Pakistan is one of those countries that I worried about a little. I was concerned about Pakistan because, while it's 100% its own country with its own people and culture, the food of Pakistan is really not that different from that of Northern India. And that's mainly because Pakistan only gained their independence from India in 1947. I did search for "difference between Pakistani and Indian food" and read through several sites and found very slight differences: according to some, Pakistani food generally includes more meat and because of the differences in religion--more Muslims in Pakistan, more Hindus in India--Pakistanis tend to use more beef. Being a vegetarian, neither of those made any real difference in my decision of what to make. Most of my decision was based on what Wikipedia listed as the "national dish" of Pakistan. There were three options: meat dish #1, meat dish #2, and biryani. So I went with biryani.
Biryani is one of those dishes that you can find in some capacity throughout the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. I started this version by gathering all my spices together. Cardamom, turmeric, chili powder, cumin, coriander, garam masala, cinnamon, and cloves all come together to create a super fragrant and flavorful dish.
The rice used is basmati, which soaks for half an hour before being simmered in a huge pot of water. It's supposed to be cooked until just al dente, so it can finish cooking with the rest of the ingredients later. The recipe I used said to let it simmer for only about 5 minutes. I let mine get away from me a little bit because I had also started the other components at the same time, so it ended up overcooked. Oops.
Speaking of the other components: while the rice soaked, I started on the "gravy" part of it. Thinly sliced onions are browned, then the spices along with a garlic-ginger paste are added. Then some crushed tomatoes (I would have preferred to use fresh tomatoes and just stewed them down with everything to avoid the tinned-tomato taste). That simmers for a few minutes, then green chili pepper and yogurt gets added in. Since it only called for a couple tablespoons, I substituted some of the kefir from last week since I still have half a bottle left. The taste is very similar to yogurt, but the consistency is slightly thinner.
That mixture simmers and reduces into a delicious, spice-filled sauce.
While that cooked down, I started on some raita, which is a yogurt dip/sauce/side. It's great when you're eating spicy things because it's super refreshing and the dairy in the yogurt cuts through the capsaicin to cool your mouth down. Above, cucumber, mint, and cilantro are added to the food processor.
The smell of cucumbers mixed with mint is so good and really makes me wish it were summer. That bright green color from the herbs also makes me happy.
Look how beautifully the herbs swirl into that yogurt.
Back over in biryani land, once the sauce thickened enough I then added the "chicken" aka seitan. Since seitan gets a little chewy if you cook it too long, I added it to the sauce after removing it from the heat. Normal chicken biryani would have the chicken simmering in the sauce to cook. Fresh cilantro is added on top.
And then half the (supposedly al dente) rice followed by more cilantro.
The lid is then wrapped in a kitchen towel and the rice should cook from the steam emitted from the sauce for ten minutes. Since my rice was already cooked, I left the lid on just long enough to take this picture.
Here's a shot of that kitchen towel since it's cute. Cats!
Once the lid comes off, you carefully fold the rice and the sauce together. I think I would prefer it as pictured above, with little pockets of plain basmati in there. The smell of basmati cooking is honestly one of the best smells in the world. And the flavor of plain basmati rice is so comforting.
But it's still just as delicious all mixed up. The version I made might be likened to "Sindhi biryani" which is a version of the dish tied to the southern part of Pakistan (Sindh is a province in Pakistan, containing the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad). The only difference I could find is most versions included potato, but otherwise this version tends to have more spices in it than regular biryani. So I guess I did kind of succeed in finding a dish that is unique to Pakistan!
This dish was actually must easier and quicker to make than I thought it would be. I started prepping my spices and ingredients early, thinking I would be working on this or waiting for things to cook for a while. If I were to make this again (I'm definitely going to make it again) I'd probably not try to cook things at the same time again so I can make sure I'm cooking the rice properly. And I would use fresh tomatoes rather than canned. But other than that I would consider this a success! Now I know if I'm craving it I can whip up some biryani fairly easily, which is always great news.
Recipes Used: Chicken Biryani
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