BENGALURU: For the last 15-16 years, Chef Praveen Anand has had one request to the erstwhile royal family of Tanjore Marathas: that is to collaborate and share the trade secrets of the royal kitchen. But it was only this year that Abaji Rajah Bhonsle, the younger brother of family scion Rajah Bhonsle, relented, sensing the importance of keeping alive these traditional recipes. The result is a culinary journey of dishes of the dynasty, Thanjavur Royal Kitchen; Heirloom Recipes from the Palace of Thanjavur, which is currently on at Dakshin, ITC Windsor.
Bhonsle – who runs a heritage hotel in Thanjavur through which he attempts to preserve local art and culture – and his wife, Dhanashreeraje Bhonsle, are on a five-city tour to give a glimpse of their family recipes, which have been put together by Praveen Anand, Executive Chef - Southern Cuisine, ITC Hotels.
Bhonsle and Anand point out that this is the only royal lineage to have carefully documented the recipes, complete with weights and measures, and date back to the 1800s. “The measures mentioned is in tholas, which meant having to accurately convert these measures to get the exact proportions...one thola is 11.6 grams,” chips in Anand.
The royal kitchens were segmented as Maratha (non-vegetarian), Brahminical (vegetarian), Angreji (European), Sherbet Khana (sherbets), Obdhar Khana (water) and Thatti Mahal Khana (milk) – which is where their signature kebabs khalias, korma, kozhambu and many-splendoured delicacies were produced. In contrast, the palace comprises two kitchens where cooks have been working for generations and have picked up the recipes through oral tradition from their forefathers. Dhanashreeraje has also spent several hours with the chefs on this project. “Marination of the dishes takes long. One of the dishes that look deceptively simple is the Laat Bakhri (chapati made with rice), which requires one to get the right technique,” says Dhanashreeraje, adding that the dishes which are mildly spiced are made in ghee. “Neither tomatoes or chillies nor English veggies like cauliflower, carrot and beans have been used,” adds Anand.
Some of the dishes featured Mashyache Kebab (poppy-& green chilli-smeared fish fillets, pan fried in ghee), Komdiche Kebab (chicken kebab made with coriander, pepper & ginger), Dhanedhar Shunti (parcels of pounded lamb meat and spices), Komda Pulao (chicken pulao), Kelyachi Bhaji (raw banana tossed with ‘karivadagam’ & ‘hurit’), and Shakar Biranji (sweetened pulao with almonds, coconut and sultanas).
Back in time
Back in time, the Maratha kingdom in Thanjavur under the rule of Rajah Serfoji was believed to be the golden period of the Tanjore Marathas. Rajah Serfoji, a scholar and an eye surgeon by training recorded the achievements of the Maratha rule which is housed in the famous ‘Saraswathi Mahal’ library in Thanjavur. And one of the treasures is the ancient heirloom recipes of the palace of those days brought out as a compendium in ‘modi scripts’ under the name ‘Sarabendra Pakashastra’.