Salma Yusuf Husain’s ‘The Mughal Feast’ is a hark back to recipes from the royal kitchen

Ever wondered what Shah Jahan’s khansama whipped up for the Mughal emperor? Was it a pulao that made him tick or kebabs? The Mughal Feast: Recipes from the Kitchen of Emperor Shah Jahan by Salma Yusuf Husain delves into some royal kitchen secrets. A translation of the original book Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, the book is a step towards understanding the food preferences and the art of cooking in the Mughal era. Salma, a Persian scholar and food historian, explores the intermingling of traditions in the imperial kitchens.

Edited excerpts from an interview:

Your recent book, The Mughal Feast, is called a transcreation. Why so?

This book is a translation of Nuskha-e-Shahjahani written in Persian. It is a transcreation because apart from translating, some of the recipes were recreated.

The book contains over 200 recipes spanning naans, do-piyaza, kebabs, pulaos and sweets. It is a labour of three years. The book is a literal translation and no changes have been made to the recipes. Only Chapter 10 is missing; otherwise, all the recipes have been included. There’s also a separate page for guidelines.

What makes this book special?

Through this book, I want to educate the common man on Mughlai food is. What is served as Mughlai cuisine doused in oil and spices, is far from the refinement that was seen in the Mughal kitchens.

Which recipes did you recreate? Are they easy to follow?

Most of the recipes are simple; though some are complicated. The recipes use minimal spices: apart from onions, only four or five spices are used — ginger, coriander, cinnamon, pepper and clove. Saffron imparted the aroma, while dry fruits added to the richness. The royal chefs usually consulted the hakim when creating recipes.

Most of the dishes are mutton-based, though there are some chicken ones too. Curd was generally used to tenderise the meat and to add a sour taste. I recreated the amba pulao, gorak kebab, murgh kebab, zeer biryani paneer, bharta shirazi, do piyazah shirazi, Husaini kebab and saq-e-urus.

The cooking then was not rich? Was it subtle?

The ingredients were rich, but the dishes were not heavy. Since hakims were also consulted, the cooking was healthy. You could say the food was subtle but flavourful. Today, we use corn flour to thicken curries, but back then, the chefs used rice paste mixed with almond paste. There was a play of textures and colours.

In one pulao, the cooked pulao was divided into two parts. One was coloured using pomegranate juice and then tossed in silver foil or varq. Then the two parts were mixed. The deep red with silver and the white rice made it visually appealing. In the naranj pulao, a yakhni variant, the pulao, after being cooked, was spread out. Two oranges were cut and hollowed. The shells were then boiled and were used as katoris that were filled with almond halwa or pistachio halwa. These were then placed atop the pulao and served. A visual treat and a complete meal.

Any new ingredient that you came across while working on the book?

One preparation that I came across was pukhtan-e-qaaz, which was made with goose. Once the goose was cleaned, it was rubbed with multani mitti and buried in the ground for four hours. It was then cleaned once again and rubbed with sandal paste and then cooked. The fuller’s earth absorbed all the smell from the wild bird, while the sandal paste gave it a pleasing smell.

In another preparation called gurak kebab, the chicken was filled with almonds and lamb. This was then coated in yoghurt mixed with saffron, before being placed over cinnamon sticks to cook. The confluence of flavours is mouth-watering.

Is there any Indian influence to the cooking? What do you think the missing chapter had?

Another book that I am working on from Jehangir’s time has more Indian influences. This book on Shah Jahan has quite a few vegetarian recipes — kebabs and bharta. We’ve actually adopted many of their techniques, such as dum pukht, smoking of a dish, making raitas and kebabs.

My guess is that the last chapter dealt with pickles and murabbas.