Sofiyani Biryani at Baigs Grill Mississauga | How to make Sufiyani Biryani | Joojeh Kabab recipe

Behind the scenes, Sofiyani Biryani Let's do this. Let's do it. I'm really excited to try out all these amazing food. There’s a completely different sophisticated flavor profile of this Biryani After eating this biryani my Urdu is also gradually improving Asalam Alikum, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal and ahlan wa sahlan to all our friends and viewers around the world, welcome to your favorite YouTube channel In2Spices Hyderabad is known as the City of Pearls. and this city’s most unique pearl is undoubte

dly the cuisine that Hyderabad, has given to the world. And today we feel honored to have been invited by a chef who has worked with legendary names in the field of Cricket and UFC. And he's going to give us a masterclass in what true, authentic Hyderabadi cuisine is all about. So get ready to explore the taste, Zaiqa and Zouq of Chef Ahmed Baig’s signature Sofiyani Biryani at Baigs Grill in Mississauga. Let's go. Sir, Salaam alaikum. How are you doing? Walaikum Salam How are you? I'm good. I'm

good. Sir, thank you very much again for giving us the time, talking to us and our audience. on In2Spices I know we have got an action packed episode today. We're going to be seeing the master chef in action, playing around with all the secret masala and his spices on our YouTube channel in2spices But before that, I would love to sit down, have a cup of tea with you, your special famous Baigs Grill’s Hyderabadi Chai. Let's have a cup of tea, discuss a few things and get to know you a bit better.

Let's go. Viewers, I'm really excited to be sitting in the company of one of the most top rated chefs in the GTA. Chef Ahmed Baig It's my honor and pleasure to have you. Thank you so much. You're most welcome, sir. And again, I'm getting that feeling. You know, I don't know if you know this Bollywood movie, Main Khiladi Tu Anari (I am the Expert and You are a Novice) over here. I'm getting the feeling of a complete novice sitting with an expert like you. So how does one start on this journey? L

et's go back, rewind the clock and tell us something about the story on how your script started getting written. I started off at the age of 13. I was inspired by my parents, my mother especially. She was known to be an amazing cook. And growing up, I got the passion to start cooking and I was always a foodie growing up. So basically my mother being my inspiration, that's how I got into this field. Recipes were inherited to be by my mother, and I love to learn and I feel like learning is somethi

ng that you never stop doing and you're always learning. And I'm still learning. I was telling our viewers earlier that we're in for a treat today because we're going to be seeing the master chef work his magic with his signature spices only on In2Spices So what are we cooking today, chef? So we will be cooking. One of my personal favorite dishes is called Sufiyani Biryani And we will do some barbecue. We'll do two types of barbecue. We'll do Joojeh Kabob It's like a Persian chicken barbecue. An

d then we'll do Chicken Tikka Boti Really excited. Let's finish the tea and let's go and see how this magic happens. Be back in a bit. Celebrity Chef Ahmed Baig behind the scenes Sofiyani Biryani Let's do this. Let's do it. Really excited. We're going to start off with some lamb here. this is about 3 pounds Okay. Right. the next thing we will do is get to the spices. So we're making Sofiyani Biryani Which means it's a it's a white biryani So not a lot of spices go in it especially no turmeric, n

o red chili. It's a simple procedure where four major spices are in it. We have cardamom, cinnamon, clove and Caraway Seeds Shah Jeera (Caraway Seeds) comes from the family of cumin So as you can see, I'm just going to drop it into the meat. Nice. Next thing we will do is I have a blend of ginger, garlic and green chilies, and I also squeeze the lemon in it to keep it simple and stuff. So we're going to add that So green chilies and not red chilies. Exactly. Okay. Because we want to achieve the

white color of the Biryani - Wow, I can I can smell the spices. Amazing. We're going to go with the fried onions. and we're going to crush it on right? You are right I can smell the spices now hitting my nostrils. Yeah, yeah, yeah. another you can see a secret of every biryani is that the oil the fat that we used to fry the onions is infused with onions within the oil. So this. You can smell it? Yeah. Yeah, I can smell the onions in it So we would be using this oil. this is the next thing. Okay.

