Manish's Indian Biryani

Every Friday when I get back from school, one of the things I look forward to that night is biryani. Biryani is a popular Indian rice dish that’s cooked in many households. 

When I get back home and relax on the couch, I listen to my dad ask my mom how much mutton he needs to buy which is funny because he buys the same amount every week. As my dad gets the meat from the butcher, we get prepared to make the stock, and we start early since it takes hours to make.

My job is usually to cut onions and you’d be surprised how many onions are needed for this dish. My mom and sister work on other things and I put the onions in the big pot first and I simmer them up a little until they turn brown. When my dad gets back he cuts the mutton into smaller chunks and then dunks them into the yogurt, salt, garlic, and ginger mixture to marinate.

After the meat is done marinating, we put it into the big pot along with some spices and water to make the stock. While that is cooking, we take out the Basmati rice (a rice commonly used in India) and partially cook it in the rice cooker. After the meat and stock is done we all gather around and try the delicious mutton. Then, we then pour in the rice and start steaming the whole thing and wait patiently for it to be done. 

After cooking and waiting for hours we finally call the rice done and get our plates. We each take huge amounts of it on our plates, sit down at the table, and eat. The rice is just so flavorful, and the mutton is so tender and falls right off the bone. Sometimes if you get lucky, you can get some bone with marrow in it. You can suck that right out of there and it goes down so smoothly.

At the end of dinner, I just sit down on the couch for a little while since I always feel so bloated. We sometimes end off the night with a movie and that’s always fun. I enjoy this routine and I enjoy routines in general since nothing gets to surprise you like a random essay. It also saddens me whenever we don’t have time to make biryani that week. 

With each and every day of tough school work, it’s always good to know that at the end of the week I can sit there at the dinner table and eat mutton biryani with my family.