Biryani Nights

Its been a month since I started cooking. Whenever you start cooking, you dream of cooking something exotic right from day one. One of such dishes on my wishlist was Kashmiri Mutton Biryani. So last week I finally decided to try my luck. But mind you, for a lazybone like me, the gestation period for any trivial task goes into weeks. Like, it took me three weeks to finally buy a running shoes that i needed for my gym and squash. And its been more than a month since i decided that i should join a gym and resume playing squash. It took me more than a month to get up early and go to office before noon.

To cook the biryani I needed to do a little bit of shopping. And it took me five days before I finally ended up shopping for the ingredients. And what an experience it was. Imagine a young guy going to a shop (famous for stocking various kinds of spices) which is full of species from the Venus-land. This is how it went

Me: Bhaiya kaun kaun se masale hote hain
( It was as if i had asked "aapke paas kaun kaun se condom hain" , because suddenly all eyes focussed on me as if I was the shop-jester for the night)
guy behind the counter(GBTC) : (with a smirk) aapko kaun se masale chahiye
Me: Mujhe maloom hota toh kya main aapse yeh poochta ki masale kitne tarah ke hote hain
GBTC : Humare paas 100 se bhi zyada masale hain.
( realising that this conversation was not going anywhere i tried recollecting all the ingredients from the recipe i picked from the net)
Me : Laung, Ilaichi, sheh-zeera, cardamon ,cinnamon ...
GBTC :(interrupting) carmom,chinmom kya hota hai
Me : Arre hadd karte ho, maloom hota toh bolta na hindi mein
GBTC : yahaan bahut customer hain, aap pata karke aayeeye ki aapko kya chaahiye
( Now I was on the verge of losing my temper, when suddenly the owner of the shop - an old lady, came to my rescue)
The old lady( TOL) : Beta cardamon bole toh ilaichi, cinnamon bole toh dal-chini. Waise tum kya bananae waale ho?
Me : Aunty abhi tak toh biryani banane ki koshish kar raha tha, par lagta nahi ki banega.
TOL : Koi nahi main batati huun kya kya masala chahiye.
( then she orders GBTC to get a list of things which i had no clue of)
Me: ( trying not to be naive)Aunty, mujhe kesar bhi chahiye.
TOL: Beta, kesar sone ke bhav ka bikta hai
Me : (snobbishly) haan aunty suna hai mehenga hai, par koi baat nahi
TOL: Tum samjhe nahi, mehenga nahi , actually sone ke bhav ka hota hai kesar, 240 Rs mein 1 gram.
( That was like a bomb dropping on my head. Took me time before i recovered)
Me: ( the sound barely coming from my throat) accha aunty 1 gram hi de dijiye.
........

So finally i was done with all the shopping. But when i reached home, i saw that my net connection was gone and i had forgot to save the page. Again i had to wait for 2 more days before the connection was restored.
Yesterday, after refusing two tasty dinner invitations and with a resolve to conquer the elusive world of cooking , I came back at 11 in the night to cook my Kashmiri mutton biryani.

This is how it progressed at midnight
This was the mutton being prepared before the biryani with all the "carmoms" and "chinmoms in it"





And this is how it looked at 1:30 am




And to be very frank for a first timer it was awesome. And I believe in 2-3 attempts, i will become a master of kasmiri mutton biryani.



And my parents, when they come in May, are in for a serious surprise :D. And just to prove that it was really edible, I had the left over as dinner tonight .....and it was still amazing.