Biryani, biriyani, biriani, birani or briyani or is it really pulao, pilau, pilau ...

"Biryani is one of our most elaborate rice dishes and is served at Indian weddings and important dinners. It is definitely not an everyday dish." Madhur Jaffrey

Which is a bit of a blow because I have heaps of leftover chicken (another story) and I thought I would make a chicken biryani with some of it. And I am going to give it a go, but Madhur Jaffrey's statement is a bit off-putting. Mind you she then gives a slightly complicated, but not really too difficult recipe that I could use as a base - at least for the method. I've even got some saffron that I can use. And saffron does seem to be a fundamental ingredient in all the versions I have seen. You can find the recipe here.

But I won't be following her recipe exactly because it is indeed a bit complicated and I certainly won't be garnishing with raisins, nuts and hard boiled eggs. I had found this recipe in her Step by Step Cookery book, but she doesn't mention biryani in the Indian cookbooks that I have of hers. And I can't find a recipe by Charmaine Solomon either. But my first Indian cookbook - Cooking the Indian Way - has one and now that I look at it again I see that it is remarkably similar to Madhur Jaffrey's. So similar that one wonders whether she built on it. For this book is older than her own.

Then there's my last book in Indian food mode, the Encyclopedia of Indian Cooking by Khalid Aziz who starts his introduction to the recipe by saying:

"When the great Mogul emperors wanted to put on a really lavish feast great plates of biryani, sometimes requiring two people to carry them would be the centrepiece of the meal."

So my heart sank yet again, but then he ends his introduction by saying:

"Biryani is a good way of using up leftover meat, such as from Sunday chicken roast."

Which is a bit of a contradiction in terms don't you think? His recipe is somewhat simpler though and doesn't involve that final cooking in the oven. So I guess in the end I shall probably do a mix and match exercise again, choosing the spices to suit. I think most of the recipes I have seen though seem to par cook the rice, and then layer it with the chicken which has been cooked a bit in a sauce and finish off in the oven. Garnishing with crispy fried onions seems to be a thing too, though I never seem to get my onions to crisp up sufficiently.

Being one of those classic dishes of the world there seems to be a rather a lot of controversy as to where it comes from. There seem to be two main theories - from Iran with the Moguls - though even this has its controversies or from the south with the Arab traders. Almost everyone seems to think the name comes from ancient Persian from a word that means fried rice, which would imply that it does indeed come from Iran.

As to method - well:

"there are two categories based on the cooking method, one where the meat is cooked separately from the rice and then assembled in layers (pukki biryani), and the other where the two cook together (kacchi biryani)." Cheeky Chilli

I think I'm going for the first. As for the difference between biryani and pilau - well that seems to be the same as the above, with pilau being the second one.

There are also endless regional variations, described, photographed and explained in a longish article in Saveur, which, incidentally, subscribes to the same view as Cheeky Chilli about the two basic types.

And as for vegetarian biryani. If you start looking into that you open another Pandora's box, with many claiming that you simply can't have a vegetarian biryani. Which is interesting because I guess the naysayers mean that this is a dish of the wealthy and meant to be a show-off kind of thing, and therefore it has to have meat because this shows your wealth. If you make it with just vegetables, then it is no longer biryani. Obviously you can make it with vegetables if you lie, but can you call it biryani? Who cares anyway?

All I know is that it used to be one of my favourite dishes in Indian restaurants in England. I'm not sure whether Haveli serves a version or not. Must have a look next time we go. From memory the biryani I remember came as a rice with a few things in it, accompanied by a dish of curried meat - you mixed them up. It did not come ready mixed. But maybe my memory is playing me false here.

And as for tonight - well it will be another made up dish. Think I might go and marinade my chicken now.