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A mini Lucknow in Calcutta……….and eating gold coins in egg pudding!

posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 11:45 AM

Former palaces of royal exiles are to found littered across this city. One such royal exile was the artist king Wajid Ali Shah who introduced a new taste to the flavour of the cooking in Calcutta’s Muslims quarter – the aromatic avadhi flavour from Lucknow.

The patriarch of the family Hunuman Mirza writes with great pride about his great-great grandfather, Wajid Ali Shah, the last King of Oudh. A patron of the arts, an accomplished writer and an excellent artist he was deposed by the British in 1857 and exiled to Metiabruz on the outskirts of Calcutta. Once he arrived he busied himself building a mini Lucknow. The former King’s food was recommended and tested by his hakim (a physician of the unani system of medicine). Masoor dal (butter beans) was boiled in a clay handi with an asrafi mohur (a gold coin) as was a peosi (an egg based pudding) and stirred in a copper lagan pot. He believed that gold had therapeutic value. The late night dinner included polau, vegetable bhaji, shami kebabs and shahi machhli ka qorma which are whole carp fish cooked in mustard oil and peppers. A glass of burhani (a drink made from yoghurt, garlic and chilli paste) as a digestive. Wajid Ali only drank chilled water and his ready made remedy for a cold was at hand in besan roti (gram floured bread) filled with a chutney of garlic and green chilli.

Many of these former royal kitchens have produced some of Calcutta best signature dishes. One of these dishes is the patthar gosht which comes from the palace of the Maharaja of Burdwan – meat cooked on a heated slate placed at an angle of forty five degrees. The mutton, cut paper thin is first marinated in green ginger, garlic, green chillies and raw papaya is then seared on the hot slates which are specially imported from Karbala.

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