Those days are so vivid in my memory.. As a child I remember I used to so look forward to Eid.. The one and only reason for this was Sharifa Aunty’s Biriyani and kabab…
Sharifa Aunty was one of my Mum’s closest friends and a wonderful cook… Incidentally my Life Science teacher as well.. Since her pretty little house was right next to our school so, often i would hop skip and jump across the fence to find myself on her table.. What a wonderful cook she was..
During Eid.. there was no question of going else where, It had to had to be her house… I had my share + more reserved.. Well years went by, i grew up, we moved out of Tripura, but you know the taste bud has a very strong memory…
This year, when eid was approaching all I could think of was aunty’s Briyani. Though I have cooked Biriyani a fair bit , but this time it had to be Sharifa aunty’s recipe.. But she had moved back to kerala and I had no way of contacting her.. This is when facebook came to my rescue… Located her.. Called her up had the best possible gossip after ages.. She is the best story teller I have ever known and then I asked her for the recipe.. to which her answer was “are you that grown up that you can cook on your own?? Won’t you like to come and have Aunty’s cooking.” We started laughing and finally she gave me the recipe..
To be honest I was almost there with the taste.. But Sharifa aunty.. ‘sThere was something about her cooking… Magical is all I can say….
so here goes:
Sharifa Aunty’s Biriyani Recreated:
- Mutton cubed 1.5 kgs
- Yogurt- 250 gms
- Yellow food colour- a pinch
- Whole Garam masala (10 cloves, 10 pepper corns, 6 cardamoms, 2 sticks of cinnamon, 3 star aniseeds, 3 big black caramoms, 4 bay leaves.)
- Red Chilli poweder- 1 tble spoon
- Ginger paste -1 table spoon
- Garlic paste -2 table spoon
- Rice (basmati) -500 gm
- Mutton stock -1.5 liters
- saffron (a pinch) soaked in a cup of warm milk
- Clarified Butter (ghee)- you would need a fair bit.
- Salt to taste
