You talk, correctly, of our ideas of correct biriyanies formed in our youth from which we cannot be swayed. So, when you say this
let me mildly disagree. Almost no biriyani I’ve had in Bombay has had apricots in it, except the occasional Parsi version. And I’ve had it in restaurants, at Muslim feasts, and Christian weddings.
Not quarreling, just putting in my two paisa (pennies).