ChefSteps is a team of chefs, writers, and food lovers who develop recipes, techniques, and guides to help people cook better at home.

ChefSteps

Those wild, earthy aromas. The penetrating, deeply layered flavors and vibrant color palette. The way everything somehow tastes good with everything else—an addictive hodgepodge of rich stews and veggies, rice, and pillowy naan that you pile onto a plate, then shovel in your mouth as fast as possible, already dreaming about the helping to come. Indian food is a culinary experience unlike any other, distinctly delicious in a way that’s difficult to define. Difficult, that is, unless you’re the researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology in Jaipur, who recently analyzed more than 2,000 recipes from the subcontinent and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/03/a-scientific-explanation-of-what-makes-indian-food-so-delicious/">discovered</a> that the cuisine approaches flavor in a radical way.ChefSteps founder Grant Crilly experienced this incredible cuisine firsthand when he lived in Mumbai 10 years ago. He was there to reboot Busaba, a Southeast Asian restaurant, along with chef and owner Nikhil Chib, and he quickly fell in love with the richness and diversity of Indian cooking. So when he got the urge to prepare an epic Indian feast for ChefSteps family meal, you can imagine how pumped the staff was to taste the fruits of that labor.And whether it’s homemade palak paneer slowly cooked overnight or a quick meal of jarred curry with chicken, if you’re making an Indian feast for your nearest and dearest, you’re probably planning to serve it with some rice. Plain basmati is fine, of course, but when it comes to support dishes for our favorite flavor-forward stews, we like to get creative with a vibrant, show-stealing side full of super-sexy flavors and textures. Think of it as our version of a biryani recipe—a common name for the fragrant rice preparations that pop up in cuisines across South Asia and the Middle East. These often involve basmati rice layered with either meat or vegetables, plus nuts, raisins or sultanas, aromatic seasonings, fresh herbs, and whatever else the cook desires. We’ve got some simple tips on how to make Grant’s take on a vegetable biryani, but don’t worry about precise measurements or anything. This is family meal, not the <a href="http://www.bocusedor.com/en">Bocuse d’Or</a>. Have fun.