Awadh

Awadh- Royal Cuisine of India

The very mention of Lucknow, which was the seat of AWADH CULTURE, brings to mind the tradition of “pehle aap” (after you) the language dripping with politeness and the life style of the NAWABS. But what appeals the most is the cuisine of AWADH, which in some ways, was a combination of all that was best in art, culture and science.

Awadh is a region in the center of the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before Independence known as the United Provinces of Oudh and Agra. The traditional capital of Awadh has been Lucknow, still the capital of the modern State. The modern definition of Awadh geographically includes the districts of Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Balrampur, Barabanki, Faizabad, Gonda, Hardoi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lucknow, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Rai Bareilly, Shravasti, Sitapur, Sultanpur, and Unnao..Where Lucknow gave us tehzeeb, beautiful jewellery and chikan embroidery, it also made an occupation out of eating.

  Like various other art forms. The culinary art of Lucknow was also raised to a fine art under royal patronage. A favourite past time of the nobility of Awadh was perfecting the art of cooking. The bawarchis and rakabdars of Awadh, by their expertise of blending spices, achieved a high degree of finesse in cooking and presentation of food that took culinary art to the highest realms. This gave birth to the Dum style of cooking or the art of cooking over a slow fire, which has become synonymous with Lucknow today. The bawarchis of Awadh transformed the traditional dastarkhwan with elaborate dishes like kababs, kormas, kaliya, nahari-kulchas, zarda, sheermal, roomali rotis and warqi parathas. The richness of Awadh cuisine lies not only in the variety of cuisine but also is the ingredients used in creating such a variety. Nahari a hot favourite of Awadh is a meat preparation with thick spicy gravy. In 'Pai ki Nahari' leg and other bones are cooked and bone juice is mixed with mouth watering gravy. Nahari was originally a beef preparation eaten with Kulchas .

Awadh- a food journey

Awadh the seat of tehzeeb, nazaqat and shaan-o-shouqut is a unique land where the past mingles with present. To begin with it was part of Kaushalya Kingdom ruled by the Suryavanshis of Ayaodhaya that is Shri Ramchandraji, there after it was coveted and conquered by many rulers. But it found its zenith during the reign of Nawabs of Awadh. It was 137 years ago that the last of the kings of Avadh walked on the sarzameen (land) of their beloved Lucknow. While these monarchs sat on the throne of Avadh, there was nothing that they left untouched,. even bawarchis became master creator of culinary delights. To belong to Lucknow was the highest qualification a cook could hold.

The ruler of Avadh engaged in peaceful pursuits since the battle of Buxar, and laid the foundation of a culture which dazzled the world. Under their patronage developed a cuisine which did not remain the prerogative of royalty alone. Recipes traveled from the royal kitchens of the nobilities and from there, to the kichens of ordinary people.

All the while, research and innovation proceeded unabated in the bawarchi khanas of the royalty and aristocracy where money was no constraint, neither was time. In the mid 18th century, in the personal bawarchi khana of Nawab Shuja-Ud-Daula, Rs. 60,000 was spent per month or Rs. 7.2 lakhs per year on the preparation of dishes. The dishes which adorned his dastarkhwan did not come from the kitchen alone but from five other bawarchikhanas, including that of his mother Nawab Begum and his wife Bahu Begum. These ladies separately spent Rs. 9,000 per every month on the preparation of food. The staggering salaries of the hierarchy of cooks and other kitchen staff came from a separate budget. 

However, high salaries were not the only reason for the excellent performance of the cooks. They were given total freedom to pursue their work their own way. Examples of cooks laying down conditions of employment before crowned heads, and the latter meekly accepting them, would only be found in Lucknow. And in Lucknow alone would you find cooks strutting off in a huff if the king did not sit down for a meal when told to do so by the cook because the food was hot. A tale is told of a cook employed only to prepare mash ki dal (arhar ki dal) on a monthly salary of Rs. 500. The dal was not cooked daily but once in a while, and the king was condition bound to sit down at the dastarkhwan when he cook announced that dal was ready. The king once delayed, so the cook left. Before leaving, he emptied the contents of the dish at a place where stood a stalk of a dead tree. In a few days, leaves started sprouting from the stalk and before long, the tree turned a healthy green colour .the story may appear like an exaggeration but the fact remains that the ingredients that went into the preparation of the royal dishes were very nutritious. 

