Amba Qaliya

 Amba Qaliya is basically a mango based meat curry in which Amba means mango and Qaliya means meat curry. It is  a meat dish in which lamb is cooked in raw mango without the use of any oil or ghee. It's just raw mango pureed with water which is constantly added to the meat cooked lamb  with coriander and raw onion-based gravy with a pinch of saffron. When preparing this meal, time is of the utmost importance; if you go too slowly, the meat will dry up and stay undercooked, and if you add too much, the flavour of the gravy will be diluted. 

Jahangir, Akbar's eldest son, loved mangoes so much that he ordered his chefs to make a meal with mangoes and meat for him. It was a challenge for the khansamas (cooks) because they were not used to cooking the fruit alongside the meat, but with their expertise and ability, nothing seemed impossible once the emperor made a request. They came up with a dish called  Amba Qaliya after a lots of trial and error. The king was quite delighted with the dish's sweet and tangy flavour.

Such stories are what makes our food culture interesting and unpredictable .Well as you know we live in a country where we get the same dish with different names and different history behind it . Amba Qaliya also held its place in parsi culture where it was called Amba Kalya,  Moreover, it differs from the Mughlai version that was given to us. The Parsi version contains fresh soft mangoes and jaggery in a 2:1 ratio, but no meat. Mangoes and jaggery are cooked separately before being combined after the mangoes are tender and the jaggery has entirely dissolved in water. Grounded cinnamon is added just before serving to improve the flavour and fragrance.

Galouti Kebab......

 Galouti means 'soft,' something that melts in the tongue, and that was the intention. The original Galaouti Kebab is thought to have been prepared by Haji Mohammad Fakr-e-Alam Saheb, the originator of the Moti Pulao, who offered the court this creamy, silky, mouth-watering delicacy. Instead of beef, he used the best cuts of lamb, which he chopped finely and mixed with a tenderiser, as well as a wonderful blend of over 150 unique spices to enhance flavour. For a delicious finish, the minced meat was formed into patties and fried.

The Nawabs of Lucknow were well-bred men. They were just as serious about their pleasures as they were about their courtly responsibilities. Nawab Asad-ud-Daula (1748-1797), successor of Siraj-ud-Daula, made important contributions to Lucknow's culinary culture, with food historians frequently crediting him with bringing about a culinary Renaissance. The Nawab was believed to be extremely giving, and a popular saying at the time was, "Jo Khuda nahi dega, wo Asad dega" (What God won't grant you, Asad will). However, by the time Asad came to power, the British had taken over the office, leaving the Nawab free to pursue his two passions: big buildings and delicious eating.

The generous Nawab was so fond of kebabs that he had special orders for his cooks to come up with a new variant of kebab everyday. Even during the time of the Great Famine of 1783, his khansamas(cooks) were busy creating newer versions of kebabs that were incredibly soft and flavoursome. 

The khansamas rose to the occasion as well, inventing new techniques of cooking, flavouring, and employing exotic ingredients like as sandalwood, rosebuds, rose, red gensing, and pathar ke phool. All of these components, as well as over 150 unique spices, are claimed to have been used in the'shahi combination' of the aforementioned kebabs. The kebabs allegedly contained one particular ingredient or spice each day to add variety, which piqued the Nawab's interest.

According to folklore, the Nawab had lost most of his teeth owing to old age, but his love of kebabs was far from dead. So, for their toothless Nawab, the seasoned khansamas devised a popular version that required no chewing while retaining the same rich flavours and taste of a kebab.

Moti Pulao/Pearl pulao

 Well there is a quote, LETS COVER THE WORLD WITH PEARLS. Well I don't know about the world but after reading this blog you can affirmatively say LETS COVER THE PULAO WITH PEARLS.

The meal comes from the cuisine of Lucknow's last surviving Nawab, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who was well-known for his opulent and magnificent feasts prepared for visitors, where his cooks were allowed full rein to create just about anything stunning they wanted and go all out with their inventiveness.

Well as you know we live in a country where we get the same dish with different names and different history behind it . Lets see some of its historical past.

This luscious pulao was prepared in the kitchens of the Nawab of Lucknow. Pearls, also known as Moti in pulao, are prepared from poached egg whites that have been crushed with gold and silver and stuffed into the gut of a chicken in such a way that the cooked yolks resemble actual pearls. Musk and saffron were fed to chickens to scent their flesh. And there are a plethora of kebabs, including one with a texture so thin that it dissolved in the mouth.

According to another piece of tradition, the Pulao was originally served in the kitchens of the Nawab of Awadh. The exquisite plate from the Nawab's cooks was one of the ways they demonstrated their riches and grace. During the Nawab's reign, the pearl (Basra Ke Moti) trade flourished in that region. On one special occasion, the chef added paneer balls wrapped in silver vark (edible silver foil) to Shahi Pulao to make it seem like actual pearls. Since then, numerous variations have emerged, and this Pulao is now cooked only on rare occasions.

This pulao is quite popular in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh where it is cooked during festivals as a part of Bhog(offering) to the Divine.

Folklore behind the famous sweet : Mysore Pak

 Mysore pak is a ghee-based Indian dessert. It began in Mysuru, one of the largest cities in the Indian state of Karnataka. It's made with a lot of ghee, sugar, gram flour, and sometimes cardamom. This dessert has the feel of a buttery, thick cookie.

Mysore pak  was soon declared the royal sweet and is still regarded as the 'king' of sweets in the South today. According to Mysore women, ladies are expected to make at least 51 traditional things throughout the 10th day which is for Dussehra celebrations. They believe that a plate of food and sweets is incomplete unless it has some Mysore Pak.

It was the year 1935. The city was Mysore, which was controlled by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar. On one particular day, the kitchen of Amba Vilas Palace (where the monarch used to live) was busy with the daily operations of preparing a lavish meal for the royal family. Except for the dessert following lunch, everything was in order. The top chef, Kaksura Madappa, was cooking up a tasty but unique sweet treat for the monarch. With time running out, he began experimenting.

Madappa combined ghee, gram flour, and sugar to make a syrup, which he served on the royal thali (plate). By the time the King completed his meal, the syrup had thickened somewhat and taken on the consistency of a hot, fudge-like sweet. Krishnaraja Wodeyar was genuinely astonished and mesmerised by the dish, which melted the minute he placed it in his mouth. He summoned Madappa and questioned about the new dessert's name. Madappa responded with the first thing thing that popped mind: "Mysore Pak." 'Pak' is a Kannada word that means "sweet mixture." and the dish was created in the city name Mysuru. With the passage of time, the dessert became a favourite of the royalty and was titled ‘Mysore Pak.'

IDEA BEHIND MY BLOG

 If I were to close my eyes and remember one unforgettable story from my youth, it would have to be “The Monkey and the Crocodile” from the Panchatantra. My mind is etched with the sight of the monkey perched atop a luxuriant rose apple tree. I imagined what a rose apple might taste like every time I read the narrative. It wasn't until much later in life, on a trip to Trichy, that I discovered a seller selling them. As I ate the lovely bell-shaped, crunchy, somewhat sour fruit.

These kisse kahaaniyaan like Tenali Raman and the Mango Tree”, “Birbal ki Khichdi” and “The Pigeon and The Crow” from the Jataka Tales with vivid descriptions of meals and ingredients, they take us on a wonderful time trip in two ways: they offer a clear image of culinary traditions and eating cultures of those eras, and they also take us back to the moment we heard such stories as children.

The aim of my blog is to convey the stories and  folktales behind the creation and naming of the indian dishes. This blog also strongly depicts the concept that (EVERY FOOD HAD ITS OWN STORY).