Squeeze a lemon when boiling the rice..... it will help to avoid sticking the rice.... avoid rose water to avoid the smell of essence..... instead of rose water, use small pineapple chunks.... this will give biriyani a natural smell...... 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 In Kerala, we use small grain rice specifically made for biriyani.... Known as kaima / jeeraka sala rice.....
And his puns. The play on words when he made fun of the "diversity" by saying "white rice matters", which with his affected accent sounds like "white lives matter".
That’s because for a professional chef they should be responsible for having cultural awareness. The professional chef using grains then Basmati is just utter disappointment hence why everyone is flaming her. (And That’s only one part of it)
I honestly think that Uncle Roger isn't purposefully trying to be more critical of professional chefs. He was actually very critical of that one guy in this video who was a beginner level chef. I genuinely believe he would be very kind on a professional chef if that chef did everything right. I think a major reason he appears to more critical of professional chefs is because many of those chefs try to be creative and create their own versions of a recipe. It has actually become quite trendy for professional chefs to try to create new variations of recipes. However, I personally think that it can be problematic when professional chefs try to significantly alter traditional meals, ESPECIALLY when they are advertising that inaccurate recipe to a large, global audience. Not only are they preventing their viewers from knowing what the traditional dish is supposed to be, they are bastardizing the traditional cuisine of many cultures, which can be quite upsetting. My grandma is Japanese, and when she moved to the USA, she was never able to tolerate the "Japanese" food at most Japanese restaurants because it is so unpleasant when compared to what she is used to, all thanks to professional chefs who wanted to be creative and misrepresent her culture's cuisine. And I imagine that most of Uncle Roger's videos intend to criticize chefs for sharing inaccurate versions of traditional recipes he grew up eating.
@Flora, totally agree. I really like UR but I can’t stand the dirty jokes, so for me, James handles it perfectly! May there be many more men in the world just like him! 🥰
The way I make biryani is by going to an Indian takeaway and asking for a biryani, giving money to them, and then waiting until I have biryani. This method is easy and works every time.
First time when I made Biryani they put me in Jail. Rice looked like pudding because I didn't used air tight container. I wasn't able to taste it because police took me before tasting it. The reason I ended up in jail was because it was covid time and we were partying, police gave us warning to leave, almost everyone left peacefully but two uninvited guest made a scene there and ran away, so police took me.
@@darkdragonite316 oh, I am from Hyderabad, India and we eat a lot of Hyderabadi Biryani, and never heard of plums. So, was curious. But can we agree all three f*cked up Biryani?
I'm from Bangladesh and we have our own version of Biriyani (Kacchi Biriyani) and we use potatoes but not egg. The level 1 chef basically made khuchiri/Khichdi. the level 3 chef made vomit and level 2 made the biriyani I, a 25 year old male made in my first try, way too overcooked but it looked the part
Problem with level 2 is plum/ a litre of rose water and overcooked rice. The Shahi of Bengali biryani has potato zafraan and lil rose water just enough for that sweetish flavor.
I don't think level 2 cooked the rice before she added it to the biryani dum, I don't think it's that bad, maybe a little mushy but not terrible.@@ragethewolf
I‘m surprised how much it amuses me to see Chef James laughing at Uncle Roger remarks and jokes. Plus the instructional comments in his calm quiet voice are the perfect complement to Uncle Rogers‘ antics.
In this format from Epicurious, the 'Level 2' chef most of the time turns out with the best end product. The 'Level 3' chef always comes up with some convoluted thing to do that no homecook would ever make and/or they stray away so far away from the usual concept of the dish they are supposed to be making just to show some over-the-top resourcefulness or something.
true briyani can be made in hundred's of ways (not having all the ingredients/time ay home) but two things you cannot leave good quality rice and meat preferably mutton
I blame the producers. What you describe is probably the exact thing they tell their Level 3 chefs. "Just make it as wild and as wacky as possible to differentiate the skill level involved for this dish." Some of the Level 3 chefs are actual restaurateurs like Esther and she does a really good job.
Rinku's version was actually inspired by a lot of different type of biryanis and pulao's actually. Kolkata biryani almost always have potato and boiled egg,Kerala biryani is topped with dry fruits, Bombay biryani would have plums or any other tangy fruit in it. So technically her's was very much an actual biryani or rather small elements taken from different biryanis. Also, i believe yes the rice being mushy was an issue with her dish but some people actually prefer it that way. I like my rice very fluffy and each grains separated. My mother on the other hand loves mushy rice a lot. So that could have been a personal preference or just a simple mistake on her part.
Absolutely what I thought. She took inspiration from a lot of different gharanas of Biriyani. But, I think her chief inspiration was the Bangladeshis or Dhaka style Kacchi Biriyani.
I'm an Indian, and my go to recipe is very similar to the one used by the chef who made shrimp biriyani (I've never used shrimp though, because I worry that I might accidentally overcook them). The reason we make our own spice mixes when we make a dish like biriyani is because the pre-made biriyani mixes often lose their potency, and the biriyani made using them tastes very bland. P.S. I was also horrified by the freekeh "biriyani".
I've had a lot of different biryanis in different parts of India, but one thing is constant: NEVER overcook the rice. My mum always tells me that the rice grains have to be long and separate, and if you look closely, the grain shouldn't have split anywhere.
I am from Mumbai(India) with a previous name Bombay. The Traditional Biryani have two different type of rice layered upon each other. The bottom layer rice consist of load of spices with meat and potatoes which turns it color to brown, and top most layer with white rice(both of them Basmati) garnished with saffron, Indian Bay leaf and some other spices and herbs. After watching the video I can only say that the second Biryani is a Biryani but it also got mushy which is a big no, First one have made a pulao, not a biryani but that pulao resembles more to risotto than to a pulao and lastly for third one, I can only say that here we have many street stalls near railway station, markets etc. which sells biryani and many people enjoy it, if someone start selling the third type in the name of biryani than only God can save him or her.
The way we usually make Mughlai Biriyani in Bangladesh is that we firstly parcook the Basmati [or Kalijeera or Chinigura] rice in half-milk half-water that is infused with bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom, black peppercorns, a little sugar, and salt. To have the perfect texture, this cooking water is usually drained but at least half is saved for later. The rice will then be dried in air and left cooled. The cooking starts actually a night [or at least 8 hours] before. So we marinade the meat [usually goat meat on bones, but beef is also cool, cut in big chunks, in 1 kilo meat, you get minimum 12 to maximum 16 pieces] with whipped plain yogurt, garlic paste, ginger paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, grated nutmeg, mace paste, chilli paste, almond paste, poppy seed paste, very little tomato purée, kewra water, rose water, saffron, thinly sliced deep fried onion, salt and sugar. A Tbsp of green papaya juice [or paste] can be added if the meat is not that fresh and looks a bit tough. In the mean time, we soak peeled whole new baby potatoes in milk with a bit of turmeric [or yellow food colouring] and salt. Then we drain them potatoes and flash fry in ghee just to get colour on the outside. The cooking is usually done on charcoal. In a large heavy bottom pan, we fry some more onions in a mixture of cooking oil and ghee. In goes whole cardamom, whole cloves, whole cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, and star anise. Then we add half the marinated meat with some marinations, then half the parcooked rice, half of them fried potatoes and repeat the process. We also use deep fried cashews, more fried onion, sultanas, prunes, and slightly slit fresh green chilli in the layers. Then we add the saved cooking water [so that the water covers 1/3 of the pot] and soaked saffron threads and ghee and little more kewra water on top. Now the pot will be sealed with a sticky dough the way the Indian lady showed on the vid, and the flame will be lowered down. And This is cooked on a very very low flame on charcoal for at least 3 hours without opening the lid for once. This way the meat will be falling off of the bone, yet the rice and the potatoes won’t be mushy. After 3 hours we’ll open up the lid, add some fresh cilantro and let the entire neighbourhood know that we’ve been cooking Biriyani. [Note: Biriyani is not a dish where you mix some random meat with whatever spice you have in hand and rice together and call it a day. The meat to rice to potato ratio is 2:1:1/2. So if you have 1 kilo rice, you should have 2 kilos of meat and 1/2 kilos of potatoes. We usually have chicken Kofta Kebab, some Raita or a fresh green salad, some chutney, and Borhani {A spicy yogurt drink} on the side. BTW, things that SHALL not go in Mughlai Biriyani at any cost, are as follows: turmeric, curry powder, carrot, peas, cream, and big chunks of tomatoes. Happy cooking!]
I'm always shocked to see a Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Indian name for a food that we also use in Iran. I was really surprised when you said Borhani is a drink because here in Iran, what we call Borani is a traditional dish usually made with fried veg (most commonly eggplant or spinach) and yogurt, sometimes topped with fried onion ... It's nothing like a drink! On the other hand, there's an Indian drink called Falooda, which I was also shocked to find out is basically a blended/drink version of our Faloodeh: frozen rice noodles in a sweet sherbet. Not to mention Iranian Sheermal vs Pakistani Sheermal. Why is Middle Eastern food so confusing 😂
So far, all I've learned from these Epicurious adventures is that I should never trust that anything a pro chef serves me is actually what they claim it is.
Plums are a common ingredient in many Biryani recipes. Some people do use dried. But I prefer using fresh plums, boiled and peeled, along with goat meat. Plum is known to be a very good tenderizer.
Yes, Plums and are a common ingredient in many Biryani recipes, just the wrong kind. I am sorry but, to me, the best Biryani is made by people from Hyderabad and other places in the South of Hyderabad in India, like the Ambur Dum Biryani.
But the point is do you really need plums as a tendering agent for Prawns? I don't think so. Tenderizing agents are mostly used for red meats like Mutton(Goat) Biryani.
I work with a lot of Indians, and we frequently discuss cooking of the areas. I was given a relatively lengthy explanation that Biryani is a regional specialty in all regions of India, with incredible diversity in how it's made. India is a huge country with literally hundreds of authentic recipes for Biryani, some including dried fruits, different types of rice, grain, etc. and vastly different in texture and cooking methods. Basically I was told that it was nearly impossible to make a Biryani that wouldn't be accepted as one, but each place would consider their local one the best (not the only one though, Indians have huge respect and love for the cooking of other regions, it just isn't "home"). Basically, Uncle Roger kinda overshot the mark on the heavy judgment on ingredients for something that probably was just as authentic as his perception of it :-)
Although, I think Basmati rice is a must. I don't think I have ever seen a non-Basmati biryani. The reason is that Basmati rice grain when cooked perfectly separates really easily and that allows the flavours to permeate the biryani
when i saw the lady making her own spices from raw incredients using that coffee machine i decided who i would like to make my food :) if she would do that in a restaurant infront of the people to stimulate apetite she would get the recognition she deserves. very nice.
