A food festival is the best window to cuisines from different regions. At the Leela Palace, it’s time for an Awadh food fest. The regal ambience of the Jamavar and the rich tradition of Awadh cuisine complement each other. What’s more, the cuisine has been planned by celeb gourmet Jiggs Kalra, who has flown down (with his own team of three chefs) to personally supervise the preparations.
At a tasting organised for Metrolife, Kalra explained that Awadh cuisine is the first in a trilogy of food fests to be hosted by The Leela Palace. “For this festival, I have kept in mind that Kannadigas like a pinch of sugar in everything. Otherwise, we have stayed true to the ingredients used in the cooking.
The festival will also have a Lucknowi paanwallah. Besides this, we have made sure there is a variety of dishes for vegetarians too, who normally get a lesser choice than non-vegetarians,” he said.
Cuisine for nawabs
As the mocktails were brought on, we learnt that Awadhi cuisine is considered as the food fit for a nawab and nawabs in Lucknow usually hosted grand dawats for their guests, including the British, who had to stand in a separate queue since they were ‘pork eaters’!
Then came the four-course meal. The first course had starters — Shahi Gilawat ke kebab (made with kid meat) or Murgh ke Paarchay (picatta of chicken) and Sabz ke Galouti (tawa fried veg kebab). The second course brought on the bread basket with an assortment of traditional breads like bakarkhani, sheermal, taftal and gilafi kulcha.
This was accompanied by Subz Qorma Beghum Hazrat Mahal (a summer veg curry), Ah-de-Changesi (leg of kid slow cooked with aromatic spices and pepper sauce), Gosht ki Nihari (rural dish of shanks and chops) and Daal Panchmael (that had a heady aroma of golden fried onion and garlic). Go easy on the breads, they are rich and a single one can leave you feeling stuffed, if you are a light eater!
The third course had rice — a choice between Gosht biryani (for non-veggies) and Subz pulao (for veggies). “Awadhi food doesn’t include biryani, but has pulaos. We’ve added Hyderabadi biryani to the menu to cater to popular taste. It is served with burrani — a raita made with just one ingredient, say a single vegetable or just garlic,” said Kalra.
Delightful dessert
The last course had Kiwi Phirni for dessert. It was delightfully different, not too sweet and not too rich either. A hint of the Kiwi fruit’s tangy taste lent the dessert an exotic feel and left us craving for more. There was nothing Awadhi about the choice of fruit there, but the phirni is a popular dessert in North India and Kalra claimed credit for the experimentation.
If you wish to enjoy this elaborate meal, make sure you have the time to savour it. Also ensure your previous meal is a light one. The food fest is on till August 12.