We have coriander and mint chopped up. So these are the two herbs that go with this marination, right Not too much. Let's say a handful Okay. Right. I'm going to mix this up. Okay. This is the first stage. The second stage will be you can see this is the Malai cream and a little bit of yogurt. Not too much. And then this biryani This is what differentiates from the regular saffron biryani Whereas there’s cream in it more than the yogurt. I'm going to be pouring this into the marination And you

can see the cream the cream is coming in yeah, look at that. Wow, wow. Really thick So how long does this have to sit then? it's good. At least if you give it 4 hours because the lemon juice and the yogurt and bacterial enzymes that comes, the cultures, they break down the protein to achieve a much tender meat, So I'm going to be mixing this really well. Just making sure that the seasoning, which has a salt and the spices blend really well with the cream We're going to get to the third stage. Ok

ay. I'm going to be adding the onion oil And this is the third mix that we're going to do. Well, another thing which I like to do, which not a lot of chefs do, the water that I used to boil for the rice, it has some seasoning in it. It's already flavored So what I'm going to be doing that add a little bit of water, because when this is actually cooking on the stove, we need enough amount of moisture so it doesn't burn from the bottom. Okay. So the two reasons why I like to use the boiling water.

Number one, it has infused the spices within the water. You can see the color. Yeah, because the Shah jeera imparted the color within the water. Number two is that you can see it's still hot. What it does is that it increases the temperature of the cold yogurt, and the cream brings it closer to room temperature. That way, the meat gets with the cooking process faster. So I'm going to add this, right? And I'm just going to do a another thorough mix There's a whole different level of appreciation

for these dishes. When you see a master chef actually creating it. Amazing ! I would like to advise people is that don't add too much oil, because what happens is that because of the cream it separates in the cooking process and then you'll achieve ghee natural ghee coming out. we are now ready for layering the rice on top. So another thing that differentiates Hyderabadi Biryani from other biryanis is that this is made with raw meat Which actually means is that the meat is not cooked before and

layered This is the raw marination where you get semi-cooked rice put on top and then you cook it when the meat is raw. And that's why when people ask me which is the best biryani, it's a tough question. As a biryani lover, I love all kinds of biryanis. But the best thing for me to say is that by far, Hyderabadi Biryani is the most difficult to make because it requires a lot of skill. Yeah. Number one, the meat has to be cooked without burning. It has to fall off the bone. Number two, the rice

has to be perfectly cooked. So managing those two things is a challenge. When was the first time you actually made the sofiyani biryani The first time would be I was, I think, 18 years old. Okay. I had it at a wedding and I was like, This is. This is it. I have to learn this. Okay. As the water is boiling, we will be adding the soaked rice you are cooking. There's two layers. The first, there's going to be like, you can say, 40% cooked, and then the second layer is 60% cooked and the steam of th

e marination will cook the whole rice. There's moisture closer to the first layer That's why it has to be less cooked. There's moisture further away from the first layer. That's why it's more cooked. That's where the term I think so, Dum Biryani comes from, right? Exactly. like its on a slow flame and the steam keeps coming out and it keeps on cooking. “Dum” is a persian word as in you seal it up, so it cooks in the steam. so the next 30 seconds, I'm going to be putting the first layer on, which

is approximately 40% cooked Okay. And then the three more minutes, and then we're going to do the rest of the thing The rice is here. The marinated meat is under it. What's next? So as you can see, we have strained the rice. We have to do the final touches before we actually put the biryani on the slow flame Okay, so what we do is we have milk we're going to pour on top. Wow. I would have never guessed Milk - Biryani combo I think they're soul mates. And then we are going to put a little bit of