In Pakistan , our version is somehow similar to level 2. However, we fry meat in spices and oil to get extra texture and teste and add rice and water once meat is 80% cooked. Yes, we do add dried plum they really teste good when cooked with rice. Additionaly, we add paste of garlic, ginger and at my home we also add green chilli paste because we like it spicy but we like our biryani rice separated not mushy, no rose water and dry fruits. Fried Onions and potatos are optional we do add these sometimes. Raita is must as it cools down spices.
The potato in the biriyani is quite ok....like James said, it depends on the region. I am from Kolkata (Calcutta) and potatoes are the heart and soul of the biriyani to us. We even joke about marrying a person who would share their potato from the biriyani. Like, you can ask for a portion of the meat or the rice, but asking to share the alu (potato) is blasphemous 😂
I think the biryani 2 is a type of shaahi biryani which explains the garnishes like pistachios, almonds.might also add the fried onions instead of cucumber . And yeah the rose is okay if it's diluted before use (not too much) so that the fragrance of the rose is uniformly spread ,her technic of pouring the rose water could have been better instead of straiggt up pouring it which would have helped it to spread the fragrance uniformly
The first guy , Steven, as a "level 1 chef" is someone with no real training or experience, he is a lot of fun in some of these, but his cooking is usually.. interesting. He has a lot of charisma but as a level 1 he isn't expected to know anything about the recipe more than maybe looking on up online and having tried it once. So Rinku whenever I see her, she is pretty consistent. Especially for a home chef, I get the idea this is a passed down recipe for her so there will be some differences that change over time like a game of telephone. I think she did a fine job. As a level 2 they know the recipe pretty ok and have done it more than once but not formally trained. Danielle is honestly... well I have nothing nice to say after seeing her again and again, and not just about her cooking. so we will leave it at that. Level 3 chefs can be hit or miss, they are often educated/trained and will often want to put something of themselves in the dish, for better or worse. Some though are great authentic chefs that want to make the food the "right way" and you get a more traditional dish where someone puts in the extra work. As someone who things that there is high beauty in simplicity I tend to prefer the level 2 chef's who aren't putting exotic ingredients and using tools that cost as much as my car to make a Quesadilla unique. You should check out Frank (level 3 on the paella) on his channel proto cooks, you see him do things more in his wheelhouse and he will redeem himself. He might not have done the best Paella, but give him a 2nd chance, you won't regret it.
that's why I didn't say much with Steven, as he doesn't really know. No 2 did better, but the Chef for me was trying to hard to make something different. I'll have to take a look at Frank's other paella!
@@nectarpeach2853 I found it very ironic and amusing that the "diversity chef" only noticed color as the problem with her recipe. Almost like her entire focus in life was surface level color and not substance of any kind.
I personally like Chef Saul. He is just charming. Chef Peggy keeps adding booze to her recipes, and she's another brand of charming. Chef Frank and Chef Palak are fine too. And that's about the only Level 3 chefs I like
The plum actually sounds a bit weird in biryani but people in India actually do use it. Some places in Kolkata use plum in their biryani but the amount is very little. Also the potatoes are the best thing about Kolkata Biryani.
All biryani's are unique there is no best or worst. As you move north the biryani is sweet and flavourful. In south the biryani is spicy and flavourful. It's all depends on individual taste.
@@magiveem Oh, is it? I haven't tried that one yet. But trust me, if you're looking for something unique, try Bangladeshi biryani. They use different kind of rice for each type of meat and the flavours are just so different from what we have here.
In the United States we use cultured buttermilk to tenderize our chicken for fried chicken if you don't have cultured butter milk you can use Keffir or 50/50 milk and plain yougurt
The Indian chef is making a Bengali biryani. She's spot on right in everything: potato, plum, frying the rice. please keep an open mind and try it once. Sautéing the rice for a while gives a great flavor in the rice. We're eating the exact same biryani since our childhood. It's not a recipe she created, it's a recipe passed on for generation in Bengali people. Lots of love for her 💗
@@animecafe1142 I'm talking about the recipe, not her cooking. The recipe is good. Try it at home, boil the rice less and use good quality basmati. You'll get fluffy biriani with amazing flavor
@@Blue-en7yu i can also vouch this type of recipe being a bengali classic I have had this since childhood. Its a good recipe but the critiques i have is just not to boil it too much and to be careful to put the rosewater in the biryani.
The briayani made by the Indian lady is actually quite accurate, it's the Punjabi style. They put potatoes, plums or sometimes mangoes and finish it off with some kind of nuts. If I'm not mistaken for vegetarian version they'd call it pillau instead of briyani. Personally, I like the Lucknow briyani, they'd boil the rice till 80% done, and start stacking the neat and rice like lasagna before sealing the pot with a dough and finish it off on low heat.
Rose water is a common ingredient/flavoring in western cooking prior to the successful propagation of vanilla, which pretty much displaced rose water entirely in western Europe, Canada, and the US, and IIRC New Zealand and Australia as well. Cashews are not "traditional" in South Asian cooking, unless you decide that "traditional" post-dates the Columbian exchange. Cashews are a South American species and were not used until well after the Spanish and Portuguese started bringing foods back to Europe and introducing them to Africa, the Middle East. Southern Asia and, well, the rest of the Old World.
The reasons these videos are so addictive : 1.) Uncle Roger - believe it or not - is EXTREMELY well versed with Asian dishes AND he has an equally filthy mind. 2.) James is equally well versed in the kitchen but is horrifically nice and terribly uncomfortable with the all of Roger's "meanness" and especially all of his sexual innuendo.
Nigel Ng is a professional comedian with at least 15-20 years of experience. I worked with him in London long ago and he absolutely slayed the audience. Very funny guy. Now he does shows in his own voice and as Uncle Roger...his crowd work is even more LETHAL. If you wear an orange 🧡 shirt, he picks on you. Because that is complicité. You volunteered.
Also, Jame's is actually a trained chef. Uncle Roger is not a chef. He isn't even Uncle Roger. He's Nigel Ng, a well educated guy who makes money insulting chefs. 🤔
@@ChefJamesMakinson great to hear it brother. Constantly learning is the only way to reach near anything close to expertise, especially when it comes to something as vast as Indian or Asian cuisine. Just to give you an example, although I'm sure you would have many such anecdotes from your own experiences. I come from the city of Lucknow, a city known for its food. And from my childhood I have seen the love and care people put in cooking. And what makes it great is that every family adds their own twists to things and those nuances not only make the taste to be different but give you so much to learn and try and adopt in your own cooking. It makes cooking so much similar to art.
I’m from Kolkata (India) formerly known as Calcutta. Eggs and potatoes are the must-have ingredients for Calcutta Biryani. I didn’t know there was a vegetarian Biryani until today. We call it Pulao and it is made slightly different way than Biryani. You can add meat to Pulao. We have a festival called “Rakkhye Kali Puja”. We make meat (mutton) Pulao for Goddess Kali as an offering. Biryani is my favorite food and the level 3 pro chef messed it up pretty bad. It makes me sad. 😣😣😣
I have grown up eating rice every day twice .. and we have always made rice with the drain method. Separates the starch from the rice. It's fluffier than if you cook the rice till all the water vaporizes. Also it depends upon the kind of rice you are cooking.
5:21 When we used basmati, we usually left it to soak with water for few hours(drain n washed) and then add more water when its cook in the rice cooker. Thanks for the pasta salt tip, didn't know pasta water supposed to be a bit salty. used to see people putting few grains of salt that I thought the amount of it never matters. 😅
Sautéing the rice in the ghee a little bit while still dry helps with making the rice fluffy and separate.. unless overcooked seriously, the rice will not get sticky if this step is done.. that’s what Rinku was doing .. dry sautéing for just a minute or so Also a lot of biriyanis in India use something called Kewra water where Rinku is using the rose water… it gives an added aroma and subtle after taste to the biryani.. it is an extract of the pandan flower..
I'm amazed how Uncle Roger got the traditional recipes, was hoping you correct his mistake. Guess Uncle Roger is not only comedian. Love your tips and knowledge, thank you.
One thing I love about Indian cuisine, and India in general, is just how much variety there is. Rinku's version takes inspiration from multiple different kinds of biryani: eggs and potatoes are a must have in Kolkata biryani; plums are one of the defining ingredients of Punjabi biryani. Don't have an issue with the mushy rice. It's a question of preference- I like fluffy rice, but there's nothing wrong with mushier rice, as far as biryani goes. There is so much variety. Every region does their biryani differently and within the regions every family has their own spin on it, and it also goes for pretty much every Indian dish. One thing that is common across all the regions however is that biryani is a dish for Special Occasions: weddings, holidays, important celebrations, etc. It's not a dish that you're going to be making often, so it can be as complex as you want and require a lot of effort. It's basically like wedding cake- it's a rare occasion so you can go wild. Which is why the "pro chef" version just makes me want to shrivel up like a leaf fallen off a branch and die. It's like trying to make wedding cake health conscious. Just don't...
It's not even health conscious though, grains are carbs, she just swapped to an entirely different grain and pretended it's healthier for you because it's green.
Then Bengalis of Bangladesh may eat plums... But the Bengalis of India in West Bengal state caters to mostly Potato and Egg with their Biryani without the use of dry fruits, plums... also considering Bengali Indian Biryani is kind of an offshoot of Awadhi Biryani as historians claim it to be its interesting.
We use drained rice water for curries, also we never use more than 2 vegetables, potato and some other random vegetable. really wonderful, doesn't overshadow rice and meat.
@@ChefJamesMakinson she did pretty bad. Biryani is easy. I made a great one first time. And that too without the basmati rice but the normal aged one. If I made such a dish I would be haunted my entire life. And there have been such occasions. But I was drunk at that time
8:50, nope, Its very common to have potato in biriyani in Bangladesh, as well as in WB. Dhakaiya Kachhi and Kalkatta biriyani both have potatoes in it. it's a must for some as well. but no other vegies is allowed in Biriyani, no other. veg biriyani is not only a bad biriyani, it's not biriyani.
I'm from Jharkhand and can vouch for potatoes in biryani, especially in Kolkata Biryani. A well-cooked potato can sometimes taste better than the meat, at least for me!
Chef James Makinson is one of the best food reviewers apart from Uncle Roger and so on and so forth. Seems like the chefs cooking biryani seem to be struggling in this episode. I feel as though the Indian woman got the recipe right even though there’s just a few errors here and there, but she still did a pretty great job overall. Uncle Roger will never not be funny. He’s keen on making people smile per video of his.
