Sorry biryani

Had cooking only been a matter of getting hold of recipes and emulating the steps, there would have been zillions of good cooks but the very fact that everybody cannot be good at this art means that ‘nakal mein bhi akal chahiye’.Well, the story goes like this-last weekend a dear friend coooked chicken biryani and invited us over-I was bowled by that perfect blend of rice and spices and decided to take the steps from her and try it this time I called some friends over for dinner.So,she explained to me all the steps with all her patience and I was confident I could do it.
The recipe involved cooking chicken and rice separately and then layering them to create the marvel.I considered myself an expert at cooking rice till yesterday and this is just not self opinion. My method of cooking rice was passed on to me by my sister-its only for sisters that the world is a place fit to live in.And this method was endorsed by my mother-in-law’s kitchen, which in my eyes is the highest level a kitchen could ever reach.And she changed her way of cooking rice after mine, this is the medal I was proud of, but only till yesterday.
So the dinner plan was drinks and barbeque chicken for starters – courtesy Mr Hubby ,main course-chicken biryani by me and dessert-ice cream -courtesy grocery stores,God bless them.While I was cooking biryani I just wanted the chicken to be perfect, rice I was confident of.So once hubby confirmed that the chicken was smelling good, I thought I might recreate the magic my friend had created.But alas, the quantity of rice was huge and the microwave just didn’t cook it well enough within the tested time estimate.So I increased the time and it resulted in ovecooking them.And the clock was ticking away fast, no time to redo the process.Hubby consoled me that it will turn out OK once we bake it a litle, which was the final step.I nodded agreemnt as there was no choice but I knew I had messed the main course!!
Finally friends arrived and hubby handled the barbecue and mocktails really well,it was commendable.At times like this I realise that he is a prize catch,and how could he land in my life and stick by me, but I coneveniently forget it the next day.I wanted to prolong the moment forever when I had to unveil the main course and was preoccupied by that thought all the time.But everyone was pretty full with the barbecue and they were not expecting another course.I could not even get myself to say that its biryani because in all honesty and least modesty, it looked like a non-veg khichadi.The rice was soggy and mushy and all the adjectives like that.Thankfully the barebecue sufficed , otherwise my friends would have had to hit the take-outs on their way back home.It was a poor sorry biryani!!
Today morning,first thing,I wanted to trash it all when hubby said he would eat it at lunch, I think he takes his commitment to keep me pacified seriously.And then my dear friend who gave me the recipe called to find out how it turned out.Horrible, bad, it was a fiasco ,I said,imagining I had a shoulder to lean on,which was extended to me through the telephone.’All you need is a rice cooker,for perfect rice’, she said.Sensing my frustration she called us for lunch and asked me to get some of my biryani for them.And she actually surprised me with a new rice cooker,which she bought just then,after our teleconversation!!Again I realize how many lovely people there are in my life, touching my life,straightening it out for me and I thank them who manage to stick by me-if its not for them, the world would be a pot of wet,teary,weepy biryani.
And friends, all those who endured the khichadi-biryani, now I have a rice cooker, so I ‘ll try to make up for that dinner.The silver lining to the tale is that I am a proud owner of a rice cooker.Getting Bollywoody via Ek Challis ki Local (minus Abhay Deol,of course)- ‘Wo kehte hain na jo hota hai achhe ke liye hota hai, theek kehte hain’.