the onion oil. Nice. So, Chef, where does the name Sofiyani come from? Is it from Sufism? Why is it called Sofiyani Biryani? That's a very good question. It comes from the word “Sofayed” which means white. Okay, this is a white biryani. That's why they call it Sofiyani Biryani it's actually more older than the saffron biryani that you get now it's because when the Portuguese people, when they came to India, they brought the red chilies, and that's how red chilies came to India. But before that

when biryani was made during the Mughal times. It never had red chilies. So you can say this is like the ancestor of the Hyderabadi Biryani so now we're going to get to the “Dum” part. The main part. this stage you can see it's very important. This is what keeps the steam from escaping. Right. Hence the “dum” steaming comes from here. So bawarchis (chefs) back home. They wait until the biryani is done. They would take this flour and they would eat it with some soup or maraq (yemeni soup) or some

thing like that because it has the flavor of the steam. Right. So this is special flour you can say I'm going to make sure it's. It's properly sealed off, So we're going to.... we're going to go ahead and put it right here. Okay. We are going to move on to the next is we're going to marinate Joojeh Kabob as far as my Farsi serves me, correct me if I'm wrong, Joojeh Kabob basically means grilled chicken. Exactly. Yeah, that's what it means. Yes See I know a little bit of Persian that's amazing. W

e have chicken breast. Okay The first ingredient that we're going to put is minced garlic. Okay Traditionally, in Iran, they don't use this in Joojeh but this is like something I add to kind of make it a fusion thing. Not a lot. Just a little bit. And then we need an acid component, which we're going to be using is lemons. So we're going to squeeze out the lemon juice. Next would be our seasoning. Okay. And in the seasoning we have saffron, a little bit of black pepper, salt and our secret barbe

cue spice that we use. Okay. And you can see the color that it will give is from the saffron. Okay. This is yogurt We will be adding yogurt as well. What I like to do is I like to mix the marination up first and then I will add the oil. And then we're adding a mixture of olive oil and onion oil. And if you look I don't know if you can see the saffron strands. Yeah, that's a very huge part of this Persian dish. And that's what gives that unique flavor that you're looking for. Nice. But there is a

lot of use of saffron in hyderabadi dishes, right? Yeah Hyderabad by itself is inspired a lot by the Persians, especially having a lot of Irani influence in the moghuls (time) Central Asia, Uzbekistan Afghanistan, Iran a lot. The cuisine basically is influenced a lot by it. Right. So the final ingredient that's going to the marination is the onions. And it's very important. In the Persian barbecue, they would use onion, especially the juice of the onion will tenderize the meat. And it also make

s it more juicy. and again, how long does this marination have to be? So it's better if you do like 6 hours with poultry, the best if you want to achieve the best barbecue result for poultry, I would advise at least 6 hours, 12 hours, to overnight. we're specifically using breast meat for this. And breast is a very tender meat, low fat content. So it cooks faster. So Joojeh Kabob... it's already there on the grill. Can't wait to try it out. What's next, chef? The next is the Tikka Boti and it's

one of our popular barbecue dishes. Right. And since we use in Joojeh we use breasts. We're going to be using boneless chicken thigh for the Tikka Boti And it's also a simple marination for this as well. We have the onion oil and we're going to use the yogurt And this is our special Tikka Boti barbecue spice And we have ginger garlic, so we don't use ginger for the Joojeh but we use ginger garlic for the Tikka Boti we're going to also use lemon juice and onions. So let's get started with the fir

st thing we're going to do is put some spice in and we will squeeze in some lemon juice. Some ginger garlic paste. and then we're going to add yogurt. I like to mix this up. Okay. We're getting there getting there... Yeah, Cooking is all about patience, These recipes have been like centuries in the making, right? It all started off somewhere in the Middle East then the Silk route happened And that's how these recipes got evolved over these ages, right? Definitely. So as they say Arfan... The fru

it of patience is sweet and I'm sure in this case it's going to be barbecue. I can't wait. Okay. Looks like we're ready for barbecuing. The next thing, which is the Tikka Boti. Wow. It smells amazing. wow. Whoo! Wow. The aroma. Wow. Wow. You can see the. You can see. Look at that meat. Just look at that meat just falling off the bone... Wow. I don't know if you can smell this, but it's. I can definitely smell it Now, the best part to eat it. Wow. That was intense, Chef. Really excited on how tho

