Kolkata Style Chicken Biryani | Calcutta Biryani
Kolkata Biryani is known for its distinct subtle taste where fragrant rice is mixed with big pieces of meat, potatoes and Eggs. Said to have been brought over by Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh who had been deported to Kolkata, the Kolkata biryani is distinct from other regional biryanis with its aromatic rice and potato.
I am not a Biryani expert.
I mean, I am an expert at eating it but not at cooking it.
Believe me, I have tried. Maybe not enough times.
But how many times can you try cooking a ghee laden Biryani until it is just perfect?
Who eats it? Even if its not perfect,it tastes good after all! And it has all good things.
So do you give your experimental Biryani to unsuspecting neighbors? But people are very health conscious these days. They might not like you giving them ghee laden not-so-perfect Biryani every week.
Then do you eat it yourself? But that means to shed off those excessive calories from the not-so-perfect Biryani you have to go running! Too much work.
So with all these doubts clouding my head, I had stopped experimenting with Biryanis.
Maybe this is a sign.Maybe God is telling me to only eat Biryanis cooked by others.
And then sometime in October, I was chatting with a blog reader Neha Murad over some kaanchakolar kofta that she had made.
Chatting as in FB messenger. Not real life. And I didn't even know her until that fateful day in October.
Now comes the very special thing that keeps me blogging on food and sharing my stories.
Just out of the blog, Neha said "If you are ever in the Bay Area and want to try some Kolkata style Biryani feel free to ping me. I am more adept at that than Kaanchakolar Kofta". Just like that. A warm invite to her home to share a plate of Biryani.
And then she shared her Mother's Biryani recipe. Beautifully hand-written in her recipe diary. I was overwhelmed by this generous gesture and held the recipe close to my heart.
However, I was worried about trying it out as I did not have enough Biriyani faith in myself.