Secret home recipes spice up biryani fare

LB Nagar: The 20th round of ‘Ghar ki Biryani’ contest, organised by The Hans India and sponsored by Goldivia sunflower refined oil and HomeTown, was held at Janapriya Homes, Chintalakunta, LB Nagar, on Tuesday. This contest witnessed a huge number of participations from elderly to young homemakers from Sri Vaishnavi Janapriya Mahila Mandal, the coordinators of the event at Janapriya Homes. 

A variety of flavoured and lip-smacking biryanis from both veg and non-veg categories like brinjal biryani, paneer biryani, mutton biryani, palak biryani were showcased at the contest. Judge chef K Karunakar, a faculty from Regency College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, said, “Judging the event has been a very lucky opportunity for me. Although it is about a dish, I got to learn different and unique aspects of cooking from every kitchen. 

Every woman has her own little secret which she uses in her kitchen and just to get a glimpse of it is very honouring. I have also noticed that some elderly women came up with recipes which included millets, enhancing the health quotient in biryani.” “Competitions like these are very important and necessary for women like us. We never expected so many will participate in the event as today being the festival of Radha Saptami, but I’m very happy that so many housewives have come together to participate in this unique event. 

It is a great encouragement and confidence booster for women as they rarely get opportunity to showcase their talent,” said P Jyothi Sai, president of Vaishnavi Mahila Mandali.“I have made brinjal biryani with pineapple raitha and It took me half-an-hour to prepare. Although winning is important, but I would be happy if any of our colony member wins and represents the colony at the finale,” said K Rama, the vice-president of Vaishnavi Mahila Mandal. 

Archana, who made paneer biryani was adjudged the winner in the veg category, and P Vijayalakshmi, the maker of mutton biryani, was announced the winner of the non-veg section. 
“I’m still very surprised that I won today. It is a very easy recipe and I learnt this from the seeing the biryani procedure on the YouTube and I’ve been preparing it in my house for many years. I hope we have more competitions like these in the future because it is a very creative and encouraging for us,” said Archana. 

Vijayalakshmi said, “It is my regular biryani at my home and the reason it won is because I always add homemade masalas with traditional spices, even the basic ones. I really enjoy and love cooking as I feel that it is the most important part in the life.” “The 20th and last contest was held today. The 40 winners from both the categories (veg and non-veg) will be competing with one another in the grand finale. At the finale, all the 40 participants have to cook the biryani live in front of visitors and judges. The participants have opportunity to win prizes worth Rs 6 lakh at the grand finale,” said Sai Reddy, General Manager, The Hans India.