Machhli Chaap

A friend’s cousin once uttered three little words that his family still can’t forget. Food is food, he intoned. I hope to meet him one day just to prove him wrong. There is food, and then there is food. If you have read about the delicacies that were prepared in the kitchen of Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Let me, to begin with, describe a dish that came into prominence during the heyday of the Nawab. For this dish, called the moti biryani, or a pilaf of pearls, Wajid Ali Shah’s entourage of cooks first beat exact quantities of gold and silver foil with egg yolks.

Shahi Badam Sharbat

They then stuffed these into the gullet of a chicken that had been kept ready for grilling. Once the chicken was cooked, it was cut open, and — lo and behold — the gold and silver came out of the chicken in the form of shiny beads, just like luminescent pearls. These little pearls were added to the biryani before it was served with the chicken.

It’s not easy to get moti biryani even in places such as Lucknow, the capital of Awadh, these days. But the original recipe has been suitably adapted over the years. Chef Daulat Miyan, who has prepared a feast for Calcutta at the Zarang restaurant of dishes that flourished during the reign of the Nawab in the mid 19th century, does a moti biryani too. This one, though, is cooked with golden meatballs and served in a pilaf that has been cooked in stock flavoured with spices.

Chef Daulat says his great grandfather was one of the khansamas of the Nawab — and the recipes of the royal times have been carefully preserved over the years.

Shahi Moti Biryani

The Nawab’s kitchen, clearly, was as rich as it was varied. Food was cooked in ghee and oil, and was full of dry fruits and nuts. Chef Daulat’s fare — served as Awadh-e-Dasterkhan, or the banquet of Awadh, features all kinds of delicacies. The feast includes Awadhi burra kababs, meat cubes seasoned with nuts and spices and then grilled, and the murgh paras kabab, chicken cooked with butter and flavoured with saffron.

His khansamas were encouraged to add an element of surprise to the dishes. Food writer Chitrita Banerji recounts in her book Eating India how Wajid Ali Shah once entertained a prince who had moved from Delhi to Lucknow. After a lavish meal, a fruit conserve was served. The prince found — no doubt to his utter surprise — that what looked like preserved fruit was actually a dish of sweetened meat. But the prince had his revenge. He invited the Nawab over for a meal. And the Nawab found that everything — from the pilaf to the meat — was made out of sugar.

There’s an interesting story about the shahi tukra too. This is one of my favourite desserts — though it’s sinfully rich. Shahi tukra — literally the royal crumb — is a dish of fried bread soaked in milk and syrup and then topped with thickened milk. Banerjee writes that an Awadh nawab — clearly not known for his generosity — used to chuck stale bread at the poor during his rounds. One of his cooks thought of a way the unappetising bread pieces could be overhauled. He fried the bread, soaked it in syrup and then swirled it around with thickened milk. And the shahi tukra was born.

Murgh Paras kabab

A lot of this is folklore, but fascinating nevertheless. What’s known is that the chefs of Wajid Ali Shah were so creative that they were forever being wooed by other nawabs. Chef Daulat holds that the chief khansamas were so powerful that one of them walked off in a huff once when the Nawab was late for a meal.

Of course, once the British ousted the Nawab — he was sent off to Metiaburuz in Calcutta — the dishes were suitably modified to meet the demands of a new era, and a new region. Potatoes were added to the Awadhi biryani and are now a veritable part of the Calcutta biryani.

Some hold that the Nawab’s entourage could no longer live in luxury, and found the potatoes a cheaper substitute for meat. I tend to believe that the potato was still a new ingredient, and his chefs, ever willing to experiment, found a new way to spice up the biryani.

It’s interesting to know that Wajid Ali Shah went to Calcutta in real style. In his entourage were 2,000 chefs. Clearly, the man may have lost his kingdom, but had no plans of losing his appetite.

Nawabi Shahi Tukda

Ingredients (to serve four)

• 5 cups milk • ½tsp green cardamom powder • Saffron, a few strands • 1½ cups sugar • 1 cup ghee • 8 sliced milk bread

For the thickened milk (rabri)

• 10 cups milk • ½cup sugar • ½tsp green cardamom powder •Saffron, a few strands • 2tsp slivered almonds • 2tsp slivered pistachio

Method

Boil the milk in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add green cardamom powder and saffron. Remove from heat, add sugar. Keep aside. Now heat the ghee in a pan. Fry the slices of bread lightly. Remove and drain the excess oil. Soak the fried bread in the milk mixture for 10 minutes. Prepare the rabri by heating the milk. Let it simmer till it is reduced to 1/3rd. Stir in the sugar, green cardamom powder and saffron. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool. Carefully lift the slices of bread from the milk and place on a serving platter. Pour the rabri on top and garnish with almonds and pistachios. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Awadhi Burra Kebab

Ingredients (to serve four)

• 500gm mutton, cut into 1½ inch pieces • 2tsp chironji • 2tsp coriander seeds • 2tsp khus khus • 1tsp cumin seeds • 3tbs curd • 1tsp garlic paste • 1tsp ginger paste • 1tsp onion paste • 8 peppercorns • 4 cloves • Salt to taste

Method

Apply ginger-garlic paste, beaten curd and onion paste to the mutton cubes. Lightly roast and powder the chironji, coriander seeds, khus khus, cumin seeds, cloves and peppercorn. Add this powder and salt to the mutton. Mix well. Allow the mutton to marinate for about 6-8 hours. Now thread each mutton cube on a skewer, baste with oil and roast over charcoal. Serve hot with onion rings.