Ammi’s Biryani

Subuhi Saiyed remembers her mother’s biryani. And Eid, when both her parents were around. The recipe is in the writing. The rest was her ammi’s own special magic. 

Ramadan is slowly nearing an end. This Eid will be different. Last year we didn’t celebrate anything. But this year, we’ve to move on. We’ve to relearn to celebrate, to enjoy, to look forward to life and love.

Eid was always about tender, sensual moments. Whether it was ammi gently dabbing abba’s kurta with ittar, or the gentle smell of the sheer khurma or ammi and abba reading the fatiha before lunch.

But the scene stealer was always the biryani.

Ammi’s biryani was neatly layered – the meat and potatoes, the saffron-tinged fragrant rice and way above was the plain rice belying any drama that lies below it. Ammi began preparations for it after the chaand was seen the previous day. The meat had to be marinated, and she never used spoons to do it. Yet her hands always seemed to smell fresh. The onions were finely sliced and drained of their water and stored in the fridge.

Eid day dawned with peeling potatoes, sorting out the mint, and frying the onions. By the time abba and my brother Haseeb were back from namaz, the biryani was layered and ready for the dum.

The dum meant sealing the pot with atta and placing the very heavy pestle and mortar on top of it. The house would smell of different things at the same time – incense, ittar, samosas, sheer khorma. But at lunch time, there was only one overpowering smell of the biryani.

Ammi never let anybody break open the atta seal or let anybody serve the biryani. We’d take the pot to the dastarkhan and there she’d gently serve the top layer of plain rice on each plate, followed by the saffron rice and then the meat. Only after everybody was served, were Haseeb and I allowed to dig into the pot for potatoes!

I hope to replicate some of it this Eid. Join me in the celebrations.

Subuhi Saiyed is her Ammi’s beti, and loves the aloo in the biryani. She lives in Mumbai and works for a multinational company.