se dishes turned out. I'm excited, too. So again, with our desi (South Asian) households... And again, I use that word very loosely, You have to be a doctor, boy when you grow up You have to be an engineer. or most probably go into accounts, finance right? How hard was it for you to convince your parents to let you pursue your culinary journey? I would say I was fortunate that I. I didn't face any challenge convincing them because this is something that we share the same passion.... Right. I wou

ldn't say it was challenging, they respected my decision and they always supported me and they were mentoring me in this journey. in the last episode we met Salman Bhai right... I believe he's your younger brother. He's my younger brother. That's right. So he was telling us about all your achievements. How you working with really big names in the sports industry especially, Right. You've worked with Shahid Afridi, again... Pakistan's national treasure. He needs no introduction. You've been worki

ng with former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov You're working with the current UFC champion, Mr. Islam Makhachev himself How hard and challenging is it to work for such big names? I was fortunate enough and I was blessed to have the opportunity to cook for these guys. It wasn't challenging for me as a cook. I enjoy pressure. I didn't face any intimidation, of course, there was always pressure, but there's always pressure Before the actual event I feed off. I get energy off this pressure and I e

njoy working with these guys and these guys are most humble and amazing guys. So no backstage stories... where you messed up a dish for Mr. Islam and he put you in a headlock or something. No, luckily I. I didn't face any situations like that. Baigs Grill, synonymous with the best Hyderabadi cuisine, right... One sentence, in complete Hyderabadi dialect for our viewers. so there's a saying in Hyderabadi, it's been used a lot. If you mess up something, they would say, “What did you do man you mix

ed it in the eggpant” Amazing... that was great. Chef Ahmed It was a pleasure Now, I can’t wait to try out those amazing dishes that we saw being cooked in there Me neither. Let's do it. Let's do that. Time to unveil and open up. The treasure that's inside this dish Guys, I wish you could smell this. It smells so flavorful, Let’s keep it on the side for now Let’s try the Lukhmi first. I'm really excited to try out all these amazing food that Chef Ahmed has prepared. With such care and such love

for us. Lukhmi is basically a distant cousin of the samosa It’s like a Hyderabadi version of our popular flavorful samosas... Usually the authentic Lukhmi It's made with mincemeat, and that's what they have here. Look at this man... look at all this steam, freshly prepared Lukhmi at Baigs Grill, let’s try Bismillah It has a very thin crispy texture on the outside. The meat, the mincemeat very flavorful not too spicy Just got the right balance of spices Salt etc. just melts in your mouth Lukhmi c

omes from the Urdu word “Lukhma” which basically means a single bite. And it's really nice to see miles away from Hyderababd this Hyderabadi appetizer right here in Canada. If you guys want original, Hyderabadi style. authentic Lukmi in the GTA Baigs Grill That's your destination. They know what they're doing. Good stuff. Our Baigs Special platter... the barbecue platter is here... it’s got the Joojeh kebab, the chicken tikka boti, the beef seekh kabob and the chicken seekh kabab It smells reall

y, really delicious, guys. And I can't wait to start eating this. First of all, let's go with the chicken. Nah, let's go with the beef seekh kabob. It’s said that the Kebabs basically originated in the Middle East. The nomadic tribes that were there or the bedouin tribes as we call them they used to take meat, put it on skewers. Actually, I don't think they used to put it on skewers. From what I've heard, he used to put meat on their swords... and then grill the meat over a open fire and enjoy t

hese barbecue items. which later became known as the Kebabs, which we all love, Was just talking to Chef Ahmed And he told us that this was especially prepared. for In2Spices Chef Ahmed, thank you very much. It's not on their regular menu, so don't be surprised if you come and ask them that we want a beef kebab Chances are you might not find it on the menu. Too good really nice light texture The spices used are really good It's not too much on the spicy side Eating kabobs with hand adds to the a