Indian here, you are absolutely right about a lot of things: - Yes, the method of sealing is traditional - Yes, there are a lot of different varieties of biryani. I'm from Kerala and we make fish and beef biryani. Potatoes are actually done in a few places. - Biryani is a broadly south Asian food (Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan). So there are plenty of options to add dried fruits and nuts. So I'm not surprised by the pistachios and the plums (we use raisins in Kerala) - Yes, Steven's rice is certainly too mushy and Freekeh will not give you the right consistency. You wouldn't call use soba noodles in pasta. So it's a little odd for me to see someone use a grain for biryani.
@@ebinesvthundupurackal7446 Yeah. A restaurant serving these would definitely not survive in India 😂. Calcutta uses potatoes in biryani, but I think she was going for somewhat of a homecook style.
I always like your Three Levels reactions because it allows for a variety of your input on various dishes. You get the "amateur" and the "adept" which allow for solid critique from you for things I might actually think myself (maybe not specifically Biryani but philosophies of rice, stock, oil, knife work, etc), and then you get the Pro Chef "Nice" or "Hmm... that's a choice" reactions which are always fun.
Hey James love your videos! Thanks fot reacting to more Indian cuisine, Traditionally biryani is just layered rice and meat (can br cooked or uncooked) and letting everything steam together. Potatoes is common in Kolkata style biryani which is popular in the eastern side of the country (also the southern biryanis use short grain rice instead of basmati). Adding rose and kewra (screwpine) water while cooking lamb seems kinda off since it's the last step during layering to preserve the auroma. Most importantly almost all Biryanis have some sort of 'fried onions' layered into the rice
I worked VERY briefly at an Indo-Pak restaurant several years ago. There they would give the rice a thorough washing before adding it raw to the marsala, meat, and onions, then cooking it in a convection oven for 45 minutes, sealed tightly with foil in a 400 pan. Everything going in cold and raw, excepting the meat, it didn't come out terribly overcooked at all.
It seems like some western restaurant bs, it seems edible with right ingredients and preparation but i doubt it will taste as good. Tell me how it compares to a proper biryani
Just started watching this dude, he doesn't say much but his simple explanations of "this is a choice - here are the pros and cons" versus "this is what you should do and why" is so straightforward and clear. He actually gives me the reasoning I need for my cooking!
We watch these 4 levels of series with my friend, we always bet who's going to do it best, when they introduce the cooks and the sushi episode is our favourite. Level 1:Just some dude Level 2:A home cook Level 3: The woman is actually Japanese We both just went, "Ay, that's cheating!"
Biryani rice (how I do it): Basmati rice only 😅 -Wash rice really well. -Boil rice with excess water and hard spices (star anise, cinnamon stick, cardamom, mace and cloves). Also add salt to the water. -You can cook but don't overcook. You should be able to break the rice grain with finger. -Strain rice with colander and put hard spices away, you don't need it. -Keep strained rice on a flat plate.
As Student I can make way better Biryani than this And of Course Veg Biryani I am Vegetarian so yeah And in Veg Biryani You really don't need Potato it don't taste that great just use Peas, Carrots, CauliFlowers And If Veg Use Paneer will be best incredient in Biryani
Indian here, can confirm that potatoes are typically added to Biryani in the eastern states. This possibly comes from the fact that there was a terrible famine at one point and potatoes make it such that a little food could go a long way. So potatoes in biryani is pretty much a staple there
In this video I’d say the lvl 2 is closest but even then she messes up the dish… remember watching this video with one of my sous chefs, who is from India and he was appalled
In Karachi Biryani, we tend to include potato along with our choice of protein (beef, mutton, chicken) more specifically beef. Also, we put the potato in the end for 5 to 7 minutes in the curry, so the potato can infuse with the flavor of the curry. Then take the 80% cooked rice (basmati or parboiled-sella) and start the layering process. Once the layering is done, put a tiny bit of food color either red or orange. After that, let it dum (steam) for 30 to 40 minutes and rest for 10 minutes.
None of these dishes are actually Biryani that we eat in India. Its so strange when even a so-called Level 3 chef messes up Biryani. Tbh the level 2 cook actually tried to make the dish authentic, but the Biryani of the Pro chef was not Biryani at all 😂
in our family we usually while cooking the rice we also add a little of oil some bay leaves and cardamom to give the rice some flavor. The meat is made into a kinda like gravy on top of which we layer the half done rice along with some chopped coriander ,chopped mint and some fried onions. We leave it for a few minutes before adding the saffron and let it cook in low heat for about 15 min .
The indian made it accurate but as uncle Roger said biryani is a hard dish to make. The true skill shows when the pot has no water from begining and everything cooks from the steam of par-cooked rice and meat (dum=steam/breath, thus dum cooking)
As a Bangladeshi, one interesting thing to add here, potato is very important in Biryani in Bangladesh. And Bangladesh is also very famous for Biryani, which is the food for the celebration. You can find some references about the Biryani of Bangladesh on RUclips (for example, recently Mark Wines made a food blog about it). Nevertheless, it would be really fun if a Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani chef made a similar kind of video about Biryani. Every version is so different but equally tasty.
Potato is actually traditional in biryani in the West Bengal region where I'm from, but cut in half and boiled with spices to make it flavourful and sweet, plum is also used for sweetness sometimes, but birista works equally good, and rice is never fried for Dum Biryani (caramelized onions)
I am from Hyderabad and we like Lucknow are known very well for our style of biryani i.e., Dum Biryani, and I would like to elaborate on your comment. Hyderabadi biryani is made in two ways. 1 is where the chicken is cooked before adding it to the rice cooked 70% and layering it up (this is not Dum Biryani) and 2. is where the rice is cooked 50%, the water is drained and the uncooked marinated chicken is layered (Dum Biryani). The word Dum is actually used in context to say 'let it cook very slowly'. Context: Kid: Amma pait main angar lagri! Biryani bangai kya? (Mom, I'm damn hungry! Is the biryani done yet?) Mom: Hau ek das minute do, dum pe rakhi main (Yeah, just give it 10 minutes, it's on dum) Dum biryani takes rather more time to cook and perfecting the ratio takes a lot of experience. The reason why Dum Biryani is preferred is that the chicken when cooking with the rice lets out water which is then soaked in by the rice and hence brings more flavor to it (which is a basic methodology behind biryani but this is a little more intense). And also, Hyderabadi Biryani does not have plums or potatoes or anything as such (putting tomatoes in it is a sin, JK!!). If a Hyderabadi sees tomatoes and potatoes in his biryani they call it tahari (sort of a pullao). The only sweetening ingredient we use is fried onions and sometimes kishmish as toppings but ew- hard pass. Anywayssss thanks for letting me rant
Rinku's biryani was a lot like South East Asian Traditional Biryanis, especially from Kolkata and Bangladesh. She did almost everything right including the Potato. Potato is the only vegetable we use, especially in Mutton Biryanis, so that it balances the meaty texture in every bite. Her rice was definitely overcooked but thats more like a perfection thing. I currently live in Canada and I've tasted biryanis from multiple regions. Supposedly, North Indian biryanis are more RED in color and has more spices in it. However, honestly it doesn't correspond to biryani, rather only a mixture of rice and meat. Traditional biryanis should be clear white with a hint of color from the meat juices, like the 12:10 clip from Uncle Roger's video. The rice should have its own taste and not the taste of the meat gravy only. In big pans, extremely traditional Lamb Biryanis are cooked with meat at the bottom and rice at the top. You mix them before serving but only gently to preserve the texture of the rice, meat and potato.
@@forcehucos2429 you do know that asian means a whole continent and south East Asian actually covers all of India , and srilanka to an extent including Burma and Myanmar too...read up on your geography before criticising others..
Having eaten plenty of Briyani in my lifetime as I love Indian food and it is widely available here in Malaysia (mostly Southern style due to a majority of Indians here are Tamil, you can find the occasional Northern Indian cuisine too like the Gujeratis etc), I wouldn't touch Lvl 1 and 3's "briyani" with a ten foot pole, Lvl2's... may not, either... Looks way too wet and mushy. If I want to eat porridge I'll go look for porridge instead of paying a briyani premium, really.
happy to share some insight! first- you need rice. biriyani losely translates to fried before cooking rice. i did not understand why that chef was trying to get creative with that part. second biryani is not traditionally vegetarian but potato with meat is the king in kolkata, bombay and sindhi biryani. prunes/plum also common in sindhi biryani. kolkata biryani also uses a hardboil egg. fun fact: most common meat to use is actually mutton and not lamb. you can fry the rice in ghee with some whole garam masala (whole cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, bay leaf etc NOT THE POWDER)- why? no idea. i do it cos my grandma used to- before parboiling but its not a must and many also dont do it. but i feel like it enhances the flavour and speeds up the parboiling time. usually 2-3 mins is good. rinku is actually getting most steps right but im not sure about using a crustacean just in itself as the major protein since they tend to get rubbery by the time the flavour has seeped in and the rice is full cooked in the dum (slow pressure cooking). there are variants of shrimp/fish based rice dishes- especially in bengal such as 'chingri/illish polao' (prawn/hilsha fish pilaf) but usually you'd flavour the rice in stock or steam fish and rice at the same time or parboil it more than you'd for biryani. but overall she seems to be much closer to a home cook biryani than the other two.
@@ChefJamesMakinson I just want to point out something that I have run into... Some Indians call goat-meat mutton. They call any sheep 'lamb' and goat 'mutton'. I don't know why this is, but I have run into it more than once, and it means that we MAY not be getting the true picture here. Both sheep and goat can appear in biryani, so it might be worth double-checking just what is meant by 'mutton'. They could mean what we would call chevon (adult goat meat), or something like what you would probably (I'm guessing) call cabrito.
@@neetishyadav8553 Thank you for the confirmation. I have not had that many occasions to discuss these meats with Indian acquaintances, so I wasn't sure if it was just a Gujrati thing rather than an all-of-India thing, or maybe an all-of-SW-Asia thing, or maybe it was just dumb 'luck' that I ran across two people who used the word mutton for goat meat.
