Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2011 6:30:03 GMT -5
The Indian subcontinent had seen a steady flow of foreign conquerors & trades men from many countries. They had brought with them their culture, religion & food. The process of fusion saw tremendous evolution of art forms, music, literature & cuisine. I will restrict my-self to the cuisine part only. My article relies mostly on the following.
Pre-Mughal era chronicle Nimat Nama, the famous book Ain-I-Akbar by Abdul Fazl from the court of Emperor Akbar, the legend of Mullah Do Piyaja also one of the talented men from Akbar’s court, the travelogue of Ibn Batuta who had traveled to India in 1333 while Mohammad bin Tughlak ruled India, writings of Francois Bernier a doctor who was in India for seven years & had treated Emperor Aurangzeb, the diary of Jahan ara elder daughter of Emperor Shajahan & one obscured Haqeem Abdul who was a staff with Nawab Shiraj udullah of Bengal who kept an account of happenings at the royal kitchen. I strongly feel that Haqeem Abdul was originally a Hindu who later converted to Islam & was probably employed to look in to the kitchen hygiene & recommend spices & other ingredients as per the season etc.& in most cases these Haqeems worked out aphrodisiac preparations.
Many historians believe that Shajahan in fact died as a result of overdosing of aphrodisiacs. My guess of Haqeem Abdul earlier being a Hindu is due to extensive references he made while explaining the medicinal qualities of various ingredients & vegetables at various occasions to the writings of Charak the founder of India’s Ayurveda. In those days people often converted to Islam to enhance their career in the courts of Nawabs & Badshas.
Ibn Batuta has described a meal eaten by the royalty in great detail. As per him the entrée was “Khubi” that is a type of loaf, large chunks of roasted meat & a sweet dish “Subunia” a mix of nuts, honey with sesame oil.
The main course had meats cooked with ghee, onions & ginger. We find no mention of garlic that arrived much later. This was eaten along with “Samusak”, fried dough stuffed with mince, nuts & spices. This “Samusak” eventually became the “Samosa” of today.
A pulao type preparation called “Dojaj” topped with a stuffed roast fowl followed. The dessert would be “Alqahiriya” a type of what is known as “Kheer” now. I came to know that yogurt is called Quahara in Basque while living in San Sebastian. The meal would end with a wine. I am a bit vexed about drinking wine after a meal but in India any alcoholic beverage is called wine. In most booze shops whose sign board proclaims the establishment to trade in Wine & Beer you won’t find a single bottle of wine, this is of course leaving aside the shops in metros where liberalization of import has resulted in shelves full of good wine. So I guess this wine would have been some kind of liquor distilled from rice.
The Subunia would in time become the famous Pista-Mewa Burfee. Alas only one shop in Lucknow now makes a limited quantity of this real stuff every day. Everywhere else it is coloured & smeared with synthetic essence of Pista as the Pista is damn expensive. Although now a lot of Californian pistachio is imported but the bulk of it is salted.
The stuffed roasted fowl after years of culinary experiments would appear as “Murgh Mussalam” As a legacy of its association with rice it would have some rice along with dried Sultanas & Almonds as the stuffing. That “Dojas” will have to wait for a long time to become the “Biriyani” when tradesmen from south would cross the plains & arrive with dried bark of a tree, dried leaves of another, dried fruits of another, seeds & flowers. These are Cinnamon, Bay leaf, Cardamom, Black pepper, Cloves, Mace. These would change the taste & aroma of gourmet food forever.
Pre-Mughal era chronicle Nimat Nama, the famous book Ain-I-Akbar by Abdul Fazl from the court of Emperor Akbar, the legend of Mullah Do Piyaja also one of the talented men from Akbar’s court, the travelogue of Ibn Batuta who had traveled to India in 1333 while Mohammad bin Tughlak ruled India, writings of Francois Bernier a doctor who was in India for seven years & had treated Emperor Aurangzeb, the diary of Jahan ara elder daughter of Emperor Shajahan & one obscured Haqeem Abdul who was a staff with Nawab Shiraj udullah of Bengal who kept an account of happenings at the royal kitchen. I strongly feel that Haqeem Abdul was originally a Hindu who later converted to Islam & was probably employed to look in to the kitchen hygiene & recommend spices & other ingredients as per the season etc.& in most cases these Haqeems worked out aphrodisiac preparations.
Many historians believe that Shajahan in fact died as a result of overdosing of aphrodisiacs. My guess of Haqeem Abdul earlier being a Hindu is due to extensive references he made while explaining the medicinal qualities of various ingredients & vegetables at various occasions to the writings of Charak the founder of India’s Ayurveda. In those days people often converted to Islam to enhance their career in the courts of Nawabs & Badshas.
Ibn Batuta has described a meal eaten by the royalty in great detail. As per him the entrée was “Khubi” that is a type of loaf, large chunks of roasted meat & a sweet dish “Subunia” a mix of nuts, honey with sesame oil.
The main course had meats cooked with ghee, onions & ginger. We find no mention of garlic that arrived much later. This was eaten along with “Samusak”, fried dough stuffed with mince, nuts & spices. This “Samusak” eventually became the “Samosa” of today.
A pulao type preparation called “Dojaj” topped with a stuffed roast fowl followed. The dessert would be “Alqahiriya” a type of what is known as “Kheer” now. I came to know that yogurt is called Quahara in Basque while living in San Sebastian. The meal would end with a wine. I am a bit vexed about drinking wine after a meal but in India any alcoholic beverage is called wine. In most booze shops whose sign board proclaims the establishment to trade in Wine & Beer you won’t find a single bottle of wine, this is of course leaving aside the shops in metros where liberalization of import has resulted in shelves full of good wine. So I guess this wine would have been some kind of liquor distilled from rice.
The Subunia would in time become the famous Pista-Mewa Burfee. Alas only one shop in Lucknow now makes a limited quantity of this real stuff every day. Everywhere else it is coloured & smeared with synthetic essence of Pista as the Pista is damn expensive. Although now a lot of Californian pistachio is imported but the bulk of it is salted.
The stuffed roasted fowl after years of culinary experiments would appear as “Murgh Mussalam” As a legacy of its association with rice it would have some rice along with dried Sultanas & Almonds as the stuffing. That “Dojas” will have to wait for a long time to become the “Biriyani” when tradesmen from south would cross the plains & arrive with dried bark of a tree, dried leaves of another, dried fruits of another, seeds & flowers. These are Cinnamon, Bay leaf, Cardamom, Black pepper, Cloves, Mace. These would change the taste & aroma of gourmet food forever.