mazing experience Now its more enjoyable After the beef seekh kebab let’s go towards the chicken seekh kabab lemon shot If you have kebab and if you have a lemon and you dont drizzle it on top it will be unfair to the kabab Let's try Beautiful glaze on the outside that is needed for a good barbeque texture Good stuff Next let’s go towards the Joojeh Kabob Straight from Iran flavors of Persia Again.. as trade routes opened up the Silk Road especially when it happened The Middle Eastern delicacy,

which was the kebabs it moved.... right? and every region had their own way of preparing the meat, the marinating techniques, the cooking techniques, So in Persia this became koobideh In Turkey it became shish kebab And in India Pakistan we call it Seekh Kabab Knowing a little bit of history is important when you are having your favorite foods Flavors of Persia in Mississauga Ridgeway and Eglinton Plaza at Baigs Grill Let's try so soft it's a bit hard on the outside but as soon as you bite into

this, I'm not exaggerating. just literally melts in your mouth. Just look at this white texture of the chicken inside the marination that we saw has gone all the way to the inside I can feel the saffron in it we saw Chef Ahmed Baig make this for us And he was showing and explaining the cooking process I can actually feel all the saffron and the spices have infused into the chicken very good stuff Let’s try the last item on Baigs Barbeque Platter The chicken tikka boti another precious gift of th

e Moghuls because the recipe that we casually enjoy of the Chicken Tikka these days right... This recipe was perfected This recipe was perfected in the Mughal era. Let's try. Now some spices hit me, very juicy. A bit on the spicy side. Loving it This platter on its own is a world of flavors It’s like a journey Different flavor profiles of the beef kebab the chicken the joojeh the chicken tikka too good you guys need to come here and try this for yourselves Alright next up its the turn of star of

the day dish that is the Sofiyani Biryani Wow just look at this How beautifully is this cooked don’t even need to touch it with hands and the meat is just getting separated from the bones it's just falling apart Beautifully cooked. But I'm going to do one thing that I probably haven’t done in my videos I'm eating with my hands because when the dish is cooked with love you need to give it some love let’s make a perfect bite take a little bit of rice with the lamb sufiyani biryani let’s try cooke

d by Chef Ahmed with love and care at Baigs Grill... Bismillah it's a completely different flavor profile when you talk about hyderabadi biryani. you visualize it in your mind that it will be full of spices you know it will be like a really spicy biryani But this one very rich in texture and flavor. We saw the making process of it. I can feel the cream and taste of the yogurt very mild spices But its not necessary that if something is mild it will be light in taste This one has got different lay

ers of flavor very tasty very soft tender meat aromatic spices excellently cooked rice. A different level of sophisticated flavors this biryani has And after eating this biryani My Urdu is also slowly improving It's the magic of the sufyani biryani This too has an interesting origin story it’s said that there was a Nizam in Hyderabad who loved biryanis but could not tolerate the spices So he ordered his royal chefs that I want to eat biryani but I can tolerate the spices so his chefs especially

for the Nizam invented the recipe of this biryani in which they use cream, dry milk instead of using the red chili. They started using the green chili whole spices not the grounded spices so that the white rice retains that white color of it. Mr. Nizam, thank you very much. for asking your chefs to create and invent this amazing Biryani I really can’t stop eating this This biryani is a Chef Ahmed special for in2spices and our viewers he gave us a masterclass of making sufiynai biryani Chef Ahmed