I've just ran onto these "double" reactions and am learning a lot. What has me smiling the most is your admonishments for us to be nice... I feel like a grammar school student again... This is a great environment to relax and learn at the same time. Thanks for this ... pj
I wish we were friends so when I'm annoyed you can just say whatever you want even read a recipe and it would calm me down immediately 😁😁😁 amazing energy
Never heard of cooking rice to 80% or whatever.. What my family usually do is called "Dahm" not sure if i spelled that correctly but basically you steam the rice to let all the water evaporate. Usually by wrapping a cloth on the lid to trap the water to. We usually do a base first so all your masala whatever you're going to use. Then sort out the meat and add it to the masala. Add your rice and water then let it steam cook for however long it needs. (Obviously i condensed this down enormously but you get the general idea lol
I really enjoy your videos, esp your reactions to Uncle Roger. As Uncle Roger provides comedy I really like how you pause to provide your professional opinion and comments! Learning something each time
as an Indian , when i saw her use the Freekeh grain, i freaked out Yes biriyani is a popular dish associated with India but tbh it has many different renditions and varieties in different parts of India itself, just the basics are the same everywhere and yes in biriyani we must not cook rice completely so water is used appropriately, basmati already requires less water to cook than the normal rice (plus it cooks very fast so care must be taken not to overcook), on top of that we want the rice to be cooked to about 75-85% only so water needs to be adjusted properly, even for biryani draining the rice is not a good practice but its ok i guess If we add nuts we only generally add cashews like uncle roger said and then maybe some cilantro, thats all.
South Africans also cook biryani. We have a large Indian descendant population. But it's cooked not only in Indian households. Love how diverse our country's cooking influences are! Think this is a sign to cook some biryani the way my family likes it😋😁
@@ChefJamesMakinsonin South Africa there is a lot of Indian influence in terms of cuisine. It's similar for the West Indies because a lot of people from Indian subcontinent were forced to work in the West Indies during the British rule.
I'm legit dying to try Level 2. On the original video, there seems to be a divide on if it's actual biryani or a "close enough" example. But darn if it doesn't look delicious. Presentation is the best too.
James your channel is taking off!! So exiting. Keep up all the amazing videos. All your hard work is definitely paying off. Congrats on your sponsor as well! As always your critique is on point.
14:45 that looks a fine meal. Generally speaking nothing wrong with that. I don't know is that Biryani, but would probably eat that meal with a good appetite.
I really liked your explanations inbetween, I do agree with all of them. Where I am from we usually do the Bengali version of the biriyani (with eggs + potatoes along with the lamb or goat meat). That being said the second one was pretty good except for the sticky rice. The 3rd was despicable, really bad when pro chefs don't respect the traditional recipe. If she wanted to do something different she shouldn't have brought it in the biriyani episode.
I just quickly wanna add my two cents to the whole potato debacle. I got to stay in Khulna (southwest Bangladesh) for three months and every time me and my group were invited for food it had potatoes in it on top of rice and meat. That includes the two times biryani was served. So I'm pretty sure that potatoes are a regional thing. Since, you know, the food was prepared and also eaten enthusiastically by bengali people.
I actually want to see a series where you try to cook cuisines that you have totally no knowledge about or very little experience. Seems like you'll make it fun with a lot of learning.
I had amazing biryani in Singapore. It was the only dish that I ordered that wasn't insanely spicy. The guy at the food stand warned me, but I like spicy food and told him I didn't mind some spice. He just laughed at me and said "But this is Indian food spicy" It was molten lava in my mouth. Even the rice and veggies were insanely spicy.
Biryani is not necessarily spicy, altho different parts of India have their own take on the spice level. The dish is special - and damn complicated to make - because many ingredients are layered on top of each other. Each ingredient brings its own specialness to the dish and adds to the overall whole. Biryani is art and the best artists are very, very rare..and they don't use freekeh or whatever the hell one of the chefs used. Indian biryani needs basmati, which is also quintessentially Indian...using any other rice is just...haiyaa! 🤦♀️
Dried plums are normal and very common. Just like potatoes! I actually roast potatoes and add them when i layer everything. Boiled eggs are also delicious.
So I am a bit late to this. I did some digging around, and come to find out that Rinku is from the eastern part of India, Kolkata, so of course her Biryani will be different. Someone in Uncle Roger's video comments did mention that her biryani was very eastern tradition. Overall, I actually do want to try to make her Biryani someday because it looks very good to eat!
This is something new for me. I learned a lot from this video. I am not really familiar with Biryani but in all fairness to Uncle Roger, he is very knowledgeable with this dish. And thanks to the added information you shared here aside from what Uncle Roger has already said. I find it amazing that you have a wide knowledge about different cuisines, from western to Asian cuisine. This episode is very educational especially for someone like me who is not really familiar with Indian cuisine. Thanks again and keep us the good work. More power to your channel. 😊
if you find any indian restaurant near your place, you must try it out. but, biryani has been there for centuries but it differs from region to region. so you may just find new types of biryani, depending on which indian cuisine they serve.
I don’t know about other cultures but in mauritius, potatoes are used in Briyani. The potatoes are peeled, either kept whole or chopped in half, par cooked by deep frying, saffron water is poured on top of the potatoes, then they’re added to the rice so that they’re cooked through by steam.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Get 4 months for free on a 2-year plan here ➼ nordvpn.com/ChefJames It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee!
sir correction there is no veg biryani its called pulao..... in south thank u
@@blackkingbastard695 pulao is different.... veg biriyani is different....
Squeeze a lemon when boiling the rice..... it will help to avoid sticking the rice.... avoid rose water to avoid the smell of essence..... instead of rose water, use small pineapple chunks.... this will give biriyani a natural smell...... 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
In Kerala, we use small grain rice specifically made for biriyani....
Known as kaima / jeeraka sala rice.....
None of those are legit biriyani. It's just sad to even consider calling them that.
Dirt is wonderful on a freshly pulled Carrot 🥕 ....what ! Better than earwax !
the thing I like about Uncle Roger is that, the more "professional" the chef is the harsher his criticism is.
its how it should be. just like you cant be angry at a child for adult problems ou cant be angry at a newbie for profesional mistakes
@@phoenixv8085 Indeed!
And his puns.
The play on words when he made fun of the "diversity" by saying "white rice matters", which with his affected accent sounds like "white lives matter".
That’s because for a professional chef they should be responsible for having cultural awareness. The professional chef using grains then Basmati is just utter disappointment hence why everyone is flaming her. (And That’s only one part of it)
I honestly think that Uncle Roger isn't purposefully trying to be more critical of professional chefs. He was actually very critical of that one guy in this video who was a beginner level chef. I genuinely believe he would be very kind on a professional chef if that chef did everything right. I think a major reason he appears to more critical of professional chefs is because many of those chefs try to be creative and create their own versions of a recipe. It has actually become quite trendy for professional chefs to try to create new variations of recipes. However, I personally think that it can be problematic when professional chefs try to significantly alter traditional meals, ESPECIALLY when they are advertising that inaccurate recipe to a large, global audience. Not only are they preventing their viewers from knowing what the traditional dish is supposed to be, they are bastardizing the traditional cuisine of many cultures, which can be quite upsetting. My grandma is Japanese, and when she moved to the USA, she was never able to tolerate the "Japanese" food at most Japanese restaurants because it is so unpleasant when compared to what she is used to, all thanks to professional chefs who wanted to be creative and misrepresent her culture's cuisine. And I imagine that most of Uncle Roger's videos intend to criticize chefs for sharing inaccurate versions of traditional recipes he grew up eating.
Love how James ignores all the dirty jokes and only comments in the cooking, it honestly makes the jokes even better somehow
James is one seriously class act. It is one of the reasons I watch--and he does great recipes!
He has that shy, reserved smile that says he gets it, but has that "nah, I'm not gonna touch that one" vibe.
I go with that he gives it a wink and smile. He’d cut it otherwise. I’m glad that he handles it as he does.
@@southwest7977 it's such a classy move on his part. I love it, too.
@Flora, totally agree. I really like UR but I can’t stand the dirty jokes, so for me, James handles it perfectly! May there be many more men in the world just like him! 🥰
13:29 In India, some restaurants do prefer adding plums, but not everyone prefer them on their plates😅
Dried plums is a very common ingredient for biryani.
The way I make biryani is by going to an Indian takeaway and asking for a biryani, giving money to them, and then waiting until I have biryani. This method is easy and works every time.
As an Indian, I second that. I'd only try it when I am a pro in cooking. The best way is to order it!
Don't try it in the UK though. They don't know the difference between tawa pulao and dum biriyani
@@debdal6 advice accepted.
not bad but you wont get the acutual one, but their variation with their own twist.....
First time when I made Biryani they put me in Jail. Rice looked like pudding because I didn't used air tight container. I wasn't able to taste it because police took me before tasting it.
The reason I ended up in jail was because it was covid time and we were partying, police gave us warning to leave, almost everyone left peacefully but two uninvited guest made a scene there and ran away, so police took me.
The contrast between James (calm, collected) and Nigel (over the top comedy) makes the video really entertaining!
I love all your vids
Thank you!
Was also going to say I'm guessing no. 2 will be the best, let's see how that turns out
I once found a co-workers wedding ring in prepped veggies, she was happy I found it, and I was so mad i found it.
@@rymoremorris5287 lol haha 😂😂
Level 1 Chef: accidental khichdi
Level 2 Chef: actual biriyani
Level 3 Chef: absolute blasphemy
😂
Tbh if you give that lvl3 bs to an Indian and call it biryani they will legit get angry
😂😂😂
@@neetishyadav8553 bro the owner of the restaurant will be beaten up publicly if this shit was served
@@neetishyadav8553 even Pakistanis, Pakistanis would get angrier, I mean atleast I'm angry....at all of them.
As a Pakistani who eats biryani almost every week. Seeing freekah or whatever that is pains my heart so much I can't handle it.
Also plum is correct. We use it all the time.
@@darkdragonite316 in Pakistan?
@@akshaypendyala yeah we eat it alot
@@akshaypendyala mughlai biryani
@@darkdragonite316 oh, I am from Hyderabad, India and we eat a lot of Hyderabadi Biryani, and never heard of plums. So, was curious. But can we agree all three f*cked up Biryani?
At 7:08, When it shows the face of rinku on the girl from the ring movie crawling out of the tv, I lost it 😂😂.
Hahaha 🤣
I'm from Bangladesh and we have our own version of Biriyani (Kacchi Biriyani) and we use potatoes but not egg. The level 1 chef basically made khuchiri/Khichdi. the level 3 chef made vomit and level 2 made the biriyani I, a 25 year old male made in my first try, way too overcooked but it looked the part
Problem with level 2 is plum/ a litre of rose water and overcooked rice. The Shahi of Bengali biryani has potato zafraan and lil rose water just enough for that sweetish flavor.
Level 2 made shrimp khidchri level 1 made veg khidchri and level 3 I don't even know what is that😅
I don't think level 2 cooked the rice before she added it to the biryani dum, I don't think it's that bad, maybe a little mushy but not terrible.@@ragethewolf
I am sri lankan the best food in Bangladesh is the kacci biriyani yummmmm
Level 1 looks my grandmas tomato rice
Level 2 looks like really good biryani
Level 3 looks like rabbit poop 💩
I really enjoy how knowledgable Chef James is, also how calming and soothing his voice is when talking. That definitely earns a subscription!
