the Indian subcontinent reached a position where they could afford basmati, they started using it instead of other lower quality rices which go really well with a Biryani. A proper traditional recipe would never use basmati.
Oooh, very interesting, I love this type of history! Thanks for sharing!
seeraga samba rice biriyani has better flavour than basmati rice.
@@rijulsurendranSo true.. widely used variety of rice in South India❤
This is kind of region specific in India. Lucknow and Kolkata biriyani definitely use basmati rice.
South India however has a lot of varieties of Biriyani. I am not sure what rice is used for Hyderabadi biriyani. But the rice is definitely long. But other types of biriyani like that found in Dindigul (Tamil Nadu) and Thalassery (Kerala) use a different type of rice. Also south India has very spicy type of Biriyani. Whereas Lucknowi (Awadh style) and Kolkata biriyani is mostly about the flavour of the rice and smell of the spices used for the protein and also the succulent Potato which has to have the taste of spices reach inside.
Also everyone has loads of preferences based on where they have grown up. Someone who has grown up with Kolkata biriyani, may not immediately like south indian style biriyani because of the missing Potato and different taste. But it can be an acquired taste if you live in that region long enough.
Late to the party but this knob commenting is talking nonesense. You were right and this commie still claims India was an advanced civilisation before the British arrived and civilised the shithole.
I think the only exception to not using core ingredients like rice for biryani are the channels that do recipes for different allergies or intolerances that find replacements for the ingredients that cause problems.
The dough is never consumed, it’s just used to seal the vessel. Potatoes are used in some variants of Biryani, especially in the Bengal region. Rice is the main component of Biryani, it’s not Biryani without rice. I’d actually never heard of Freekeh before I watched Uncle Roger’s video, I’ve never seen it here in India.
I think the carrot-peas usage is due to a confusion between pulao (pilaf) and biriyani. The broth cooking technique is, again, for a yakhni pulao. Biriyani just uses a bit of jus-like-thingy at the base to jump-start the resteaming process. The heat is being circulated in the airtight pot in the biriyani. In my part of India, we discard the seal but Sohla el- Wayly says that her mom puts it in the biriyani to mimic faux meat. So guess people eat it in some regions
this is some awesome info! Thank you!
@@ChefBrianTsao on the topic of Sohla, may you review her Biriyani, please?
Old video, but I think what messed up Rinku here is indeed the use of an induction stove. I had to go back to check it. She was probably used to gas stoves and tried to compensate with the cooking of her rice and so the results went that way with the rest of the dish getting domino-effect with it. It seems to me like if she didn't had issues with the rice, her Biryani would've been the best example.
Although basmati rice is regularly used, there are other varieties that are used around India. South India uses a different rice called Jeeraga samba, while the east uses a variety called chota basmati (smaller basmati) that gives each biryani distinct flavour .
Oh cool! Thanks for sharing!
But they used freekah grains tho?
@@daebaksiot5154 it is a crime to use freekah grain in India.
@@daebaksiot5154 of the thousands of varieties of grain available in India freekha is not available nor is it used. Mostly aged long grain varietes of rice are used.
yes but it's white rice so its fine not this green shit
It still suprises me how much UR knows about the set food without beeing certified chef. Just a lot of research etc has helped him so far that the comedic effect from him is like 5% and other 95% is looking like a professional commentary. Love to see you also doing these vids because I think watching UR only would leave some questions in the air. :) So very nice combo.
🤘
Those were relatively painful biryani. Your outro music nails it. Keep rockin' and cookin'!!
Thanks for tuning in!
@@ChefBrianTsao I just clued in that there's outro music (I'm deaf) and I wonder what kind of music it is. I just leave once the autocraptions end Yes, I meant autocraptions. Anytime you don't have the captions done by a person they become autocraptions. RUclips at its very best gives you a hunk of words with no punctuation at all so it's never easy to read, and it can be much worse than that. Access matters!
