JOIN USAwadhi food is known for its great variety of non-vegetarian dishes especially kebabs, kormas and biryanis
In times when KFC and McDonald’s have captured the food market and people are going crazy about junk foods, the royal flavours of India are getting lost somewhere.
Our hungry tummy seems to be craving only for fried chicken and burgers. One such cuisine is the Awadhi cuisine. Originally from Lucknow, the cuisine consists of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Awadh has been greatly influenced by Mughal cooking techniques, and the cuisine of Lucknow bears similarities to cuisine found in Persia, Kashmir, Punjab and Hyderabad, known for its Nawabi foods.
Awadhi food’s USP is it’s dum style of cooking or the art of cooking over a slow fire - even overnight as and when needed.
The spread consists of elaborate dishes like kebabs, kormas, biryani, kaliya, nahari-kulchas, sheermal, which is a sweetened naan, roomali rotis, and warqi parathas.
The richness of Awadh cuisine lies not only in its variety but also in the ingredients like mutton, paneer and rich spices including bay leaves, jaiphal and cardamoms.
Bishan Negi, Chef de cuisine, Courtyard by Marriott Gurgaon explains the royal cuisine to Metrolife. “Awadhi cuisine was known for its dastarkhwan, which means laid-out ceremonial dining spread where people sit around and share the dastarkhwan from the same plate. The most commonly used are cashew nuts gravy and saffron in their dishes.”
Some of the mouth-watering dishes in Awadhi cuisine are korma (meat in thick gravy); salan (a gravy dish of meat or vegetable); qeema (minced meat), kebabs (meat fried or roasted over a charcoal fire); lamb, pasinda, rice cooked with meat in pulao, chulao (fried rice) or plain rice. Desserts comprise kheer, sheer brunj (a rich, sweet rice dish boiled in milk), phirni and suji ka halwa. Negi adds, “Although the entire range of Awadhi cuisine is not popular some dishes like the kebabs have managed to create their place in the market. Kakori kebabs, shami kebabs, boti kebabs, galoutim kebabs and Lucknowi biryana are hugely popular.”
The cuisine has a variety for vegetarians too. Dalcha kebab, kathal ke kebab, arbi ke kebab, rajma galoti kebab, zamikand ke kebab are really relished. So the next time, the royal in you rises, remember to head for the right cuisine.