Leftovers from Christmas

So it has come to pass that I have gotten over my silly paranoia …. Which of the many you may ask….. since I have gotten over it…as a testimony to it, I shall not talk about it and thankfully still not blog about it………..

Christmas…the last hangover of which I remedied a couple of days ago by finally removing the tree and ornaments … was a bittersweet day…..K took ill so suddenly that he actually nursed some haldi-pepper and milk concoction as a pre dinner drink!! We cancelled our dinner party for 30 and I resolved to make the most of what was left…..namely having chosen not to go to Bangalore to be with my mom and brother and co. and many other commotions that were threatening to take over my head…..we didn’t have any lunch because of a breakfast we’d consumed at lunch time instead….i was worried about K and on the verge of increasing my misery when I decided I would plunge into making dinner for all it was worth…after all, it was Christmas…….

I didn’t want to do anything too elaborate or my poor nerves would give way………(constantly chiding me like somehow it was my fault that K was sick and we were having a miserable festival day) … yet I couldn’t get myself to make the ever popular pulao and riata….cooking always is good for me….so I cheered up and got ambitious somewhere in between…I was already feeling a little better…. I decided to try my luck with making hyderabadi dum biryani……biryani, I have never made….somehow it stuck in my head as too complicated….something similar to the thoughts I’d had of baking a few months ago….anyways, what had I to lose… everything so far had not gone as planned, so I decided I would just trash the biryani and order food if my attempt failed…at this point, at least my mind was made up…..

My brother, who gave me the recipe (he follows the recipe of Mehboob Alam Khan, a celebrated cook of hyderabadi cuisine, connoisseur of food and local celebrity…rated by Upper Crust magazine as the best Moghlai cook of all time…..) is a fabulous biryani maker…. His pet hobby of pottering in the kitchen has ensured he does the totally wowing show off cooking like biryani, roasts and barbecues with the flourish of a chef….. Even making an omelet is like painting a canvas for him…..of course always for an audience….. sibling rivalry apart, he has surprised even the most critical enjoyers of biryani….but he also is a carnivore and can’t fathom how or why I turned vegetarian…. He was most disgusted that I wanted to make vegetable biryani “what a waste” and said “I’ll give you the recipe for the mutton biryani, you do what you want and I have no idea what it’s going to taste like”

Follow the recipe I did…..and let me tell you my pulse raced on as I waited for the damn thing to get done….. B and J, my friends were coming for dinner….I had forgotten to call them and cancel and by the evening, I decided I would feel better with some company….K too who was feeling so guilty for falling sick tried to wash up and receive friends……

The biryani turned out fabulously…it looked, smelled and tasted divine…(my brother scoffed)…..usually vegetable biryanis have less flavor than the meat ones…it was tasty, juicy and fabulously flavourful…..i loved it and so did my friends….for a first attempt, it was super!! Even if I say so myself!! So this one is a keeper…and my skeptical brother to was surprised more than he wanted to admit too because I gave him full credit for this one…..