3:15 Biriyani doesn't always have to be with Basmati rice, although it's most widely used. Here in Bangladesh, we use small grain aromatic rice called 'Chinigura' or 'Kalijira' rice. I believe some parts of south India, people also use similar types of small grain rice. But I never heard of using Freekeh grain for biriyani ever in my entire life except this epicurious video.
And the rice cooking technique, it's cooked from 50-80%, depending on the type of biriyani. And there are many varieties all over the subcontinent.
But again it's on the authentication and what's widely known and widely used/commonly.
It's why some things just don't belong if your looking for authentic
Steven always cracks me up. He put a half a cheesecake into his pancakes batter. Quite often, Epicurious 4 levels of cookery is a hot mess.
About a decade or more ago, I had an idea for a book similar to this video series. Having a few friends who were executive/development chefs, taking their recipes and boiling them down to home cook status. Easier ingredients, easier methods, everyday things you'd find in a home kitchen... Doing them as side by side recipes so you could see the changes. That way, the home cook could decide where to make the changes for the 'harder' or more expensive ingredients. Timing never worked out...
The level 3 chef would use her creative freedom to recreate steak frites using a pork chop 😂
The dough isn't made to be eaten; it's just for the seal. You may have seen some very old-fashioned version where the dough is the lid itself, but that hasn't been common for a long time. (It's similar to how pastry was often just a cooking vessel in medieval and renaissance European cooking; it's not uncommon to find something like a pot pie from the period that's really just a stew cooked with a thick "paste" to hold it together in an oven, which eventually evolved into a "paste" more suitable for eating _with_ the filling, which we now call "pastry.") The technique called "dum" is just using dough to seal the lid to the pot, and it tends not to brown very much due to the steam from inside the pot keeping it moist.
Rosewater is very common in Indian cooking, but Rinku added it three separate times, including a massive amount at the end, way too much.
Frying rice before cooking it is also pretty common in Indian cooking. A lot of Indian cooking is about adding aroma, including both techniques like pre-toasting rice and ingredients like bay and rosewater. It's especially important in biryani, where the rice is supposed to be _different_ from the protein, but not actually bland in comparison, which is why, for example, it's spiced separately. It shouldn't be done with the par-cooked rice for biryani, though; if you're not skipping the toasting step, it should be done _before_ the par-cook. It's more common to skip it, though, since even fairly basic biryani is already so complex.
And, iirc, Fatima said that her family never put potatoes in biryani, but her in-laws say it's not biryani without potatoes, so that's why she puts potatoes in hers.
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!
That level 3 is one of those occasions where they're just putting a twist for the sake of putting a twist, it's a gimmik, it's not reinterpreting nor advancing the dish. I feel like that's a common trend among chefs to try and be recognized.
I agree and at times it can be quite annoying. I would rather see them cook a meal correctly than add a twist to the recipe. Sometimes, it's just them spending a whole lot of money to make the pro chef look more fancy.
Agreed, if I were to put my twist on this, I would have kept the basmati rice and assembly but switch up the flavor profile to Szechuan or Xin Jiang. Again, just as “Chef Brian Tsao’s Biryani”
I love how close the youtube chef community is, everyone is always willing to do coop content it's great.
Had a feeling you'd be reacting to this one after the previous video. This was one of my favorite videos from Uncle Roger.
The dough is not meant to be consumed but it's to be used as a seal the pot as Uncle Roger mentioned "dum". To be honest Rinku's version was the closest recipe but I think as you mentioned, the rice was overcooked. There's a couple of Indian chefs on RUclips who do have a more authentic method of making this dish and those recipes are amazing.
even though I started cooking only a few years ago, I have been researching about different foods(especially Indian) since a long time. So there are like million different types of biryanis in India itself, as it was quickly adopted all over the sub-continent.
Starting with the most famous and historical Hyderabadi Biryani, which mostly contain just rice and meat (lamb or chicken) and no vegetables, (extremely spicy).
