Indian cuisine: Biryani; 21 different ways to cook India's favorite dish! (Indian cuisine, Indian food, biryani, India, chicken, Indische Küche, Reisgerichte, ... Indien, Indisch,beginners,Indian recipees)

The beauty of Indian food is in creating complexity with not a billion spices, but maybe just one or two spices treated in such a way that you're going to end up with a complexity that just blows your mind.

With British colonialism in India from 1757 to 1947, it was inevitable that the two cultures would influence each other. Today the most popular food in Britain is curry and rice – not fish and chips or bangers and mash. The first curry recipe was introduced to Britain in 1747 and since then Indian migration has helped to spread the traditions of the subcontinent. The advent of take-away meals has made exotic foods accessible to people of all levels of society. A survey by the Washington Post showed that 1,200 Indian food products had been introduced into the United States. Western Indian restaurants generally serve a blander version of Indian dishes to appeal to the Western palate.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology discovered that in Western culture we are more likely to mix ingredients which share similar flavors. We have the idea that they will complement each other. The Indian concept of mixing flavors is the exact opposite. Indian cuisine tends to blend flavors that have “negative pairing” yet go well together. The taste buds are then surprised or shocked by the dichotomy of flavors in one bit. This supports the generally held notion that western food is bland compared to Indian food. We would blend foods like bread, milk and butter where as Indian food combines lemon, garlic, cinnamon, fruit, chili and coconut in one dish! Usually the addition of spices creates the negative pairing for example in adding cinnamon and cardamom to a savory dish or pepper to a sweet dish. It is because of this blending of different flavors that we love Indian food so much and why it has become a part of Western culture.

Biryanis are gastronomic delights and definitely a treat made on special occasions like Eid. A beautiful array of long-grained rice, tender meat, pungent spices, flavourful nuts and sweet crisp fried onions, most often topped with orange strands of exotic saffron and aromatic kewra water. It’s a dish made all over the country with variations in every household in every region!