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the chicken pieces, and finally, about three glasses of water to
cook one whole chicken. A little before serving, add the cream
and the groundnuts and leave on slow fire till well-blended.
These steps use fire extremely well—to fry, to brown, to steam
and to blend, while reducing the time a cook has to spend
with the dish. A kali mirch murg retains the same opening set
of steps with onion and spices, with the addition of coriander
powder here; then yoghurt is poured in for the gravy, and
then the chicken added. The final step is to add fresh ground
pepper and garam masala powder and serve after five minutes
‘with chopped coriander leaves and some lemon juice poured
over.’ These recipes in the book reflect the simplicity inherent
in the most complex and layered dishes.
Apart from a glimpse into an era, another thing that
interests me about these memoirs is the recipes. is it possible to
recreate the authentic flavours without needing to follow an
elaborate set of processes? i compared her recipes for a biryani/
pulao with the one in the Asifya cookbook, composed from
memories of the Nizam’s cooks.
The ingredients were similar but the processes were not.
mutton, rice, ghee, cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, milk, cream,
ginger, garlic, onion, sour curd, green Bengal gram, caraway,
salt, pickle berry, poppy seed, coriander, gram flour, lemon,
green coriander, mint, red chilli powder, green chilli paste.
The Asifya recipe for mahboobi Biryani tells you to take
the mutton pieces, marinate it in salt, ginger paste and curd.
Then fry onions, garlic, then the mutton with spices (which
seems to be different from the marinated one). Then take
another half kilo of mutton, mince and grind it with pickle
berry, poppy seed, coriander and cumin seeds, green and red
chillis and salt, then make into mince balls (kofta) and fry it.
Then take the marinated mutton—you know it is marinated
once the curd water ‘gets dried in marinated mutton’. roast
this version. When it is ready, add milk, cream, lemon juice,
cardamom, caraway on minced balls and put it on the layer.
Spread boiled rice after drying it half on the layer of mutton.
Stain it with saffron on one side, and on the other side sprinkle
green Bengal gram and the remaining ghee mix with milk.
Close cauldron with wet flour and keep on coal fire. ‘When
ghee starts giving sound, then minimise fire. When smell
comes out, it is ready to eat.’
Now, this recipe requires a complex set of ingredients, mul-
tiple types of cooking (marination, roasting, frying, boiling) and
three ways of preparing the mutton. Lots of work for the cook.
Compare this with the Hyderabadi mutton Pulao recipe in
Doreen’s book. in addition to the ingredients in the Asifya one,
the mutton’s marinade has coriander powder, poppy seeds,
garlic paste, charoli, roasted and ground khus khus, cinnamon
sticks, pepper corns and black cardamom. The steps are sim-
pler. After marinating for at least an hour, cook the mutton on a
slow flame till the meat softens, then take it off the fire. rice has
to be boiled until three-fourths done with cinnamon, cloves,
cardamom, black cumin seeds and salt. Then in a large greased
dish, layer half the rice, top it with cooked mutton, sprinkle
with black cumin seeds, lime juice, green chillies, coriander
and mint leaves, cover with remaining rice, mix salt in two
cups of water and sprinkle over. Then mix saffron in one cup
of milk, sprinkle this and the oil drained from the mutton over
the rice. Seal pan and keep on a low flame for 15 minutes.
The complexity of the dish is produced by the larger
number of ingredients in the marinade and the science of the
process, rather than steps that require constant attention of
the cook. Having eaten the dish, i can vouch for its fragrance,
delicacy and deep flavours.
American food writer Laurie Colwin describes my
sentiments perfectly—‘i love to eat out, but even more,
i love to eat in’, and to that i would add, since i am not capable
of producing fine cuisine, i love to eat such flavourful
dishes in someone’s home, cooked by the hostess, who
is supremely capable. nA PArT From A GLimPSe
iNTo AN erA, ANoTHer
THiNG THAT iNTereSTS me
ABoUT THeSe memoirS iS
THe reCiPeS. iS iT PoSSiBLe
To reCreATe AUTHeNTiC
FLAVoUrS WiTHoUT
NeeDiNG To FoLLoW
AN eLABorATe SeT oF
ProCeSSeS?saurabh singh