The Bengaluru biryani, is similar to Hyderabadi biryani but is a bit mellowed down on the spice due to the addition ofd coriander and mint leaves.
Biryani in Tamil Nadu has a strong aroma due to the fresh spices grown in the region.
The Kerala style biryani or the malabar biryani is again aromatic but is known for its lightness.
Kolkata biryani is known for its use of potatoes, eggs and meat (mostly chicken). Not that spicy but has a strong aroma.
The famous Lucknowi biryani, is known for its strong flavours but the milder use of spices.
Bombay Biryani, mostly known for its mild sweetness and spices.
Mughlai biryani is known to be as old (even older) as the Hyderabadi biryani. The meat is cooked in rich spices and flavours.
I would love to discuss about other types of biryanis if you are interested.
PS. This isn't even half of the types of biryanis in India.😁😁
the dough rinku is using is to seal the pot. sometimes people just cover the pot with dough without the lid or they do it like rinku. either works really. and the dough is not meant for consumption either. its for sealing only.
i have no idea why she added pistashios. usually hyderabadi biryani has cashews in it but most biryani's i know do not add either because the biryani just becomes sweet with it. biryani is all about eye watering spice
I have used the dough around the rim to seal many dishes like Coq au vin and Cassoulet and even good old chicken and dumplings it is a great method to keep moisture in the dish while concentrating the flavour of any dish I apply it to but I always take the dough I used for sealing the roasting pot and let it cool then put it in a bag and crush it with a rolling pin and feed it to my chickens or just leave it on the back porch for any passing critter can have something to eat .. it is always gone by morning ...lol good video
Thanks for sharing and tuning in! 🙏
4 minutes in and I'm in tears hahahahahahahaha
Also, I am a former HK resident and I love to hear Uncle Roger flip out in Cantonese.
Also, I have learned so much from watching your reaction videos to Uncle Roger - these two channels are my new favorite TV show.
🙏thank you for tuning in!
17:12 the dough is not meant to be eaten, that's not edible at all and not fit for human consumption. The dough is only used to seal the pot while making the briyani.
Same thing with using elbow macaroni (soaking them in cold water before use). Learned that tip from AB and when I tried it, wow, much more yield with the pasta.
Biryani culture varies even the rice varies diff micro cultures use local rice available to them. The most well known biryani is hyderabadi which uses mutton basmati rice and onions and potatoes saffron and even rose water as places change even the protein changes and rice choices and what you add in the biryani too for most common people chicken is widely used and saffron may or may not be used. It's just a lot of things go into biryani and every place has its mark or its identity with biryani and how it's executed. There is one striking biryani tho made by chef imtiaz (he's from a long line of bawarchi's which are basically chefs which cook for nawabs or rulers) basically boiled eggs stuffed inside a quail, which stuffed inside a chicken, which is then stuffed inside a whole goat. And then the whole affair is put on basmati rice saffron milk is added then cooked in the dum technique (using that pastry seal) and then kofta or Indian meatballs are added after the whole thing is done. This i saw in the Gordon Ramsays escape in India
While I would be ok with using other grains I would agree with you that the fluffiness of the rice is a key component to biryani so if another grain were to be used it would have to be one that is similiar to basmati in terms of having a light fluffy texture and freekeh is definitely too heavy texturally for that.
Def!
The problem with Rose water is that it's an aromatic water... If you cook it too much, it's going to lose it's essence... So it's important that all these aromatic/essence waters (similar to added smoke) be added a little later when making dishes that need longer cooking time.
About your thought process, I've been watching some of Vincenzo's videos recently and in one of them he talked about how he approached the process similarly, because sometimes he does veer of from the strict traditional recipes in some cases (like his vegetarian zucchini carbonara, I made it with edits to make it vegan, it was great) but you still have to follow the correct procedure, the ingredients have to make sense and be added in about the same time as for a traditional one. As a vegan I made a lot of non-vegan recipes vegan and that's how I approach it too.