Wow, thank you!
I‘m surprised how much it amuses me to see Chef James laughing at Uncle Roger remarks and jokes. Plus the instructional comments in his calm quiet voice are the perfect complement to Uncle Rogers‘ antics.
In this format from Epicurious, the 'Level 2' chef most of the time turns out with the best end product. The 'Level 3' chef always comes up with some convoluted thing to do that no homecook would ever make and/or they stray away so far away from the usual concept of the dish they are supposed to be making just to show some over-the-top resourcefulness or something.
Well the level 3 paella guy just made charcoal...
true briyani can be made in hundred's of ways (not having all the ingredients/time ay home) but two things you cannot leave good quality rice and meat preferably mutton
I blame the producers. What you describe is probably the exact thing they tell their Level 3 chefs. "Just make it as wild and as wacky as possible to differentiate the skill level involved for this dish." Some of the Level 3 chefs are actual restaurateurs like Esther and she does a really good job.
Not when Frank Proto is the level 3... He ALWAYS brings his A-game!
The gumbo level 3 chef was great though. She taught cooking and you could tell. She really went into how Creole gumbo is made from the ground up.
Rinku's version was actually inspired by a lot of different type of biryanis and pulao's actually. Kolkata biryani almost always have potato and boiled egg,Kerala biryani is topped with dry fruits, Bombay biryani would have plums or any other tangy fruit in it. So technically her's was very much an actual biryani or rather small elements taken from different biryanis. Also, i believe yes the rice being mushy was an issue with her dish but some people actually prefer it that way. I like my rice very fluffy and each grains separated. My mother on the other hand loves mushy rice a lot. So that could have been a personal preference or just a simple mistake on her part.
Absolutely what I thought. She took inspiration from a lot of different gharanas of Biriyani. But, I think her chief inspiration was the Bangladeshis or Dhaka style Kacchi Biriyani.
Yeah Uncle Roger was incorrect in that plums are a wrong ingredient. But he did comment on his own video correcting himself.
I think it was just a family recipe passed on.
It looked a lot like Kachhi biriyani which is a popular method of making biriyani in East Bengal.
Even in kerala Malabar region we don't use basmati rice, we use khyma rice
I'm an Indian, and my go to recipe is very similar to the one used by the chef who made shrimp biriyani (I've never used shrimp though, because I worry that I might accidentally overcook them).
The reason we make our own spice mixes when we make a dish like biriyani is because the pre-made biriyani mixes often lose their potency, and the biriyani made using them tastes very bland.
P.S. I was also horrified by the freekeh "biriyani".
I've had a lot of different biryanis in different parts of India, but one thing is constant: NEVER overcook the rice. My mum always tells me that the rice grains have to be long and separate, and if you look closely, the grain shouldn't have split anywhere.
I am from Mumbai(India) with a previous name Bombay. The Traditional Biryani have two different type of rice layered upon each other. The bottom layer rice consist of load of spices with meat and potatoes which turns it color to brown, and top most layer with white rice(both of them Basmati) garnished with saffron, Indian Bay leaf and some other spices and herbs. After watching the video I can only say that the second Biryani is a Biryani but it also got mushy which is a big no, First one have made a pulao, not a biryani but that pulao resembles more to risotto than to a pulao and lastly for third one, I can only say that here we have many street stalls near railway station, markets etc. which sells biryani and many people enjoy it, if someone start selling the third type in the name of biryani than only God can save him or her.
The way we usually make Mughlai Biriyani in Bangladesh is that we firstly parcook the Basmati [or Kalijeera or Chinigura] rice in half-milk half-water that is infused with bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom, black peppercorns, a little sugar, and salt. To have the perfect texture, this cooking water is usually drained but at least half is saved for later. The rice will then be dried in air and left cooled. The cooking starts actually a night [or at least 8 hours] before. So we marinade the meat [usually goat meat on bones, but beef is also cool, cut in big chunks, in 1 kilo meat, you get minimum 12 to maximum 16 pieces] with whipped plain yogurt, garlic paste, ginger paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, grated nutmeg, mace paste, chilli paste, almond paste, poppy seed paste, very little tomato purée, kewra water, rose water, saffron, thinly sliced deep fried onion, salt and sugar. A Tbsp of green papaya juice [or paste] can be added if the meat is not that fresh and looks a bit tough. In the mean time, we soak peeled whole new baby potatoes in milk with a bit of turmeric [or yellow food colouring] and salt. Then we drain them potatoes and flash fry in ghee just to get colour on the outside. The cooking is usually done on charcoal. In a large heavy bottom pan, we fry some more onions in a mixture of cooking oil and ghee. In goes whole cardamom, whole cloves, whole cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, and star anise. Then we add half the marinated meat with some marinations, then half the parcooked rice, half of them fried potatoes and repeat the process. We also use deep fried cashews, more fried onion, sultanas, prunes, and slightly slit fresh green chilli in the layers. Then we add the saved cooking water [so that the water covers 1/3 of the pot] and soaked saffron threads and ghee and little more kewra water on top. Now the pot will be sealed with a sticky dough the way the Indian lady showed on the vid, and the flame will be lowered down.
And This is cooked on a very very low flame on charcoal for at least 3 hours without opening the lid for once. This way the meat will be falling off of the bone, yet the rice and the potatoes won’t be mushy. After 3 hours we’ll open up the lid, add some fresh cilantro and let the entire neighbourhood know that we’ve been cooking Biriyani.
[Note: Biriyani is not a dish where you mix some random meat with whatever spice you have in hand and rice together and call it a day. The meat to rice to potato ratio is 2:1:1/2. So if you have 1 kilo rice, you should have 2 kilos of meat and 1/2 kilos of potatoes. We usually have chicken Kofta Kebab, some Raita or a fresh green salad, some chutney, and Borhani {A spicy yogurt drink} on the side. BTW, things that SHALL not go in Mughlai Biriyani at any cost, are as follows: turmeric, curry powder, carrot, peas, cream, and big chunks of tomatoes. Happy cooking!]
Wow!! That is amazing! Thank you!
i've rarely felt as white as when reading those lists of spices 😂
Wow
I'm always shocked to see a Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Indian name for a food that we also use in Iran. I was really surprised when you said Borhani is a drink because here in Iran, what we call Borani is a traditional dish usually made with fried veg (most commonly eggplant or spinach) and yogurt, sometimes topped with fried onion ... It's nothing like a drink! On the other hand, there's an Indian drink called Falooda, which I was also shocked to find out is basically a blended/drink version of our Faloodeh: frozen rice noodles in a sweet sherbet. Not to mention Iranian Sheermal vs Pakistani Sheermal. Why is Middle Eastern food so confusing 😂
@@stevqtalent
Hehehe
So far, all I've learned from these Epicurious adventures is that I should never trust that anything a pro chef serves me is actually what they claim it is.
Hahaha close enough, you can only trust the chefs when it's their own nationality on epicurious, like Saúl with Mexican food
Unless the chef is Saúl! You can definitely trust this man!
The chefs in Epicurious vids often seem to overcomplicate things for the sake of it, like they have to put some spin on it to show that they're chefs.
Plums are a common ingredient in many Biryani recipes. Some people do use dried. But I prefer using fresh plums, boiled and peeled, along with goat meat. Plum is known to be a very good tenderizer.
More so in the northern variants but yeah this is true.
Yes true, in Kolkata biriyani i nowadays plums these days.
True. Plums are very common in biryani. So is rose water and Kevda for the fragrance.
Yes, Plums and are a common ingredient in many Biryani recipes, just the wrong kind.
I am sorry but, to me, the best Biryani is made by people from Hyderabad and other places in the South of Hyderabad in India, like the Ambur Dum Biryani.
But the point is do you really need plums as a tendering agent for Prawns? I don't think so.
Tenderizing agents are mostly used for red meats like Mutton(Goat) Biryani.
Congratulations on getting a sponsorship chef! Keep up the good work!
I should thank all of you guys! it's because of your views! :)
@@ChefJamesMakinson Sounds like a win-win-win situation!
You, us and the sponsor.
Yes, finally he got sponsorship for this channel. I hope he gets more sponsors in the future.
@@ilovemangobingsu me too! :)
I work with a lot of Indians, and we frequently discuss cooking of the areas. I was given a relatively lengthy explanation that Biryani is a regional specialty in all regions of India, with incredible diversity in how it's made. India is a huge country with literally hundreds of authentic recipes for Biryani, some including dried fruits, different types of rice, grain, etc. and vastly different in texture and cooking methods. Basically I was told that it was nearly impossible to make a Biryani that wouldn't be accepted as one, but each place would consider their local one the best (not the only one though, Indians have huge respect and love for the cooking of other regions, it just isn't "home").
Basically, Uncle Roger kinda overshot the mark on the heavy judgment on ingredients for something that probably was just as authentic as his perception of it :-)
Agreed
yes I agree
It's obvious that Uncle Roger is a Hyderabadi Biryani supremacist...
Although, I think Basmati rice is a must. I don't think I have ever seen a non-Basmati biryani.
The reason is that Basmati rice grain when cooked perfectly separates really easily and that allows the flavours to permeate the biryani
@@tamberlame27 you don't have wide knowledge of Briyani then. Briyani can be made with seeraga Samba rice as well not just in basmati.
when i saw the lady making her own spices from raw incredients using that coffee machine i decided who i would like to make my food :) if she would do that in a restaurant infront of the people to stimulate apetite she would get the recognition she deserves. very nice.
In Pakistan , our version is somehow similar to level 2. However, we fry meat in spices and oil to get extra texture and teste and add rice and water once meat is 80% cooked. Yes, we do add dried plum they really teste good when cooked with rice. Additionaly, we add paste of garlic, ginger and at my home we also add green chilli paste because we like it spicy but we like our biryani rice separated not mushy, no rose water and dry fruits. Fried Onions and potatos are optional we do add these sometimes. Raita is must as it cools down spices.
This method is good as it doesn't suck up all the flavour from the meat.
The potato in the biriyani is quite ok....like James said, it depends on the region.
I am from Kolkata (Calcutta) and potatoes are the heart and soul of the biriyani to us.
We even joke about marrying a person who would share their potato from the biriyani. Like, you can ask for a portion of the meat or the rice, but asking to share the alu (potato) is blasphemous 😂
As a German i would gladly make the sacrifice of a single potatoe for unyielding, everlasting love.
@Chosen One no
As someone from U.P., seeing a potato in biryani might make me vomit.
