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In Mukhwas, a sumptuous book on Indian food through the ages, author Alka Pandey writes that in Avadh happiness means eating food that is healing and where all medicine is enjoyable as food.
Giza-e-davai aur davai-e-giza...
-Hakim Safdar Nawab
Mukhwas is another name for after-meal digestives served after Indian meals that also freshen breath.
In the chapter on Avadh, the author says that hakims have always played the dual role of both best chef and best medicine man. Both men and women engaged in affairs of the kitchen also have deep knowledge of the medicinal property of every herb and spice that are cooked and the effect on the human body of the different combination of ingredients used to prepare different meals.
That is why chefs here have always enjoyed the reputation of being the most taciturn and insist on total freedom to create, improvise and experiment in the kitchen.
In the past it was a matter of great pride to be employed as a chef by a nawab, the rulers of Avadh in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Most nawabs were self indulgent and demanded delicacies even after losing their teeth. For them the chef invented the gilawat kabab, one of the most popular kebab to this day. This kabab is so tender that even a toothless person can enjoy as it melts in the mouth and is made from a combination of more than hundred aromatic and digestive spices that supposedly guarantee good health.
The other speciality of Avadh cuisine is that it looks as splendid as it tastes.. Ceremonial dining or dastarkhan has its origin in Avadh where it became a habit to make a spread of exotic food dressed in dry fruits at elaborate meals. At a Lucknow dastarkhan the array of curries vary in hue from burnished coal to burnt copper and reddish brown.
The sweet fragrances of rose, khus, sandal and musk fill the air of the dinning area together with tell tale flavours of saffron mixed in ground cardamoms, mace and nutmeg. Here the eye is allowed to feast as much as the palate with fragrant main dishes like kaliya, korma, stuffed parathas, nahari, kulcha, shirmal, rumali roti and zarda pulao. This is followed by rich and unique deserts like shahi tukra, zarda, kheer maali ki gilori and nimish, that creamy delight whipped into froth that threatens to disappear at the first kiss of the early morning sun.
Members of the Lucknow elite showed off their wealth and class by making a generous display of the most exotic and artful dishes prepared by very clever cooks. A plate of pulao, or fried rice was never served without part of the grain made to look like jewels. Rice was always soaked in salt water before it was cooked so that it shone like pearls and was partly dyed red or green in imitation of rubies and emeralds.
At one point in history simplicity was not the style of the nawabs who preferred khichri, the humble rice and lentil meal that was transformed into a royal dish by adding to it with almonds that were painstakingly carved to resemble grains of rice and pieces of pista nuts had resembled lentils. Once tasted it is difficult not to forget such meals.
There is a story of a brilliant but temperamental chef who was an expert in cooking lentils and was paid a monthly wages of Rs 500 which was a lot of money some 200 years ago. He is said to have wanted the lentils cooked by him to be eaten as soon as it was served. Once his master arrived late and the cook was so disgruntled that he overturned the dal on a withering tree stump. The legend goes that the ingredients in the dal turned the stump green again. The last nawab Wajid Ali Shah had valued the good life and even when banished to Calcutta by the British in 1856, he had continued his lavish tradition of hospitality He once invited a prince who had moved from Delhi to Lucknow for a meal.
When the dessert was served the guest was left speechless when he discovered that the sweat meat was made from mutton!
Like all the nawabs before him, Wajid Ali Shah had encouraged his chefs to compete with each other and with others in culinary upmanship.
Wajid Ali Shah's favourite meal is listed as a spread of various pulao, moti navratan and zarda, biryani, korma, kababs, chapatti, paratha, shirmal, rogani roti, chatni, achar, murabba and a variety of dals.
With the waning of the court, large landlords became part of the new elite of the city and continued to fall over each other to treat guests with unique flavours. Often the presentation of food overwhelmed the preservation when a huge amount of money was spent to just impress guests. Master chefs were much in demand and called in from far and wide to participate in the game of culinary competition when Avadhi tables had groaned under the delicious weight of a variety of pulao, chulao, bhujia, salan, pasinda, keema, korma, muzzafar and kheer.
Here the chewing of paan as a digestive became quite an art. The chewing of cardamom pods and paan was considered a sign of sophistication, inspiring chefs to patiently separate seeds from the cardamom pod, roll it in gold and silver foil, dip it into tobacco laced rosewater before serving it to gratify both the taste bud and digestion.
The obsession with food continues to this day in a city where it is not just about eating but about coming together as human beings in etiquette, honour, artistry and satisfaction and about enjoying the fragrance of food as much as feasting, Alka says this and much more in her book.
Mukhwas by Alka Pane is published by Cambridge University Press, 2013