The Previous Biryani Video, Then Lemons in the Thumbnail Threw me off, but a fellow commenter said it is quite good and only missing a few ingredients that would make it perfect (I am also from a different Region of India so I should probably not Jump to Conclusions Next Time 🥶). Can't Say the Same about this.... And Yes Chef, I now Agree to Disagree about my Previous Comment 😆
hmmm🙄
Not all biryanis are layer biryani, we have a lot of one pot recipes where we soak rise and add them to the sauce and cook them together
The homecook Rinku put some liquid when she made the layer of rice, potatoes and shrimp when she cooked it in the sealed pot. She didn't need to put any extra liquid in there. Because the rice was almost 80% cooked and shrimps cook so easily, the moisture inside them would've been enough to steam and cook them. And the potatoes needed to be pre cooked, generally those are deep fried before they are put inside the layer.
One thing I'll say regarding gloves: I've worked in a lot of restaurants for 15 years now, and while it is a lot more common in "fancy" restaurants, in most diner-style/pub restaurants you'll rarely see the cooks where gloves (in my experience). Gloves get worn for prep work either because the restaurant will have a cut-glove policy or because you don't want your fingers to get too wet while handling knives, but in a majority of the restaurants I've ever worked (again, at least for more diner/pub-style), it's pretty rare to see someone wearing gloves on the line.
And before anyone says "well maybe where YOU worked is gross!" I'm basically a traveling bartender at this point in my career, I have worked at more places than I can count in like 6-7 different states in the US, plus a couple in the UK. Wearing gloves on the line is the exception, not the norm.
I guess my point is that, in all likelihood, at most restaurants, someone touched your food before it was brought to your table. You have to trust that they're professionals and keep themselves and their station clean (which, in my experience, is the case in the vast majority of cases). If you're such a germaphobe that the idea of someone touching your food is too much to handle, you probably shouldn't eat out.
As a person with contamination OCD, I just look up the cleanliness rating. And if it's a 5/5, then I trust the cooks are washing hands like reasonable people do. I myself would find gloves cumbersome. I wash my hands all the time when cooking because of my OCD and I find it weird that anyone working with food wouldn't be doing that. But still, after watching Ramsey's show I can't fully trust establishments unless someone's checked them and given them a full approval.
Shrimp biryani is very rarely made, since it is so hard to overcook it. The difficult part is both the meat and rice are not fully cooked before layering, after layering you do cook it on slow flame on full cover for at least 20+ mins, this is called '"Dum" where you don't let the moisture escape and the rice absorbs all the flavor overtime. This is hard to nail with shrimps since they overcook easily, the meat and rice need to be cooked perfectly at the same time. Chicken or lamb have a strong flavor on their own so basically the "Dum" is like simulating the using of meat stock where the flavor spread on the rice without using water (Note that this is traditionally done, some biryani versions do use a lot of watery gravy and cook raw rice along with meat).
What's also missing big time is Brown Onions, they are very heavily used in every type of biryani, they enhance the biryani a lot, also since onions take a lot of time to cook so it is prebrowned beforehand but it has a different flavor than just slightly cooked onions. Traditionally people do use dry fruits, nut & raisins but this is done on bigger festive seasons, celebrations.
Loved this video
Biryani is just more than a food , it's emotion , flavour everything far and beyond and in between.
Surely waiting for you trying to make one . ❤
Fatima said in her video that southern Indian people use potatoes in their biryani in the video you reacted to of her biryani.
🤘
In the beginning of that episode they do say “to make their own version of biryana” that slide was missed hard 😂
The others did good but the professional chef did a really bad job when it comes to basic, she messed the whole thing and process about why biryani is called biryani.
Brian acknowledged that still though
Cool! I'm gonna make my own version of a classic hamburger! It starts with a quinoa patty. It's my version of a hamburger, so I can just do that, right? I'm also gonna use English muffins for the bun. Best version of a classic burger EVER.
There's a limit to how much you can make something "your take" or "a version of" a dish. Past a certain point, you've simply got to say you're making something else.