It was unwritten law that the master would sanction whatever quantity of ingredients the cook demanded. No questions were asked nor doubts expressed. Another popular story goes that king Ghazi-ud-din Haider slapped his vazir Agha Meer for reducing the quantity of ghee used by the cook in preparing parathas. The king was no fool. He said that even if the cook pilfered some ghee, so what? The parathas he made were excellent, while”you rob the whole monarchy and think nothing of it.” 

It was not royalty alone who pampered their cooks. The nobility, aristocracy and people of lesser means too maintained well stocked and well staffed kitchens from where were turned out the most exotic of dishes. Begums and ordinary housewives too preserved in their kitchens and acquired an excellence that could match the skills of a professional bawarchi. 

Broadly, there are three categories of cooks in Lucknow. The bawarchis cook food in large quantities. The rakabdars cook in small gourmet quantities. Rakabdars also specialize in the garnishing and presentation of dishes. The nanfus make a variety of roti, chapattis, naans, sheermals, kulchas and taftans.

Normally, one cook does not prepare the entire meal. There are specialists for different dishes and also a variety of helpers like the degbos who wash the utensils, the masalchis who grind the masala and the mehris who carry the khwan (tray) to be spread on the dastarkhwan. The wealthy always had their kitchens supervised by      an officer called daroga-e-bawarchi khana or mohtamim. It was this officer’s seal on the khwan that guaranteed quality control. 

The Lucknow dastarkhwan would not be complete unless it had the following dishes. Qorma (braised meat in thick gravy), salan (a gravy dish of meat or vegetable), qeema (minced meat), kababs (pounded meat fried or roasted over a charcoal fire), bhujia (cooked vegetables), dal, pasinda (fried slivers of very tender meat, usually kid, in gravy) Rice is cooked with meat in the form in the form of a pulao, chulao (fried rice) or served plain. There would also be a variety of rotis. Deserts comprise gullati (rice pudding), kheer (milk sweetened and boiled with whole rice to a thick consistency), sheer brunj, (a rich, sweet rice dish boiled in milk), muzaffar (vermicelli fried in ghee and garnished with saffron).

“Malai gujiya,”- sheets of reduced milk folded over moulds of sweetened nuts, or

 “lal peras”, deep red, caramelized sweetmeats, or the last of the seasonal

 “malpua”, sweet pancakes of ancient origin, or perhaps

“ gari ka cheewra,” octagonal, wafer-thin coconut flakes that, rather like snowflakes, disappear upon entering the mouth, leaving mere hints of the coconut they came from and the powdered sugar with which they were sweetened.When business gets taxing, a

“lassi” is sent for from the local sweet shop. Lassi, yogurt drinks, are quite superb in Benares.They came in clay cups,purvas, and are thick and sweet ,topped with chunky squares of yoghurt cream.

It is best to settle on a thandai, as it is pure ambrosia. Yellow with saffron, it consists of icy cold milk blended, in the Diwali season, with almonds, pistachios, cardamom, black pepper (yes, black pepper) and sugar.

Perhaps, in Kachori Gully, or the Lane of Fried Breads. Here anyone willing to sit on a rough bench can, for small change, feast on pooris, deep-fried, whole wheat breads that puff up like ballons, or kachoris, the same breads stuffed with split peas or corn or fenugreek greens, all fresh from hot karhais (woks). They are eaten off leaf-plates with ghugni, small black chick peas stewed with mustard and cumin seeds, or aloo bhaja, potatoes spiced with ginger, cumin seeds and dried mango powder, or else aloo koda, a delightful combination of potatoes and pumpkin.