... I would say... highly recommend actually I would plead please put this biryani on your menu so that our viewers can come and enjoy this Biryani as well because if this Biryani is on the menu of Baigs Grill Then my friend do not miss this biryani I need to make way for Mr. Hameed now... beef, lesson.... Beef.... lesson?? after the lesson in beef.... You want my help? No, I'm good. and that's how I struggle with picking up kebabs looks like am an expert but am not Viewers we are back once agai

n at the biggest Halal food plaza in North America at the Eglinton and Ridgeway intersection. where there are amazing halal restaurants each with their unique taste, zaiqa and zouq Check out our playlist that is pinned in the comments section below. Be sure to book mark it because this playlist is going to keep getting larger and larger after all that amazing food. dont have room but since we are at a Hyderabadi restaurant and not have Khubani ka Meetha dessert that is not possible one of the mo

st popular desserts in Hyderabad Let’s try this one has got a different take on it. Got the creme brulee There’s Chef Ahmed’s signature touch in this one Let’s take a little custard Creme brulee. Apricot. Let's try the custard. Perfectly balances off the sweetness of the apricot. Even though it's not too sweet. Put it on your mouth. Just melts for somebody like me who loves desserts. This is next level stuff too good Last time we had the Biscoff milk cake this time we’re going to be having the

raspberry milk cake whichever flavor you go for. One thing is for sure. You'll keep on coming back for more and more and more and more of this milk cake Baigs Grills special Karak Chai I love their tea the same Dubai type flavor very delectable tea Very thick Smells amazing, sorry to interrupt Hi Chef Ahmed It’s our pleasure having you here on behalf of Baigs Grill we wanted to give you a small gift. It's our special chai with our secret blend and everything, so you can enjoy the chai at home as

well. So are you telling me I'm not welcome any more to have this Karak Chai You'll go through it so fast that you'll be here. I will definitely be back for this And thank you so much. I really appreciate this, thanks Chef Yeah, I'll catch you in a bit. I'll just finish up tea and catch you in a bit Thanks. Wow. That was a bit unexpected. Secret blend of the Karak Chai of Chef Ahmed So Arfan how was the food? It was amazing, chef. I mean, the Sufiyani Biryani My taste buds are still in trance.

It was something magical. It was really good. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, Chef Ahmed you are a well-traveled, chef, right? You've been through different countries. What's next in the chapter for Chef Ahmed So, I'm not sure if you know, I'm traveling along the Silk Road. I'm writing a book on kebabs how it was spread throughout the Silk Road and how each region inspired the dish along the Silk Road. Amazing. And is there going to be... is it just historical facts or is there like how to mak

e the kabobs Chef Ahmed Baig style... tell us a little bit about it. So a little bit of both. Okay. What I'm working on is a brief history and origins of each of the variation kebabs and as well as the recipes. And there's I'm exposing all the secrets so there is no secrets. I need a copy of that book. For sure. I would be really, really honored to read it and, you know, like, try some of these recipes myself, for sure. And speaking of trying out recipes, right, for the young audience out there

who are kind of inspired by your journey or by the journey of other chefs, what advice would you give them on how to embark on this journey and what do they need to do to become successful? I would advise them, don't get into it unless you have the passion for it. The three main things you need to succeed in this field is number one passion. Okay? Number two, hard work, because this field is not easy and it's not for everyone. There's a lot of prep time and hard work that goes into it. And last

but not least, time management. And if you lack that skill, that's something that you need to work. And this is what you need to succeed in this field. Amazing, Really nice words. And again, spoken like a true master of your art. Any final message to our viewers, to the hopefully millions and millions soon to be subscribers on our channel any message you have for them. If you haven't subscribed already, please follow and Subscribe in2spices and don't forget to, like, share and comment. And pleas

e visit us at Baigs Grill Friends a visit to Baigs Grill is a must Did I say it correct? Yes, you did. Perfect pleasure. Thank you very much see you in the next episode! The spices and everything usually... when you go for barbecue, they're very spicy and everything just, you know, hits you immediately. This is like really mild, you know? last time when we had it over here when we first came to Baigs Grill right... we took the barbecue.. because.. we weren't too familiar with the Hyderabadi cuis

ine so we came in for the... first we took the barbecue from here. And I'm like... This is so nice because it's like a completely different flavor profile the way of authentic Hyderabadi cuisine so yeah.... because usually we like the Indian, Pakistani style food you know full of spices and really spicy food and all that, but this is like perfect really enjoyed it