The epicurious level 1-3 series very often goes like this:
level 1: "cheat" version of an authentic dish
level 2: close to or actual authentic dish
level 3: dish that was vaguely inspired by the ingredients that once were on the same table as the authentic dish
Except Saúl, Frank, and Penny.
Frying raw soaked rice makes the end result less sticky. She may have added water more than needed.
Potato is supposed to become creamy soft and tastes great when eaten with spicier biryani. Rice and potato both complements spicy gravy.
There's a type of biryani covered only with dough, it's called parda(curtain) biryani. Nad no dough is for consumption.
Ok, here are my findings about biryani. There were 4 basic styles of cooking biryani.
1. Northern style or Lucknow style. This uses long grain aromatic basmati as the base and has layers of protein (chicken, lamb, egg, veg or some kind of combo. A broth which gives it color and spices. More rice on top and slow cooked in a hermetically sealed environment.
2. Central Indian or Hyderabadi style. This may or may not use basmati and layering is not important. The broth is mixed evenly through the rice.and looks like egg fried rice.
3. South Indian or Malyali style. Here again, rice can be anything as long as it's white and has good structure. Here the rice is stuffed inside the meat and long steamed.
4. Eastern Indian or Bengali style. This one may use small grain aromatic rice like gobindabhog. The difference with Lucknow style is the use of mustard oil and favouring prawns and shrimps over other meats.
People cooking at home in India may come up with their own cooking style and or ingredients but mostly follow one of these 4 methods.
Indian Cuisine is very diverse as it changes all over India, even a mile away. So the Biriyani is diffrent all over India
Australian here, and we always have potato in Biriyani. I use the dough method for sealing a lot of dishes - French, English whatever. Keeps it moist when your lids don't seal properly.
Great tip!
Some of these camera movements you got going in here are making me feel like I'm playing the drinking game when I'm not. Always love your videos though and really enjoy your sense of humor and the knowledge you impart.
🙏thank you!
Regarding Thai Cuisine, from what I recall, my father used to prepare dishes such as Hainanese chicken rice by first frying the rice with some fragrant ingredients before cooking it in broth. Therefore, I have no issues with the level 2 woman who also fried her rice with those spices. ☺
There are 28 states in India and almost every state has slight variation to their biryani recepies. Also, not every state uses basmati rice. there are lot of different rice type grown locally which are used in different states.
I love the part of mister level1 amateur cook chopping the potatoes only to realize that you need to peel it first 😅 his expression was super priceless XD
The Indian lady’s recipe is solid just missing some technique. I wouldn’t be shocked if it still tasted delicious though. Probably would come out even better if she was cooking it at home for her family. Now I want to make this for dinner tomorrow.
In Latin America and some Arabic traditions, we toast the rice in oil to achieve a nuttier flavor and loose grains of rice. Depending on the spice mix, this also toasts the spices.
I love rose water-and candied violets, and rose and violet creams, which are impossible to get in this country. It’s great in Middle Eastern cooking, and it really jazzes up butter cookies. I read somewhere that Americans used to use rose water instead of vanilla up to midway through the nineteenth century, because it was so expensive and hard to get hold of. (PAlso, when they began selling vanilla in the US, I bet most of it was molasses with water. The stuff they could get away with before the Pure Food Act would curl your hair. There’s a great book about this called The Poison Squad.
That said, Uncle Roger is right. That is WAY too much rose water. A little goes a long way.
Like veggie peels, The dough used to seal the "dum" is disposed off. Also meats that marinate well or vegtables that can soak in flavors like potatoes are prefered
The steam from inside kept the dough seal wet and preventing the full cooking, and if you keep the heat under the pot instead of flames licking the side of the pot, it won't burn or bake.
I guess its the restaurants who decide if they want to put potato in biriyani or not. Restaurants near my home even put 1 boiled egg in together with meat and 1 potato slice.