Marwaris, their food, often suggesting the austerity of their desert motherland, especially in its ingredients, is quite superb-and they are strictly vegetarian, even to the point of refraining from the use of onions and garlic.

Marwari kitchens are hollowed territory. None may enter except professional Brahmin cooks called ‘maharaj’, if male, and ‘maharajan’, if female. Their high caste is not enough. The cooks must bathe before they enter the kitchen, wearing special, freshly washed clothing. They must see to it that no person other than themselves gets to touch a pot, or ladle. The purity of the kitchen must pass directly to the diner. It is for this reason that serving dishes are never used. Instead, the food-every dish, from vegetables to sweets-is served directly from the cooking pots on to individual metal plates, thalis.

Cooks here took special pride not only in the taste and texture of their creations but in their ability to astound and amaze their patrons. A ‘pearl’ pilaf, for example, might appear on the royal Dastarkhwan (floor eating arrangement). To all appearances, it would look like rice grains intermixed with pearls. But the pearls would turn out to be edible, laboriously made by mixing egg yolks with real gold and silver tissues, stuffing the mixture in the esophagus of a chicken, tying the esophagus at regular intervals with thread, boiling it, and then cutting it open to reveal the’ pearls’!

Galawat kebab is cooked in enormous cast-iron trays. They are shaped like hamburger and are made of very finely minced (ground) meat mixed with dozens of spices, nuts and seeds including nutmeg, mace, cardamom, saffron, coconut, fennel seeds and peanuts. The kebabs, crumbly and soft, are browned on both sides and then wrapped up in a lightly leavened paratha or flaky griddle bread.

Kakori kebabs are another Lucknow spaciality. A man from the small town of Kakori, very near Lucknow, will show up hours in advance, probably with assistance, meat, spices, charcoal and skewers, and begin working on the kebabs that have made his town famous. He will pound meat and fat for hours on end, until it is a paste. To this he will add ground spices such as poppy seeds and cloves and continue pounding with sprinklings of water until the meat paste turns almost gluey. This he will somehow wrap around skewers in cigar shapes and grill them quickly over live charcoal before they can fall off. The resulting kebab will be slightly crisp on the outside and soft as silk on the inside. It is quite feat to make kakori kebabs. It is easy to eat them.

Breakfast in Lucknow, leisurely affairs, could consist of kulchas, flat, sour-dough breads eaten with nahari, a slow-simmered shank stew, or roghni roti, rich, whole wheat breads eaten with spicily fried liver. For lunch, there would be more meat- a korma, meat cooked with browned onions, cardamom, ginger and garlic, toovar dal, flavored with garlic, carrots perhaps, flavored with fresh dill and, in the winter, white radishes cooked with their greens.

At formal banquets, tables literally groan with food- whole marinated legs of lamb, raan, cooked with almonds and poppy seeds, pasanda kebabs,’scallopini’ cut from leg of lamb, cooked with black cumin, fennel and cardamom and soaked before being served, whole chickens stuffed with quails, rice and meat cooked together in a aromatic broth, sweet pilafs, sweet-and-sour pilaf (mutanjan), sheermal, flaky oven breads flavored with saffron, yogurts, chutneys, to say nothing of the famous egg halva.

Betel leaves appear next, in small round silver trays with domed covers

korma,-. Cubes of lamb had been marinated in a mixture of ginger, garlic and salt and then fried along with black cardamom pods, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, black cumin seeds and onions. Then beaten yoghurt, coriander and red chilies were added and the meat was allowed to braise until it was almost done. The next step was unusual. Generous amounts of whole spices- nutmeg, mace, cardamom, cloves and star anise-along with crisply browned onion slices, were thrown on a grinding stone and ground to a fine paste with sprinklings of kewra, a highly perfumed attar made from the pandanus flower. This paste was spread over the meat and the lid sealed with dough. The pot was then placed over gently glowing coals. More coals were spread over the lid and the meat was allowed to ‘bake’ in this fashion until it was perfumed all the way down to the bone. What a superb dish it sounds!

