At the Crowne Plaza hotel in Kochi, Chef Aisha Mohamad al-Tamimi saw something in her curry that she had never seen before. The freelance chef from Qatar chewed on it and discovered they were drumsticks. “I liked the taste and I'll introduce them in one of my dishes,” she says.
An Indophile, Aisha was in the city recently to participate in the Spice Route Culinary Festival. She has always featured Indian cuisine—especially curries, chappatis, parathas and biryanis—on her long-running TV show Mawaed Cooking Show in Qatar.
“Qatari food is influenced by the Indian menu,” says Aisha. “We make biryani the way you do because centuries ago, there was trade between South India and Qatar through the sea.” Qatari cuisine also has a lot of spices from Kerala, such as cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cardamon, nutmeg and black and red pepper.
Among the most popular Qatari dishes is Marguga, a traditional curry. “Vegetables and mutton or chicken are cooked,” says Aisha. “Then we knead flour and make a thin bread. We fold the bread over Marguga paste and sauce, and cook it for 20 minutes until it becomes soft. It is a full meal.”
Another dish, Machboos consists of rice, mutton, onions and tomatoes mixed with spices. Since Qatar is in the Persian Gulf, seafood is much relished there. “We also use dates available locally,” says Aisha.
Most Qatari dishes have a dash of sugar. For the breakfast dish Balaleet, noodles, macaroni or pasta are cooked with sugar, cinnamon, saffron, and cardamom with an omelette on top. For Habeesa, sugar is put on the semolina.
Aisha laments that there is nothing sweet about the eating habits of today’s Qataris. “For breakfast, most people have scrambled eggs, bread and cornflakes,” she says. “One day our youth will lose touch with traditional Qatari cuisine.”
On weekends, Aisha cooks Qatari food for her family. “My children love to eat, but they are reluctant to cook,” she says. “They say they tend to put on weight. They opt for European and international cuisine. It breaks my heart.”