Lucknow has just made its entry into the Unesco list as ‘Creative City of Gastronomy’ and the spotlight, it seems, is now on Lucknowi cuisine. Think Lucknow and you invariably think of its kebabs, among, of course, its range of other celebrated dishes.
The galouti kebab is one of the most sought after variety, when it comes to Nawabi cusine.
This kebab variety gets its name from the Urdu word, ‘galawat’ or ‘galouti’ which means tender or melt-in-the-mouth soft meat – the galouti kebab has such a soft texture (made softer by a fine raw papaya paste) that you’d hardly need to chew it.
The origin story of this kebab comes from a story pertaining to Nawab Wazir Asaf ud Daula of 18th century Lucknow. Legend has it that the old Nawab so dearly loved kebabs made of meat that the chefs in the royal household invented this dish so he could enjoy his favourite food with having to chew it. Although this is the most widely known origin story of the galouti kebab, some versions credit the origin to Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. There is however a distinction to be made between galouti and tunday kebab aka tunde ke kebab – the latter is an even more finely ground mutton patty. Another story attributes the origin of tunde ke kebab to a one armed chef named Murad, who made kebabs famous all over Lucknow. No matter what the story of Lucknowi kebabs, the cuisine definitely owes a lot of its origin to the Nawabs of the city. According to the book, ‘Culinary History of the Gangetic Plains’ by Dr Anshumali Pandey, kebabs were originally simply pieces of meat roasted on fire, called boti kebabs, but were later improvised and made into galouti and other kinds of kebabs, like shami or kakori.
(Origin Story attempts to satiate your curiosity about the history of a certain ingredient or dish.)