With the korma ,bag hare chaval, rice-are served which is also very aromatic-flavored with lots of fresh ginger and garlic, a simple dish of spinach where the chopped up leaves were cooked quickly with fried onions and fresh red chilies (a wonderful contrast of colors), and baingan ki boorani, an Afghan dish, in which fried slices of aubergine (eggplant) are served with dollops of garlic-flavored yoghurt. Sanwal, it is cut, dipped first in seasoned yoghurt and then in a paste of green coriander (Chinese parsley), green chilies and garlic, and deep-fried. It is best devoured as soon as it is made, but may be served as part of a dinner that includes achar ghost, meat braised with green chilies and pickling spices, murghi rizala, chicken cooked with yoghurt and green coriander (or, as an alternative, chicken cooked in fresh pomegranate juice), muzafir, a sweet ‘pilaf’ made with fine vermicelli and nuts, and salim Gobi, a whole head of cauliflower, cooked with ginger, red chilies and garlic.

The meal ends with betel leaves, usually prepared by the eldest lady of the house and served by one of the younger ones. Betel leaves, and all the paraphernalia that is attached t them, figure quite prominently in a Bhopal’s life. In the old days, when a young bride came into her new home, by pre-nuptial arrangement her husband gave her and allowance, which was euphemistically, called ‘expenses for the betel-box’. Even today, a true Bhopali is known as a ‘quicklime licking Bhopali’, quicklime being one of the ingredients used in preparing betel leaves, and ingredient for which Bhopalis seem to have a great fondness.

Lucknow's menu changes with the seasons and with the festival which mark the month.

 The severity of winters is fought with rich food. Paye (trotters) are cooked overnight over a slow fire and the shorba (thick gravy) eaten with naans. Turnips are also cooked overnight with meat koftas and kidneys and had for lunch. This dish is called shab degh and a very popular in Lucknow. The former Taluqdar of Jehangirabad would serve it to his friends on several occasions during winter. 

Birds like patridge and quail are had from the advent of winter since they are heat giving meats. Fish is relished from the advent of winter till spring. It is avoided in the rainy season. Lucknowis prefer river fish particularly rahu (carp), for fish bones are the last thing they would like to struggle with for this reason, fish kababs (cooked in mustard oil) are preferred. 

Peas are the most sought after vegetable in Lucknow. People never tire of eating peas. One can spot peas in salan, qeema, pulao or just fried plain. 

Sawan (spring) is celebrated with pakwan (crisp snacks), phulkis (besan pakoras in salan), puri-kababs and birahis (paratha stuffed with mashed dal) khandoi (steamed balls of dal in a salan), laute paute (gram flour pancakes, rolled and sliced and served in a salan) and colocasia-leaf cutlets served with salan add variety. Raw mangoes cooked in semolina and jaggery or sugar, makes a delicious dessert called curamba, in summer. These dishes come from the rural Hindu population of Lucknow. 

Activity in the kitchen increases with the approach of festivals. During Ramzan, the month of fasting, the cooks and the ladies of the house are busy throughout the day preparing the iftari (the meal eaten at the end of the day’s fast), not only for the family but for the friends and the poor. 

Id is celebrated with varieties of siwaiyan (vermicelli) – Muzzaffar is a favouritein Lucknow. Shab-e-barat is looked forward to for its halwas particularly of semolina and gram flour. Khichra or haleem , a del;icious mixture of dals wheat and meat, cooked together, is had during Muharram, since it signifies a sad state of mind. 

There are dishes which appear and disappear from the Lucknow dastarkhwan with the season and there are those which are a permanent feature, like the qorma, the chapatti and the roomali roti. The test of a good chapatti is that you should be able to see the sky through it. The dough should be very loose and is left in a lagan (deep broad vessel) filled with water for half an hour before the chapattis are made. 