We are strongly against that. But don't judge it. (or well try our best not to)
In Bangladesh we also add Potatoes in our Biriyani
You add Potatoes in everything
I think the biryani 2 is a type of shaahi biryani which explains the garnishes like pistachios, almonds.might also add the fried onions instead of cucumber . And yeah the rose is okay if it's diluted before use (not too much) so that the fragrance of the rose is uniformly spread ,her technic of pouring the rose water could have been better instead of straiggt up pouring it which would have helped it to spread the fragrance uniformly
Dried Plum is a common ingredient in the Nawabi style biryani and it’s substituted with tomatoes or tamarind in the southern Indian biryani
That is correct. Dried plum is very common and traditional in biryani
came here to comment this. 🙏
The first guy , Steven, as a "level 1 chef" is someone with no real training or experience, he is a lot of fun in some of these, but his cooking is usually.. interesting. He has a lot of charisma but as a level 1 he isn't expected to know anything about the recipe more than maybe looking on up online and having tried it once.
So Rinku whenever I see her, she is pretty consistent. Especially for a home chef, I get the idea this is a passed down recipe for her so there will be some differences that change over time like a game of telephone. I think she did a fine job. As a level 2 they know the recipe pretty ok and have done it more than once but not formally trained.
Danielle is honestly... well I have nothing nice to say after seeing her again and again, and not just about her cooking. so we will leave it at that. Level 3 chefs can be hit or miss, they are often educated/trained and will often want to put something of themselves in the dish, for better or worse. Some though are great authentic chefs that want to make the food the "right way" and you get a more traditional dish where someone puts in the extra work.
As someone who things that there is high beauty in simplicity I tend to prefer the level 2 chef's who aren't putting exotic ingredients and using tools that cost as much as my car to make a Quesadilla unique.
You should check out Frank (level 3 on the paella) on his channel proto cooks, you see him do things more in his wheelhouse and he will redeem himself. He might not have done the best Paella, but give him a 2nd chance, you won't regret it.
that's why I didn't say much with Steven, as he doesn't really know. No 2 did better, but the Chef for me was trying to hard to make something different. I'll have to take a look at Frank's other paella!
I'll honestly eat Frank's cooking, the ones in this video however, probably a hard pass.
That’s because Chef 3, the “pro” chef is your typical diversity hire.
@@nectarpeach2853 I found it very ironic and amusing that the "diversity chef" only noticed color as the problem with her recipe. Almost like her entire focus in life was surface level color and not substance of any kind.
I personally like Chef Saul. He is just charming. Chef Peggy keeps adding booze to her recipes, and she's another brand of charming. Chef Frank and Chef Palak are fine too. And that's about the only Level 3 chefs I like
It feels sooo good that non desi people know about the importance and VALUE of the most PERFECT DISH BIRYANI!!! 😭💕
The plum actually sounds a bit weird in biryani but people in India actually do use it. Some places in Kolkata use plum in their biryani but the amount is very little. Also the potatoes are the best thing about Kolkata Biryani.
KOLKATA BIRYANI IS THE BEST BIRYANI.
@@saptarshi109 as a bengali from kolkata i agreeee also the rajhasthani one?? its so good too- (or what my perception of the rajhasthani one is)
Kolkata biryani is not even close to Chennai biriyani
All biryani's are unique there is no best or worst. As you move north the biryani is sweet and flavourful. In south the biryani is spicy and flavourful. It's all depends on individual taste.
@@magiveem Oh, is it? I haven't tried that one yet. But trust me, if you're looking for something unique, try Bangladeshi biryani. They use different kind of rice for each type of meat and the flavours are just so different from what we have here.
Gotta love how Uncle Roger never misses a chance to roast Jamie 😂😂
Jamie did it to himself! He is not very good at cooking Asian Cuisine. Facts.
@@roberthampton730 what do you mean ? He was quite knowledgeful and minus the judgement.
@@blueshoes5145False. Jamie Olive Oil is not very good at cooking Asian Cuisine
@@blueshoes5145 yeahh noo jamie reallly sucks at asian cuisine he good tho at italian dishes
In the United States we use cultured buttermilk to tenderize our chicken for fried chicken if you don't have cultured butter milk you can use Keffir or 50/50 milk and plain yougurt
The Indian chef is making a Bengali biryani. She's spot on right in everything: potato, plum, frying the rice. please keep an open mind and try it once. Sautéing the rice for a while gives a great flavor in the rice. We're eating the exact same biryani since our childhood. It's not a recipe she created, it's a recipe passed on for generation in Bengali people. Lots of love for her 💗
did you said spot on ??
look at her biryani
it's not biryani it's khichdi
@@animecafe1142 I'm talking about the recipe, not her cooking. The recipe is good. Try it at home, boil the rice less and use good quality basmati. You'll get fluffy biriani with amazing flavor
You don't know what you are taking about. It is not biriyani at all. Stop saying it bengali because it contains potato.
@@Blue-en7yu 😒😒
@@Blue-en7yu i can also vouch this type of recipe being a bengali classic I have had this since childhood. Its a good recipe but the critiques i have is just not to boil it too much and to be careful to put the rosewater in the biryani.
The briayani made by the Indian lady is actually quite accurate, it's the Punjabi style. They put potatoes, plums or sometimes mangoes and finish it off with some kind of nuts.
If I'm not mistaken for vegetarian version they'd call it pillau instead of briyani.
Personally, I like the Lucknow briyani, they'd boil the rice till 80% done, and start stacking the neat and rice like lasagna before sealing the pot with a dough and finish it off on low heat.
Thank you for the explanation! :)
I watched an Indian youtuber's review to this, and he also mentioned pillau regarding the Indian Lady's biryani.
accurate except for the mushy part. it became khichdi not biryani lol
Calcutta version has eggs and potatoes and cashews. The veg/polau usually have peas.
I am from Punjab and we do not add any mangoes or plums inside any biryani.
Rose water is a common ingredient/flavoring in western cooking prior to the successful propagation of vanilla, which pretty much displaced rose water entirely in western Europe, Canada, and the US, and IIRC New Zealand and Australia as well. Cashews are not "traditional" in South Asian cooking, unless you decide that "traditional" post-dates the Columbian exchange. Cashews are a South American species and were not used until well after the Spanish and Portuguese started bringing foods back to Europe and introducing them to Africa, the Middle East. Southern Asia and, well, the rest of the Old World.
that is intresting!
The reasons these videos are so addictive :
1.) Uncle Roger - believe it or not - is EXTREMELY well versed with Asian dishes AND he has an equally filthy mind.
2.) James is equally well versed in the kitchen but is horrifically nice and terribly uncomfortable with the all of Roger's "meanness" and especially all of his sexual innuendo.
Nigel Ng is a professional comedian with at least 15-20 years of experience. I worked with him in London long ago and he absolutely slayed the audience. Very funny guy. Now he does shows in his own voice and as Uncle Roger...his crowd work is even more LETHAL. If you wear an orange 🧡 shirt, he picks on you. Because that is complicité. You volunteered.
Also, Jame's is actually a trained chef. Uncle Roger is not a chef. He isn't even Uncle Roger. He's Nigel Ng, a well educated guy who makes money insulting chefs. 🤔
@@lornahuddleston1453No shit sherlock.
@@lornahuddleston1453only the ones who deserve to be called out.
@@lornahuddleston1453 but a lack of training does not mean a lack of knowledge or experience. He likely spends time educating himself
Taking time to point out there are different types of biryani is something you don't see much in videos. Respect brother.
Thank you I'm still not an expert on Indian Cuisine or Asian Cuisine in general but I love to learn!
@@ChefJamesMakinson great to hear it brother. Constantly learning is the only way to reach near anything close to expertise, especially when it comes to something as vast as Indian or Asian cuisine.
Just to give you an example, although I'm sure you would have many such anecdotes from your own experiences. I come from the city of Lucknow, a city known for its food. And from my childhood I have seen the love and care people put in cooking. And what makes it great is that every family adds their own twists to things and those nuances not only make the taste to be different but give you so much to learn and try and adopt in your own cooking. It makes cooking so much similar to art.
I’m from Kolkata (India) formerly known as Calcutta. Eggs and potatoes are the must-have ingredients for Calcutta Biryani. I didn’t know there was a vegetarian Biryani until today. We call it Pulao and it is made slightly different way than Biryani. You can add meat to Pulao. We have a festival called “Rakkhye Kali Puja”. We make meat (mutton) Pulao for Goddess Kali as an offering.
Biryani is my favorite food and the level 3 pro chef messed it up pretty bad. It makes me sad. 😣😣😣
That's because there is no such thing as vegetarian biryani.
@@madil2259 you are right bro
thanks for sharing! That's very interesting!
@@vanng799 🤗
You have too have Potato in Biryani, It's like a marriage of flavour made in heaven.
I have grown up eating rice every day twice .. and we have always made rice with the drain method. Separates the starch from the rice. It's fluffier than if you cook the rice till all the water vaporizes. Also it depends upon the kind of rice you are cooking.
i think james’ grace with the level 1 chef is beautiful to see
Exactly he is trying to make biryani and failing, lvl 3 didn't even read the question correctly.
5:21
When we used basmati, we usually left it to soak with water for few hours(drain n washed) and then add more water when its cook in the rice cooker.
Thanks for the pasta salt tip, didn't know pasta water supposed to be a bit salty. used to see people putting few grains of salt that I thought the amount of it never matters. 😅
Sautéing the rice in the ghee a little bit while still dry helps with making the rice fluffy and separate.. unless overcooked seriously, the rice will not get sticky if this step is done.. that’s what Rinku was doing .. dry sautéing for just a minute or so
Also a lot of biriyanis in India use something called Kewra water where Rinku is using the rose water… it gives an added aroma and subtle after taste to the biryani.. it is an extract of the pandan flower..
Has anyone ever told you that you have the most calm, cool demeanour ever?! I love it!
not all the time! haha :)
@@ChefJamesMakinson Has anyone told you that you look like a young Peter Griffin? :D
I'm amazed how Uncle Roger got the traditional recipes, was hoping you correct his mistake. Guess Uncle Roger is not only comedian. Love your tips and knowledge, thank you.
he does a lot of research
13:40 plum is added in biryani
in india its called "aloo bukhara"
One thing I love about Indian cuisine, and India in general, is just how much variety there is.
Rinku's version takes inspiration from multiple different kinds of biryani: eggs and potatoes are a must have in Kolkata biryani; plums are one of the defining ingredients of Punjabi biryani.
Don't have an issue with the mushy rice. It's a question of preference- I like fluffy rice, but there's nothing wrong with mushier rice, as far as biryani goes.
