What makes a good biriyani?

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What sparked the host’s fascination with biryani’s aroma at the start of the show?

Claire Byrne 0:01

The Claire Burns Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance. I'm totally distracted because the aroma in the studio is incredible. I'm delighted to be joined by the founder of Green Saffron Spices, Aaron Capil. You're very welcome to the programme. Brilliant

Arun Kapil 0:19

Claire, thanks so much.

Claire Byrne 0:19

Um I can't delay talking about this. This is the chicken biryani.

Arun Kapil 0:23

It is, yeah, saffron chicken biryani. So it's quite a classic dish. Um there's so many different types of biryani from all over India. And then the Persians, the Iranians were claiming they they came up with it and they came in the northern Indians and Do you just do you agree with that assertion? What notion do I subscribe to? Yeah, good point. No, no, I because I'm northern Indian, so I would say Lucknow. So I've done a Lucknowy version for you here. Um what makes that different? Well it's a spicing, I suppose. Um it's also the basmati type that we're using. So this is a really the key diff the key things to a biryani are kind of the basmati, the spicing, and then the perfumes that go in it. Um so you've got the highest grade basmati here.

Arun Kapil 0:58

It's pure vintage basmati, which is sweet and delicious by itself and really soft texture. And then this is cooked in what's known as the dum style. So dum traditionally be you would make a

How does Arun explain the historical origins and regional variations of biryani?

Arun Kapil 1:08

Yeah.

Claire Byrne 1:08

D-O-M, is it? D-U-M.

Arun Kapil 1:10

D U M. Or D-U M reach. But yeah, dumb style. Essentially that just means cooking in a sealed pot. And that sealed pot traditionally would be with pastry. So you'd put the meat and the yogurt at the bottom, you put the rice on top, but then seal it so everything steams. So then the whole big reveal just looks even more glorious and smells flippin' amazing when you when you crack the pastry uh lid sort of thing. It's just phenomenal. It's a lovely, lovely dish. Easy to get that wrong, you know, can a Do you know it is. And so dry? Well y you see you're correct. And what I've done because I don't know even mi well, we've we've spoken many times before together, but I tend to squirrel myself away and work at things until it gets right.

Arun Kapil 1:44

So I've may come up this recipe here is a really simple way of recreating a biryani, rather than going into all the complications and You know, uh yes, it it it's um uh it's cooked absolutely correctly, but it's just made so we can all cook it at home and enjoy the beautiful flavours at home.

Claire Byrne 1:59

Okay, well take me through how you made this then. Yeah, really simple you send two While I try it.

Arun Kapil 2:04

So No, so really simple, it's basically a marinade of the meat and then you're cooking the rice.

Claire Byrne 2:10

Tell me how you marinate the meat.

What are the three key components (rice, spices, perfume) that define a great biryani?

Arun Kapil 2:12

Yeah, so in a yogurt base and then with garlic, onions, ginger, um uh and then the spices. So the spices are black pepper, garamasala. The more sort of hardy spices that are gonna go in. You didn't

Claire Byrne 2:23

hold back on the spice there.

Arun Kapil 2:24

No, it's it's quite top top, isn't it? Yeah, no, but I Yeah no, but

Claire Byrne 2:26

like that's yeah no. But I'll tell you one thing, the rice is you said it was top grade rice. It's It's really

Arun Kapil 2:32

you can tell. It's the highest, yeah, basmati, the pure vintage. By aging rice, you get a really sweet, fluffy texture. It actually takes it down from a high GI to a medium GI, fifty six to sixty nine units. So um it's no longer the high, sort of starchy. The aging process takes away a lot of the excess starch. And it also just means that the rice will sort of hold its shape better as well.

Claire Byrne 2:51

And you've marinated in in yogurt so it's so it's soft, the chicken's really soft.

Arun Kapil 2:55

It's tenderizing, yeah, with the lemon juice, the lemon zest, a little oil, and then the spices, like I say, black pepper, garamasala, chili flakes and chili, um, and garlic onions, ginger. And

Claire Byrne 3:05

you're leaving that overnight, are you, ideally?

Arun Kapil 3:07

Yeah, ideally it would be fantastic. But even if you just manage to get it done for an hour or so whilst you're doing everything else, you know, just do your marinade first, put that aside, put your wet your wet discloth over the the bowl or something, and just let it crack on by itself and and work its little magic. The main thing is to make sure that everything really is combined, 'cause you want the spices on all the meat and you want the lemon juice and zest to come you just want it all cuddling together basically, rather than just being individual.