Sheermals were invented by mamdoo bawarchi more than one and a half century ago. They are saffron covered parathas made from a dough of flour mixed with milk and ghee and baked in iron tandoors. No other city produces sheermals like Lucknow does and the festive dastarkhwan is not complete without it. Saffron is used to flavour sweets too. 

Utensils are made either of iron or copper. Meat kababs are cooked in a mahi tawa (large, round shallow pan), using a kafgir which is a flat, long handled ladle for turning kababs and parathas. Bone china plates and dishes were used in Lucknow since the time of Nawabs. Water was normally sipped from copper or silver kato ras and not glasses. The seating arrangement, while eating was always on the floor where beautifully embroidered dastarkhwans were spread on dares and chandnis (white sheets). Sometimes this arrangement was made on a takht or low, wide wooden table. 

SHAHI BAWARCHIKHANA

During the reign of Nawabs several bawarchikhanas (Kitchen) flourished as a result of the  high degree culinary skills of the cooks who vied with each other to cook the most exquisite varieties of food in order to please their masters.

. As many as 100 dishes could be laid out on the Dastarkhwan by these culinary experts. Rakaabdars along with the help of hakeems devised methods of enriching the food thereby high potency dish was prepared which used to create miracles which a common person could not imagine of. Some of the items which were common on a Dastarkhwan of a Roessa (rich class) used Pulao , Muzaffar,Mutanjan,Sheermal,Korma,Arvi ka Salan, Sheerbrunj,Burrani ka Pyala , Shammi Kebab , Murabba Achaar or Chatni. It was because of the royal patronage that kitchen flourished in Lucknow so did the Rakabdars. Mirza Hassan Raza Khan was the chief Rakaabdar of Nawab Asaf-Ud-Dwala. For Nawab 101 Khwan (Trays) used to go for Tora (presentation). Each Khwan used to be decorated with velvet cover. It was mandatory to see each Kwan in the Shahi Bawarchikhana with lac when it was sent to shahi Dastarkhwan and was broken in dining hall only to avoid any tampering.

#DUMPUKHT

There are a lot of theories about how this cuisine has come up but the fact is that this cuisine was totally forgotten during the present times after the moghul and muslim era in India specially in the cities of Lucknow, Hyderabad where the muslim raj was concentrated under the Nawabs and Taluqdars and there cultural, religious and food habits have really created an impact on the once village now a majestic town of Imambara Rumi Darwaza all thanks to the Nawabs who have given Lucknow its great lifestyle and the cuisine which is spicy, rich, humble as well as even earthy. The Dumpukht style of cooking involves very slow cooking methods, which produce and develop the full flavour from the dish being prepared. This style of cooking also involves alot of garam masalas , fresh and dried herbs and also essences in the dishes. The food is supposed to be very rich and spicy.

Before the people used to bury the utensil covered with multani mitti in sand in the dessert to cook it slowly. Now the exact scene cannot be repeated in the kitchen so the vessels are sealed and live charcoal is put on top and the bottom of the vessel and it is left to cook for a long time. Cooking for long periods of time sealed in a container gives the food its body and full flavour.

This cuisine is said to have been given a rebirth by Imtiaz Qureshi who kept this cuisine in a family secret and the exact recipes are never given out to anyone. The chef secretly mixes the various proportions of the garam masalas as the garam masalas are the essence of this cuisine. The restaurants serving this food are now headed by one of the family members of the Qureshi family and their in-laws in the five star hotels all over India.

The #Awadh and Dumpukht cooking is used a lot in the cultural festivals, get togethers, ‘dastarkhwans’ (dining spreads). The people seat around a large dish on which around   8-10 people can eat there #food at one go.

There is a saying which holds true to this cuisine that “sahej paake so meetha hoi”. Which means that which is cooked by the slow method is more tasteful.

The Awadh food needs to be altered as per the personal preferences as the food is very spicy and rich with ghee, meats, dry fruits, etc. both the cooking time and method have to be modified to the tastes and the modern kitchen requirements and time limit.