Mrs. Ahmed’s signature Biryani
SHAISTA IQBAL, better known as Mrs. Ahmed, grew up in a vegetarian family in Lucknow. She completed her schooling in Kolkata and went to college in Delhi, where she got married in the early 70s into a family immersed in the culinary culture of Dilli-6.
Marriage plunged Mrs. Ahmed into the busy lanes of Ballimaran famously associated with the poet Ghalib. She got to understand the nuances of the unique cuisine of Dilli-6 when her father-in-law made her responsible for the family’s Ramzan kitchen, which used to feed not only the extended family, but also the neighbors and people in need.
Each day of the month would start with Mrs. Ahmed figuring out how to put 20 kilos of mutton to the best use and distributing the masalas and other ingredients proportionally to the khansamas so that the food they cooked was seasonal, wholesome and tasty. This experience taught Mrs. Ahmed the fine art of getting the proportions of ingredients right, which is has helped her hugely to this day. During the last lockdown, Mrs. Ahmed developed her own line of biryani and other masalas, which she plans to distribute commercially (But these won’t ever be mass-produced!)
For Mrs. Ahmed’s signature biryani, she first boils the meat with whole spices and uses the stock to cook the rice. She then cooks the meat with her secret masala mix and layers it into the rice. She’s so possessive about her spice box that she did not share the formula even with the chefs of a five-star hotel where she showcased her brand of Dilli-6 cuisine before the pandemic struck. The spicing and layering are critical to her biryani’s taste.
Equally important are those little touches. Mrs Ahmed, for instance, refuses to use commercial brands for those streaks of orange that make a Dilli 6 biryani stand out visually. Instead, she soaks dried harsingar (night jasmine) flowers that she sources from Khari Baoli in kewra to get that rich orange hue – naturally. These little, but significant ways of saying ‘I care’ have ensured that in the 15 years she has had Delhi-NCR eating out of her hand, Mrs. Ahmed’s signature biryani keeps accumulating goodwill in a market crowded with competition.