There is so much variety. Every region does their biryani differently and within the regions every family has their own spin on it, and it also goes for pretty much every Indian dish.
One thing that is common across all the regions however is that biryani is a dish for Special Occasions: weddings, holidays, important celebrations, etc.
It's not a dish that you're going to be making often, so it can be as complex as you want and require a lot of effort. It's basically like wedding cake- it's a rare occasion so you can go wild.
Which is why the "pro chef" version just makes me want to shrivel up like a leaf fallen off a branch and die. It's like trying to make wedding cake health conscious. Just don't...
It's not even health conscious though, grains are carbs, she just swapped to an entirely different grain and pretended it's healthier for you because it's green.
I like mushier rice in my Pulao. People call me weird.
Biryani is not indian tho
@@lazeroad And Hamburger isn't technically American, I know.
@@lazeroad It quite literally is, it originates from India, or as wikipedia puts it: "the indian subcontinent"...
Dried plums is actually a common ingredient for Biryiani at least here in Bangladesh. In Bengali it is known as alubukhara.
When I visit south east Asia, I will have to try a lot of dishes!
@@ChefJamesMakinson you are most welcome here
Yes, plums are relatively common in many biryanis.
I don't see plums used in Briyani over here in Malaysia but have definitely came across few that used raisins, cost issue I guess.
Then Bengalis of Bangladesh may eat plums... But the Bengalis of India in West Bengal state caters to mostly Potato and Egg with their Biryani without the use of dry fruits, plums... also considering Bengali Indian Biryani is kind of an offshoot of Awadhi Biryani as historians claim it to be its interesting.
We use drained rice water for curries, also we never use more than 2 vegetables, potato and some other random vegetable. really wonderful, doesn't overshadow rice and meat.
I think it will be level 2. I find the level 2s don’t over complicate the recipes, but still make a product that looks really good.
she did do pretty good!
@@ChefJamesMakinson she did pretty bad.
Biryani is easy. I made a great one first time. And that too without the basmati rice but the normal aged one.
If I made such a dish I would be haunted my entire life.
And there have been such occasions. But I was drunk at that time
I can listen to Chef James talk all day ! Amazing voice and delivery 🙂
Thank you!
8:50, nope, Its very common to have potato in biriyani in Bangladesh, as well as in WB. Dhakaiya Kachhi and Kalkatta biriyani both have potatoes in it. it's a must for some as well. but no other vegies is allowed in Biriyani, no other. veg biriyani is not only a bad biriyani, it's not biriyani.
I'm from Jharkhand and can vouch for potatoes in biryani, especially in Kolkata Biryani. A well-cooked potato can sometimes taste better than the meat, at least for me!
Chef James Makinson is one of the best food reviewers apart from Uncle Roger and so on and so forth. Seems like the chefs cooking biryani seem to be struggling in this episode. I feel as though the Indian woman got the recipe right even though there’s just a few errors here and there, but she still did a pretty great job overall. Uncle Roger will never not be funny. He’s keen on making people smile per video of his.
thank you very much!
He definitely is one of the best, and he takes input very well.
@@ChefJamesMakinson no such thing as giving kindness to disrespect.
@@u140550 thank you!
@@iseytheteethsnake6290 thank you very much!
Indian here, you are absolutely right about a lot of things:
- Yes, the method of sealing is traditional
- Yes, there are a lot of different varieties of biryani. I'm from Kerala and we make fish and beef biryani. Potatoes are actually done in a few places.
- Biryani is a broadly south Asian food (Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan). So there are plenty of options to add dried fruits and nuts. So I'm not surprised by the pistachios and the plums (we use raisins in Kerala)
- Yes, Steven's rice is certainly too mushy and Freekeh will not give you the right consistency. You wouldn't call use soba noodles in pasta. So it's a little odd for me to see someone use a grain for biryani.
Odd ooo its utter nonsense. Nammade nattill ann athenki 2 divasam kada putiyene bro. And you know that too
@@ebinesvthundupurackal7446 Yeah. A restaurant serving these would definitely not survive in India 😂.
Calcutta uses potatoes in biryani, but I think she was going for somewhat of a homecook style.
Beef biryani in Kerala makes a lot of sense since so many people eat beef in Kerala compared to other states.
Beef biriyani is good, but i think Kozhikode dum Biriyani and Thalaserry chicken biriyani are top ones
Imagine a Mushroom Risotto where there is no rice, just oats. Gross, right?
I always like your Three Levels reactions because it allows for a variety of your input on various dishes. You get the "amateur" and the "adept" which allow for solid critique from you for things I might actually think myself (maybe not specifically Biryani but philosophies of rice, stock, oil, knife work, etc), and then you get the Pro Chef "Nice" or "Hmm... that's a choice" reactions which are always fun.
Hey James love your videos! Thanks fot reacting to more Indian cuisine, Traditionally biryani is just layered rice and meat (can br cooked or uncooked) and letting everything steam together. Potatoes is common in Kolkata style biryani which is popular in the eastern side of the country (also the southern biryanis use short grain rice instead of basmati). Adding rose and kewra (screwpine) water while cooking lamb seems kinda off since it's the last step during layering to preserve the auroma. Most importantly almost all Biryanis have some sort of 'fried onions' layered into the rice
Thank you!
I love how James takes a thorough culinary view to the video but still can’t help laugh at some of what Uncle Roger says 😂
One of the best channels I've come across. Decent, honest and just pure knowledge that comes with a lot of experience. Its so calm 🌻♥️
Thank you so much!
I worked VERY briefly at an Indo-Pak restaurant several years ago. There they would give the rice a thorough washing before adding it raw to the marsala, meat, and onions, then cooking it in a convection oven for 45 minutes, sealed tightly with foil in a 400 pan. Everything going in cold and raw, excepting the meat, it didn't come out terribly overcooked at all.
It seems like some western restaurant bs, it seems edible with right ingredients and preparation but i doubt it will taste as good. Tell me how it compares to a proper biryani
Level 3 chef is the type of chef to use rice noodles for her pasta carbonara 🤕
maybe 🤔 haha
@@ChefJamesMakinson I mean, she works in "Diversity Kitchen"
We knew where this was going😬
Shes the type that can only make yt videos 😂
Just started watching this dude, he doesn't say much but his simple explanations of "this is a choice - here are the pros and cons" versus "this is what you should do and why" is so straightforward and clear. He actually gives me the reasoning I need for my cooking!
We watch these 4 levels of series with my friend, we always bet who's going to do it best, when they introduce the cooks and the sushi episode is our favourite.
Level 1:Just some dude
Level 2:A home cook
Level 3: The woman is actually Japanese
We both just went, "Ay, that's cheating!"
The dude that put a cheesecake in pancakes.
@@ThePapaja1996 half a cheesecake to be specific
Just started watching your channel, you are an incredibly Captivating reactor, you are level headed and not chasing reactions
Thank you!
14:07 is absolutely hilarious! the way Uncle Roger falls off the bed, is like how i feel getting up on a Monday.
For me, Peeling potatos depends on the potato type. A rough skin, I peel. For a smoother skinned potato, like Yukon Gold, I will leave peel on.
In the US a lot of places don't peal but over here, we peel everything that has a skin. you do lose some nutrients with peeling.
Biryani rice (how I do it):
Basmati rice only 😅
-Wash rice really well.
-Boil rice with excess water and hard spices (star anise, cinnamon stick, cardamom, mace and cloves). Also add salt to the water.
-You can cook but don't overcook. You should be able to break the rice grain with finger.
-Strain rice with colander and put hard spices away, you don't need it.
-Keep strained rice on a flat plate.
As Student I can make way better Biryani than this
And of Course Veg Biryani I am Vegetarian so yeah
And in Veg Biryani You really don't need Potato it don't taste that great just use Peas, Carrots, CauliFlowers
And If Veg Use Paneer will be best incredient in Biryani
Indian here, can confirm that potatoes are typically added to Biryani in the eastern states. This possibly comes from the fact that there was a terrible famine at one point and potatoes make it such that a little food could go a long way. So potatoes in biryani is pretty much a staple there
In this video I’d say the lvl 2 is closest but even then she messes up the dish… remember watching this video with one of my sous chefs, who is from India and he was appalled
haha you should have taken a video! haha :)
In Karachi Biryani, we tend to include potato along with our choice of protein (beef, mutton, chicken) more specifically beef. Also, we put the potato in the end for 5 to 7 minutes in the curry, so the potato can infuse with the flavor of the curry. Then take the 80% cooked rice (basmati or parboiled-sella) and start the layering process. Once the layering is done, put a tiny bit of food color either red or orange. After that, let it dum (steam) for 30 to 40 minutes and rest for 10 minutes.
None of these dishes are actually Biryani that we eat in India. Its so strange when even a so-called Level 3 chef messes up Biryani. Tbh the level 2 cook actually tried to make the dish authentic, but the Biryani of the Pro chef was not Biryani at all 😂
The Level 1 chef is making more of a 'khichdi' another indian dish where you just put all vegetables and rice together and pressure cook them
You are right!
in our family we usually while cooking the rice we also add a little of oil some bay leaves and cardamom to give the rice some flavor. The meat is made into a kinda like gravy on top of which we layer the half done rice along with some chopped coriander ,chopped mint and some fried onions. We leave it for a few minutes before adding the saffron and let it cook in low heat for about 15 min .
The indian made it accurate but as uncle Roger said biryani is a hard dish to make. The true skill shows when the pot has no water from begining and everything cooks from the steam of par-cooked rice and meat (dum=steam/breath, thus dum cooking)
As a Bangladeshi, one interesting thing to add here, potato is very important in Biryani in Bangladesh. And Bangladesh is also very famous for Biryani, which is the food for the celebration. You can find some references about the Biryani of Bangladesh on RUclips (for example, recently Mark Wines made a food blog about it).
Nevertheless, it would be really fun if a Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani chef made a similar kind of video about Biryani. Every version is so different but equally tasty.
8:05
There are different types of biryani in India.
The kolkata one's use potatoes.
Potato is actually traditional in biryani in the West Bengal region where I'm from, but cut in half and boiled with spices to make it flavourful and sweet, plum is also used for sweetness sometimes, but birista works equally good, and rice is never fried for Dum Biryani (caramelized onions)
I am from Hyderabad and we like Lucknow are known very well for our style of biryani i.e., Dum Biryani, and I would like to elaborate on your comment. Hyderabadi biryani is made in two ways. 1 is where the chicken is cooked before adding it to the rice cooked 70% and layering it up (this is not Dum Biryani) and 2. is where the rice is cooked 50%, the water is drained and the uncooked marinated chicken is layered (Dum Biryani). The word Dum is actually used in context to say 'let it cook very slowly'.
