Reviving the Mughal era

The ‘By-Gone Recipes of the Mughals’, the ongoing food festival at  Le Jardin, The Oberoi, showcases the vibrancy and sheer variety of taste the Mughal hearths were capable of. There’s a little piece of history attached to every dish on the menu.

  
Most of the items are those that you will not find at any restaurant because they were conceptualised in the Jalali household and prepared zealously by Osama Jalali, his mother Nazish and wife Nazia.
  
As a food critic and someone who is constantly on the search to revive and resurrect lost recipes of India, Osama Jalali says his latest offering has been put together after  researching what the Mughals ate and how they treated the ingredients. He prefers to call himself an experimental cook and says that every dish he has cooked till date has had no benchmark whatsoever.
 
It’s interesting as Osama takes you through some of the must-try dishes. To begin with there’s ‘Murgh pateeli kebab’ which is chicken pockets filled with raisins, pistachios, apricots, mince, pepper and saffron. It is cooked in a ‘taambe ki pateeli’ or a deep vessel, usually made of copper, informs Osama. “This kebab is from the table of Bahadur Sha Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor,” he adds. He then moves on to describe another dish called ‘Kebab-e-burghul’ which is made of broken wheat, pepper, coriander and lentil kebab served with a spicy mint chutney.

Then there the ‘Mewa shahi kebab’ which is mixed with cheese, khoya, yoghurt, spices and dried fruits.
 
The main course is elaborate with sweetened varieties of rice, chicken and lamb dishes. And the common ingredient in all the dishes are nuts. But wouldn’t it be an overdose of nuts? Osama explains, “The Mughals liked their dishes sweet and the credit for introducing this sweetness goes to Humayun’s wife. It was she who brought in sweet meat dishes like ‘Mutanjan pulao’ which is layered rice and chicken pulao with cloves, orange, cardamom, dates and figs. This dish is a unique combination of spices, meat and sugar.”
   
A few other dishes that are also unusual are ‘Piston ka qeema’ which is lamb mince cooked with Afghani pistachios and spices and ‘Amba qaliya’ which again is braised lamb cooked with ‘kairi’, raw mangoes, onions, ginger, coriander, dry fruits and saffron.
  
The desserts are just as enticing. The ‘Maleedah’ is not only a rich dessert but also doubles up as a perfect evening snack. Osama’s mother Nazish says, “This is one of the quickest desserts. It has crushed ‘makki ki roti’ with almonds, dates, apricots with sugar, cinnamon and cardamom powder. You can store it for long time. It doesn’t get spoilt.” 
 
It’s hard to believe when Osama tells you that ‘Gosht ka halwa’ is a meat-based dessert. “Here, the meat, spices and sugar are cooked together, to create a unique ‘halwa’,” he adds.
  
Sharing his experience of crafting the menu for this festival, Osama says, “The idea behind drawing up a menu like this one is to revive the Indian regional dishes that are slowly fading away.”  He points out that restaurants and hotels across the country are relaunching Indian menus as progressive Indian cuisine or modern Indian cuisine. “If one doesn’t go back and guard the regional recipes, our food and cuisine will get lost,” he signs off.

The festival will be on till November 14 (lunch and dinner).