PULAO AND BIRYANI

PULAO

In India Pulao denotes delicately flavoured rice, sauted in ghee and flavoured with whole
spices like cumin, cloves etc.,

Persian culture introduced richness to the rice dishes in the forms of the pulao or pilau, a
Persian word meaning rice boiled with meats and spices.
There are many varieties of pulaos featuring in the different cuisines around the world.

Jeera pulao: The major flavouring is cumin seeds with very minimal spices.

Peas pulao: This is a vegetarian version with green peas.

Yakhni pulao it is a blend of mutton stock, aromatic spices and rice cooked in its own
steam.

BIRYANI

Comes from the Persian word 'birian' which means 'fried before cooking' which originally
was a flavourful rice dish with meats cooked with a lot of spices in a cooking process called
dum method, in which no aroma is allowed to escape as the cooking vessel is sealed.

History:

According to one school of thought, biryani comes from the Mughals, who acquired it from
Persia and subsequently during their reign in India, the biryani entrenched itself in places
like Lucknow and Hyderabad.
Biryani is always cooked by the dum method of cookery. The rice is fried separately and
parboiled while the meat or the vegetables are marinated separately. They two are then
layered and cooked in a sealed cooking vessel.

Awadhi Biryani: Cooked by the method of dum and has flavours of saffron, cream and the
meat is seared and partially cooked before the rice is added and the container sealed.

Hyderabadi Biryani: Denotes the popular Kacchi Biryani, where the raw meat is marinated
in yoghurt and other spices and put on dum with rice.

Vegetable Biryani: Is the 'tarkari' version, which was originally made for the cashiers and
financiers of the Nawabs, who were Mahajan Hindus.

Prashad: Pages 57 and 133