HYDERABAD: Here’s some great news for Hyderabad heritage enthusiasts. The Deccan Heritage Trust (DHT) has two things that could hopefully materialise towards the beginning of 2022 — the trust will hold the Hyderabad International Food Festival which will have the oldest and the best of authentic Hyderabadi cuisine served by top chefs in the city. Next, the trust, through its managing trustee Dr Mohammed Safiullah, will release a cookbook of 680 authentic and ancient Hyderabadi recipes.
Exclusively revealing more to CE, Safiullah says very few people have a copy of the book. “I’m one of those people in possession of the book, but I don’t intend to keep it to myself. The book is a treasure trove of real and raw recipes of the Nizamian era. The recipes you see today as part of the so-called ‘Hyderabadi cuisine’ are borrowed from many other cultures, especially Punjab and Maharashtra. This book published in 1877 in Urdu, has 680 recipes of Hyderabadi/ Deccani cuisine, the highest for any book or work of reference on Hyderabadi cuisine to date,” he shares.
He goes on to give an example: The original Hyderabadi biryanis never used basmati rice, this is a modern addition. Decades ago, a variety called kali bhat was used to make the royal dish. The book, Safiullah says, will soon have more additions to it.
“Until now, following more than a year’s research, I have been able to collect and curate close to 725 recipes. I hope to hit a thousand, but that’s very ambitious of me. Soon, all these recipes, most written in Urdu, some in Telugu too, will be put together and translated into one book,” says a confident Safiullah.
He adds that the book hasn’t just recipes of curries and biryanis, but also has some authentic spice mixes, podis and seasonal recipes.