Context:
Kid: Amma pait main angar lagri! Biryani bangai kya? (Mom, I'm damn hungry! Is the biryani done yet?)
Mom: Hau ek das minute do, dum pe rakhi main (Yeah, just give it 10 minutes, it's on dum)
Dum biryani takes rather more time to cook and perfecting the ratio takes a lot of experience. The reason why Dum Biryani is preferred is that the chicken when cooking with the rice lets out water which is then soaked in by the rice and hence brings more flavor to it (which is a basic methodology behind biryani but this is a little more intense). And also, Hyderabadi Biryani does not have plums or potatoes or anything as such (putting tomatoes in it is a sin, JK!!). If a Hyderabadi sees tomatoes and potatoes in his biryani they call it tahari (sort of a pullao). The only sweetening ingredient we use is fried onions and sometimes kishmish as toppings but ew- hard pass.
Anywayssss thanks for letting me rant
Rinku's biryani was a lot like South East Asian Traditional Biryanis, especially from Kolkata and Bangladesh. She did almost everything right including the Potato. Potato is the only vegetable we use, especially in Mutton Biryanis, so that it balances the meaty texture in every bite. Her rice was definitely overcooked but thats more like a perfection thing.
I currently live in Canada and I've tasted biryanis from multiple regions. Supposedly, North Indian biryanis are more RED in color and has more spices in it. However, honestly it doesn't correspond to biryani, rather only a mixture of rice and meat. Traditional biryanis should be clear white with a hint of color from the meat juices, like the 12:10 clip from Uncle Roger's video. The rice should have its own taste and not the taste of the meat gravy only. In big pans, extremely traditional Lamb Biryanis are cooked with meat at the bottom and rice at the top. You mix them before serving but only gently to preserve the texture of the rice, meat and potato.
Bro..... Kolkata and Bangladesh is in *north east indian subcontinent* not *South east asian*
@@forcehucos2429 you do know that asian means a whole continent and south East Asian actually covers all of India , and srilanka to an extent including Burma and Myanmar too...read up on your geography before criticising others..
Love your professionalism and the knowledge you impart. Thank you Chef Makinson.
I appreciate that
Having eaten plenty of Briyani in my lifetime as I love Indian food and it is widely available here in Malaysia (mostly Southern style due to a majority of Indians here are Tamil, you can find the occasional Northern Indian cuisine too like the Gujeratis etc), I wouldn't touch Lvl 1 and 3's "briyani" with a ten foot pole, Lvl2's... may not, either... Looks way too wet and mushy. If I want to eat porridge I'll go look for porridge instead of paying a briyani premium, really.
happy to share some insight! first- you need rice. biriyani losely translates to fried before cooking rice. i did not understand why that chef was trying to get creative with that part. second biryani is not traditionally vegetarian but potato with meat is the king in kolkata, bombay and sindhi biryani. prunes/plum also common in sindhi biryani. kolkata biryani also uses a hardboil egg. fun fact: most common meat to use is actually mutton and not lamb. you can fry the rice in ghee with some whole garam masala (whole cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, bay leaf etc NOT THE POWDER)- why? no idea. i do it cos my grandma used to- before parboiling but its not a must and many also dont do it. but i feel like it enhances the flavour and speeds up the parboiling time. usually 2-3 mins is good. rinku is actually getting most steps right but im not sure about using a crustacean just in itself as the major protein since they tend to get rubbery by the time the flavour has seeped in and the rice is full cooked in the dum (slow pressure cooking). there are variants of shrimp/fish based rice dishes- especially in bengal such as 'chingri/illish polao' (prawn/hilsha fish pilaf) but usually you'd flavour the rice in stock or steam fish and rice at the same time or parboil it more than you'd for biryani. but overall she seems to be much closer to a home cook biryani than the other two.
thank you for the insight! :)
@@ChefJamesMakinson I just want to point out something that I have run into... Some Indians call goat-meat mutton. They call any sheep 'lamb' and goat 'mutton'. I don't know why this is, but I have run into it more than once, and it means that we MAY not be getting the true picture here. Both sheep and goat can appear in biryani, so it might be worth double-checking just what is meant by 'mutton'. They could mean what we would call chevon (adult goat meat), or something like what you would probably (I'm guessing) call cabrito.
@@mikegraham7078 actually goat meat is the "mutton" Indians talk about since india doesn't have much sheep.
@@neetishyadav8553 Thank you for the confirmation. I have not had that many occasions to discuss these meats with Indian acquaintances, so I wasn't sure if it was just a Gujrati thing rather than an all-of-India thing, or maybe an all-of-SW-Asia thing, or maybe it was just dumb 'luck' that I ran across two people who used the word mutton for goat meat.
Yup, shrimp is not a common thing to use in biryani in india and pakistan. Don't know about Bangladesh though.
15:08 - 15:12 “That’s what the auntie say. It is definitely long enough! Hello aunties!” - Uncle Roger 2022
I've just ran onto these "double" reactions and am learning a lot. What has me smiling the most is your admonishments for us to be nice... I feel like a grammar school student again...
This is a great environment to relax and learn at the same time.
Thanks for this ...
pj
I wish we were friends so when I'm annoyed you can just say whatever you want even read a recipe and it would calm me down immediately 😁😁😁 amazing energy
Thank you Eim! :)
Never heard of cooking rice to 80% or whatever..
What my family usually do is called "Dahm" not sure if i spelled that correctly but basically you steam the rice to let all the water evaporate. Usually by wrapping a cloth on the lid to trap the water to.
We usually do a base first so all your masala whatever you're going to use. Then sort out the meat and add it to the masala.
Add your rice and water then let it steam cook for however long it needs. (Obviously i condensed this down enormously but you get the general idea lol
I really enjoy your videos, esp your reactions to Uncle Roger. As Uncle Roger provides comedy I really like how you pause to provide your professional opinion and comments! Learning something each time
Glad you like them!
as an Indian , when i saw her use the Freekeh grain, i freaked out
Yes biriyani is a popular dish associated with India but tbh it has many different renditions and varieties in different parts of India itself, just the basics are the same everywhere
and yes in biriyani we must not cook rice completely so water is used appropriately, basmati already requires less water to cook than the normal rice (plus it cooks very fast so care must be taken not to overcook), on top of that we want the rice to be cooked to about 75-85% only so water needs to be adjusted properly, even for biryani draining the rice is not a good practice but its ok i guess
If we add nuts we only generally add cashews like uncle roger said and then maybe some cilantro, thats all.
Biryani is not indian bruh
South Africans also cook biryani. We have a large Indian descendant population. But it's cooked not only in Indian households. Love how diverse our country's cooking influences are! Think this is a sign to cook some biryani the way my family likes it😋😁
Really? I didn't know that!
@@ChefJamesMakinsonin South Africa there is a lot of Indian influence in terms of cuisine. It's similar for the West Indies because a lot of people from Indian subcontinent were forced to work in the West Indies during the British rule.
I'm legit dying to try Level 2. On the original video, there seems to be a divide on if it's actual biryani or a "close enough" example. But darn if it doesn't look delicious. Presentation is the best too.
James your channel is taking off!! So exiting. Keep up all the amazing videos. All your hard work is definitely paying off. Congrats on your sponsor as well! As always your critique is on point.
Thank you so much buddy! I hope the fish are still biting! :)
14:45 that looks a fine meal. Generally speaking nothing wrong with that. I don't know is that Biryani, but would probably eat that meal with a good appetite.
I really liked your explanations inbetween, I do agree with all of them. Where I am from we usually do the Bengali version of the biriyani (with eggs + potatoes along with the lamb or goat meat). That being said the second one was pretty good except for the sticky rice. The 3rd was despicable, really bad when pro chefs don't respect the traditional recipe. If she wanted to do something different she shouldn't have brought it in the biriyani episode.
I just quickly wanna add my two cents to the whole potato debacle. I got to stay in Khulna (southwest Bangladesh) for three months and every time me and my group were invited for food it had potatoes in it on top of rice and meat. That includes the two times biryani was served. So I'm pretty sure that potatoes are a regional thing. Since, you know, the food was prepared and also eaten enthusiastically by bengali people.
We close the lid and let the water seep down by tilting it at an angle for a small batch.
For large batches we use a cloth strainer
I actually want to see a series where you try to cook cuisines that you have totally no knowledge about or very little experience. Seems like you'll make it fun with a lot of learning.
That's a good idea! :)
@@ChefJamesMakinson can't wait to see you mess up biryani haha
I had amazing biryani in Singapore. It was the only dish that I ordered that wasn't insanely spicy. The guy at the food stand warned me, but I like spicy food and told him I didn't mind some spice. He just laughed at me and said "But this is Indian food spicy" It was molten lava in my mouth. Even the rice and veggies were insanely spicy.
Original Biryani used to be delicate with multiple layers of flavours.
Biryani is not necessarily spicy, altho different parts of India have their own take on the spice level. The dish is special - and damn complicated to make - because many ingredients are layered on top of each other. Each ingredient brings its own specialness to the dish and adds to the overall whole. Biryani is art and the best artists are very, very rare..and they don't use freekeh or whatever the hell one of the chefs used. Indian biryani needs basmati, which is also quintessentially Indian...using any other rice is just...haiyaa! 🤦♀️
Dried plums are normal and very common. Just like potatoes! I actually roast potatoes and add them when i layer everything. Boiled eggs are also delicious.
Boiled eggs complete any biryani 😊
So I am a bit late to this. I did some digging around, and come to find out that Rinku is from the eastern part of India, Kolkata, so of course her Biryani will be different. Someone in Uncle Roger's video comments did mention that her biryani was very eastern tradition. Overall, I actually do want to try to make her Biryani someday because it looks very good to eat!
Thanks for the info!
This is something new for me. I learned a lot from this video. I am not really familiar with Biryani but in all fairness to Uncle Roger, he is very knowledgeable with this dish. And thanks to the added information you shared here aside from what Uncle Roger has already said. I find it amazing that you have a wide knowledge about different cuisines, from western to Asian cuisine. This episode is very educational especially for someone like me who is not really familiar with Indian cuisine. Thanks again and keep us the good work. More power to your channel. 😊
if you find any indian restaurant near your place, you must try it out.
but, biryani has been there for centuries but it differs from region to region. so you may just find new types of biryani, depending on which indian cuisine they serve.
I don’t know about other cultures but in mauritius, potatoes are used in Briyani. The potatoes are peeled, either kept whole or chopped in half, par cooked by deep frying, saffron water is poured on top of the potatoes, then they’re added to the rice so that they’re cooked through by steam.