Kachcha Chicken Biryani meet

Yesterday was the biryani and kulfi day that we had all been waiting for. The complete menu for this meet was:

• Chhole Chat
• Kachcha Chicken Biryani
• Bharleli Vagni (Replaced by Mustard Onion fried rice)
• Kulfi (Rose & Badam)

Kulfi was attempted on a thought floated by Pathikrit in the last session. I gave it a try and was successful in unlocking the secrets of making kulfi. These can be found here. I tried making the following types of kulfi - Pista, Kewda, Rose & Badam. Variations were attempted before settling on the final recipe which you can now find published on the blog.

We began the meal with some snacks and rose kulfi, which every body enjoyed. Ritu made the chhole chat. It was a bit delayed because the imli chutney took a while. Specially me was dying of hunger and had already cleaned the crisps Fakhruddin had offered in sympathy ;)

The chat was delicious with its tangy and spicy taste. It left us all looking forward to the main meal (in a positive sense). Biryani preparation had started quite some time back with Fakhruddin and Yakuta explaining the process. Because of the big vessel as well as the large quantity in which it was being prepared, there was an issue with the amount of water that had to go in the biryani. It turned out that the rice could not absord all the water that was added and so the biryani had to be topped off in the oven.

Although not the best texture, the taste was authentic and delicious. Fakhruddin has promised (or did he?) to work on the texture.

In Sarang's abscence we had to replace his recipe with another vegetarian one. Fortunately Sarang had hinted that he may not be able to make it so I was ready with an alternative. Mustard Onion Fried rice was demonstrated instead. This is a very quick and easy rice and turned out as I had expected.

We then enjoyed the fried rice and the kachcha biryani. Yesterday was unusually warm and to close the lunch, there was shahi badam kulfi which provided some rahat from the heat.

Before you guys speculate, the kachcha in the biryani is the chicken as it starts its journey. Did not get it? I'll explain as explained by Fakhruddin. Most biryanis (including the one we had in the very first home food club meeting) have the chicken and rice cooked separately and then they are layered and finally cooked under dum. Yesterday's biryani had rice and raw (kachcha) chicken mixed and cooked togther. Hence the name kachcha biryani.

End of another meet with new things to eat and learn. With yesterday's meet I earn for myself the honorary title (self claimed) of the kulfi wala.