MILD TO MEDIUM. The main item of these dishes is fried in oil together with specially cooked basmati rice, flavoured with saffron and served with a vegetable curry sauce. Biryani is not a curry at all but the curry connection comes from the mixed vegetable curry with which it is served in most Indian takeaways. Biryani originated in Persia and, at its simplest, was rice and meat baked together in the oven. The meat and vegetables are pre-cooked and then mixed with the pilau rice. The cooks to the Mogul emperors took the biryani and transformed it into a courtly delicacy by adding aromatic spices and other exotic ingredients. Traditionally, biryanis are baked in the oven for some time so the aromatic spices and juices from the meat permeate the rice. In the Indian takeaway, however, all the dishes are made to order and the poor chef has to find a way of preparing the biryani in double quick time. So the takeaway biryani is often just pilau rice stir fried with chicken or lamb which has been cooked as an extra dry bhuna. The takeaway biryani is usually garnished with almonds and sultanas and is accompanied by a mixed vegetable curry to add a little
juiciness to the rice. choice of meat: