A royal treat

Enjoy a meal truly fit for the kings at this scrumptious food festival...
Think Hyderabadi khana and the first thing that comes to mind is the aroma of mouthwatering nizami biryani, cooked to perfection, with melt-in-the-mouth pieces of tender, succulent mutton. Would you believe it if we told you that in olden day Hyderabad, the royal family of Salar Jung was so fiercely protective about their recipes that they would refuse to share their secrets with anybody outside the kitchen? In fact, so conscious were they about their gastronomic, gourmand masterpieces that they would even incorporate the suggestions of hakims to ensure that the food was not only tasty, but healthy as well.
Bringing the taste of these nawabi khazanas to our very own city is Kunwar Rani Kulsam Begum, niece of Salar Jung III. Dressed in a simple salwar kameez, with long, Rapunzel like tresses, you know Kulsam is royalty, ada and nazakat much intact. Fondly calling me ‘beta’, she starts off by saying, “It’s a misconception that Hyderabadi food, or nawabi food is extremely rich and unhealthy. In fact, our daily cooking is really simple and we make use of seasonal vegetables and fruits.” That comment firmly in place, we start off with a hara chana kebab, Hyderabadi boti kebab and malai kaju kebab. While the chana kebab just about passes muster, the non-vegetarian kebabs were sinfully flavourful, and completely made up for the former.
In between mouthfuls of divine morsels of food, we ask Kulsam how long she has been cooking and pat comes the reply, “Women are usually never allowed to enter the kitchen in most royal households. Unless it is a necessity, we are only to oversee operations and not actually involve ourselves. However, since I am extremely passionate about my family recipes, I decided to follow my heart and plunge spoon, spices and ladle into the fire.”
Starters over, we shift focus to the main course which consists of delicacies like kulfa ghost (moist pieces of mutton cooked with palak and spices), timta murgh (chicken in a tomato-based gravy), karipa paneer (cottage cheese cooked with curry leaves and peanuts), aam roti, Hyderabadi karhi (their take on our sambhar vadai) and of course, the ubiquitous murgh biryani. Though a favourite of our star chef, the mutton didn’t really make the cut on the plate for me, but the paneer, murgh and biryani packed in the right punch of flavours, spices and textures.
As we wait for our dessert, Kulsam endears us with tales of an era gone by; this close to letting my imagination take me away to the land of nawabs, mahals, nizams and not to mention, the royal repast, we are served with two sweet notes. While the sapote ke kheer was more like rabdi, infused with fleshy pieces of ripe mud apple, the mithi sainak is sort of an east-meets-west combo with a nice, plump gulab jamun sitting on a custard and cream tart! Ah! Bliss!
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