Don’t follow a recipe to make a biryani. Follow your heart.

A recipe is a set of ingredients and instructions for preparing food. Biryani falls outside of that. I have cooked biryani for decades. I consider it an art form. Gastronomic creativity that appeals to your sense of smell, taste, and fulfilment on so many levels.

The broad brush strokes of what makes a biryani a biryani:

1. Rice and meat are prepped separately but eventually cooked together. In the final analysis, the meat may fall off the bone, but aged rice keeps its majestic characteristics, texture, and bite. Together, they make a homogeneous, wonderfully flavourful dish defined by layers of aroma followed closely by luxurious taste.

2. There is no hard and fast rule about what flavours and aromas you can summon to make a biryani. There is no minimum number of spices and aromatics and no upper limits. You have the creative licence to do what you like.

3. A minimalist approach can be as successful as going the whole nine yards.

4. Rice cooked to perfection with meat or vegetables, spices, and dished out in a flowing motion onto a plate completes the masterpiece.

So be the Picasso!