Oooh! Boiled egg sounds great! Is the boiled egg left whole or cut?
@@ChefBrianTsaoMostly whole. Some put cut.
@@ChefBrianTsao It is usually whole egg. In different regions of India you will find different types of biriyani. Most known biriyanis are Hyderabadi Biriyani, Lucknowi biriyani, Malabar biriyani, Kolkata Biriyani. Kolkata Biriyani is the only version I know which traditionally uses potatoes and eggs in it along with the choice of meat(usually chicken or mutton). Each biriyani is unique in its own way from their method of preparation to the ingridients being used.
@@aneeshunnikrishnan4797 True. Agreed.
Very cool!
I shouldn't start my Sunday morning watching cooking videos. Too hungry to stay in bed, but too lazt to go and make an elaborate breakfast
LOL sorry!
He needs more salt for the boiling water
7:18, actually India has many kinds of Biriyani recipes and there are those especially the Bengali style where potatoes are used along with meat... End result is that you get to eat the most delicious potato ever cause it would have all the flavours of the other ingredients :)
9:16, and we do put some vegetables in our biriyanis but just for the flavours... Meat still remains the star... In vegetarian Biriyanis, we put more vegetables to cover the quantity of meat as well cause we want the vegetables to dominate there...
Great video as always, Chef! And, although I know this channel is all about the food, as a fellow musician, I have a music question for you!
I can't help but notice all the music stuff on the walls behind you, and I think Loss Becomes' music is pretty great, so I was just wondering what bands influenced you when you started playing music?
Rock on, Chef Brian🤘
Oh man, too many to name… early years
Green Day, Marilyn Manson, No Doubt, Third Eye Blind, Biggie, Jay Z
Later on Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Metallica, Slipknot, etc…
Now I listen to everything and anything
@@ChefBrianTsao That's a lot of awesome bands and musicians! I think influence and inspiration can come from anywhere, so that's very interesting! Thanks for sharing
This was a rough Biryani. I am friend with a proff chef whos specialty is Biryani. She is also from that part of Asia and it is to die for. This was just sad.
I've only had Indian food in fairly rural Missouri, but the biryani in our restaurants looks more like the Level 1 than any of the others
My mom use potato when she makes chicken biriyani but with mutton,she doesn't.
There are different methods and recipes for biriyani changing from region to region.
So I'm okay with methods as long as it tastes good.😂
Actually in some partsof India, the rice is supposed to be a bit sticky (but not too much). So Rinku actually did really good.
Speaking from a nutrition standpoint, if I want to boost fiber content in refined grains like white rice, I just add some ground flaxseeds - full of fiber, contains healthy fats to boost nutrient bioavailability, and has a nutty flavour while not affecting the texture too drastically. For example, with every 100g of cooked freekeh, you can add about 10g of ground flaxseeds to 100g of cooked basmati rice and the fiber content alone ends up comparable.
This isn't even considering price differential; where I live, freekeh and bulgur wheat is three times as expensive as any variety of rice and is not as widely available.
The most important thing to me in Briyani is the rice. A perfectly cooked Briyani is so delicious and fragrant you could eat it without even any meat or potatoes. The best one I have eaten is a Kerala style Malabar briyani which came with Cashew nuts and raisins. It was so delicious I ate the rice on its own.
There is nothing called Veg Biriyani it's called Pulao... Also in West Bengal we put potato in everything including biriyani
There is. Although I am a big chicken/mutton biryani fan, veg biryani is in fact a thing. The reason I disagree with all the "veg biryani is pulao and not biryani" is because of the way it is cooked. The cooking method of pulao is different than a biryani, and is made with less spices comparatively. You CANNOT call a chicken pulao, biryani. Similarly, you cannot call veg biryani, pulao.
@@TheHoPo in my place people would sue you bro if you talk like that. It's illegal
you peel the dough and throw it away cause most of the time it is super dry and burnt
Ah! Got it! Thank you!
thank you for informative, yet entertaining content, i’m gonna need it one day
The dough is just for sealing. It doesn't have to be cooked. Just to keep the moisture in.
In Kolkata, West Bengal which is in the eastern region of the country of India, we use potato as a extra carb element, so you can smash a part of the potato which has absorbed all the flavours of the biryani (incl the meat flavour) and pickup some rice and little chunk of meat and eat it together. Basically, its carb + carb + protein....
U can add chopoed tomatoes with oil,mint,coriander layers after layers and u can use ghee and the bisri or fried onion ,cashew and kismis (raisins)
Getting some food history lessons reading the comments. One of the reasons I love this channel!
🤘we have an awesome community here!
Rosewater is definitely added in a biriyani. It is, with kewda water(I too am unaware what that is but that is used) and saffron water.
Dough is not consumed.
Basmati is not necessary, in india there are variants which doesn't use basmati for eg: Donne briyani or Nati style briyani.
But rice is a must.
Jack is level -1 chef
😂
I felt this one, freekeh and bulgur make me wish I was eating rice instead😅 Something about the texture doesn't sit right with me.
we use kadi water not rose and also potatoes with the meat always
Things like heavy grains I might use as stuffing with nuts, roasted garlic, and greens for chicken or stuffed pork chops, maybe some spices and herbs. That slightly chewy texture with lightly blanched greens would go great with tender grilled or roasted meat, poultry, or fish.
yeah you can add rose water.
in Bangladesh we use "Kewra water" in biriyani.
and having Potatoes in biriyani is a must in our region.
yes there is a version of biriyani made in pot which has a cover of dough all over. we call it "Parda(veil/curtain) biriyani "
its just a decorative idea. just to make biriyani more fancy though it does adds some flavour enhancement.
As an adult I find it funny that there are so many varieties of potatoes and they have different uses. As a child growing up in 12:08 the 70's we had 1 variety... the "garden tater" and it was used for everything calling for a potato.
Also, man, wrong channel but your music is great. Lovin' the bass hits during the verses on "Grudge" right now.
🤘😁
We use rose water and kewra water.u can even make it colorful usually we put the indian tricolor using food color or better yet saffron soaked in little bitbof milk
Just saying but Biriyani comes from a Persian word meaning "Fried/roasted rice". Fried/roasted RICE. Not Fried Freekeh.
7:29 it's both. some recipes/regions always have potatoes, and some never do. this indian lady seems bengali influenced in many of her recipes... they often do add potato.
also, many more rustic regional recipes don't use basmati.
I just learnt that Freekeh is used in some Levatine and north African cusine for pilaf which is similar to Briyani but that is like saying paella or Rissoto is similar to Biriyani different cultures use different Rices /Grains . I have never seen in India
Uncle Rogers pointed it correctly that there should not be carrots peas in the biryani... as the biryani already has so many ingredients so adding vegetables will complicate the dish and the actual taste and texture of the biryani would not be there... we don't even put coriander.. you need to smell the biryani not the mint. that's why its served with raita there is a reason for everything
What the Freekeh is Freekeh 🤢? Biryani is a luxurious dish mainly done for special occasions. Sealing the pot with dough is making Dum Biryani. You don't eat the dough. Too much rose water. Little goes a long way. Not sure why home cook fried the rice. That's more pilau method. Also Biryani cooks put hot charcoal on the lid of the pot. Again techniques vary.
Your friend, Fatima's recipe is spot on. If you She is coming on as a guest, you should show her this & Kays Special Fried Rice Mark 1. BTW Mr Chilli Jams' banana leaf fish, you need to gently saute the spice mix otherwise spices feel raw.
3:16 Basmati rice is one of the rice that we use for biriyani ,
We also use rice called seeraga Samba it's many times more flavourful than basmati
The dough is not meant to eat
About the dough seal she used, I have never seen such kind of seal, most of the people use kitchen cloth or if they are using dough they use it to cover up the whole top of the pot and yes the dough is also finely cooked and can be eaten.