From picture-perfect books to finding its way to the tables of luxury hotels and getting an international recognition, families are working together to track, document and safeguard heirloom recipes to the true epicurean’s delight
Early this year, a hand-written recipe for chicken curry was found in an English cookbook created in 1793. It would probably help trace the origins of the UK’s favourite dish. For most part, India has always been strung together by oral traditions, with diaries and recipe cards being a relatively western concept. At the helm of most Indian kitchens was the eldest woman of the household, while other women provided odd support, depending on their age and place in the family hierarchy. Today, a handful of people have taken it upon themselves to trace and preserve family recipes with the gallant hope that the culinary legacy will be passed on to the next generation.
KORMA ASAFJAHI By Sanjiv Bali This Hyderabadi recipe is over 100 years old, part of the collection compiled by Maharaja Digvijay Singh ji of Sailana, which was given to his grandfather by the Nizam in the year 1905. Ingredients 1 kg mutton pieces from leg or shoulder, 60 gm onions, finely chopped, 25 gm green chillies, finely chopped without seeds, 6 gm sugar, 6 gm red chilli powder, A pinch of saffron, diluted in warm water, 1.5 gm garam masala powder 1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped , 250 gm fresh, thick curd |
Method Put the curd in a muslin cloth and hang it on a peg for two hours. Whip the curd and keep aside. Heat half of the ghee in a pan. Add garlic and ginger, and fry till golden brown. Add the meat and salt, and stir fry. Add only as much water that it should dry up when meat is tender. Keep aside. Heat remaining ghee in a separate pan. Fry the almonds and raisins separately to a golden colour and keep aside. Add in the remaining ghee the onions and fry till golden brown. Add red chilli powder, peppercorns, garam masala powder, sugar, green chillies and cook with two tablespoons of water, stirring well till water dries up. Add meat and stir. Add almonds, raisins, curd, saffron and coriander leaves, and stir well. Simmer on low heat for five minutes only and serve immediately. |
In Hyderabad, corporate communication professional Tanya Reddy agrees that since recipes were not documented, many people have forgotten ‘family specials’ and classics. She has been working for the last six years to document her family recipes. “My mother’s cooking is an all-time favourite among family and friends. As I was working in a different city, I often called my mother to ask for recipes. She once asked me: why don’t I write them down? That was when I started to collect and preserve my family recipes in a diary in 2010,” she says.
Reddy reached out to relatives and has noted down 120 recipes, which is an amalgamation of the regions of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh. Her collection includes Pachhii Jeedi Papu Kura from coastal Andhra Pradesh, Pachi Merapa Pachadi from Rayalaseema, and Jonna Roti from Telangana. Reddy plans to compile the recipes into a book.
Mutta Maala By Faiza Moosa Mutta maala, meaning ‘egg garland’, is the best known of Mapilla desserts. It occupies pride of place in a festive meal, particularly weddings. Ingredients 20 eggs, 750 ml water, 500 gm sugar, 6 pods of green cardamom, powdered, Salt Method |
Separate the egg yolks and egg whites aside. Strain the yolks through a muslin cloth into a clean dry bowl. Beat them lightly. Make a syrup with sugar and water. Bring it to a boil. Drop a little egg white into it; when the scum rises, remove it. Do this several times till the syrup is clear and has a one-string consistency. Pierce a tiny aperture in the base of a jackfruit leaf or a coconut shell to trickle the egg yolk into the syrup. Fill egg yolk in the leaf or shell covering the hole. Hold the leaf or shell over the boiling syrup, remove your finger and let the yolk drip into the syrup in a circular motion to form long strands or ‘garlands’; the yolk sets very quickly (about three minutes). Lower heat and sprinkle one tablespoon cold water over it. Use a long handled-spoon and carefully lift the yolk strands without breaking them. Spread them out in a shallow dish that is placed slightly tilted so that the excess syrup drains away. Continue the process till all the yolk is used up. Cool the sugar syrup. Whip the egg whites. Add powdered cardamom, a pinch of salt and cooled syrup to egg white. Pour the mix into a greased shallow dish and steam till done. Remove and cool. Cut into a diamond-shaped pieces and serve with egg yolk strings. Note: In Malabar, a jackfruit leaf cone or a coconut shell cone is used for this recipe. If neither are available, take a plastic cup and pierce a pen nib-sized hole, about 2mm, at the base. |
Arshia Arora, 26, believes that through recipes, people learn about their roots and way of life. The Delhi-based girl sifts through seven diaries of hand-written recipes by her grandmother from the 50s to compile them as a book and a digital version. “These diaries were accumulating dust, with the ink fading. By digitalising them, they can be preserved,” says Arora, who has over 500 recipes on short eats and deserts. “Some of the instructions are written in a way that only a person familiar with cooking can follow.” A family favourite dessert is the ‘caramel custard’, which is now made according to instructions left by Arora’s grandmother. Some dishes are elaborate and some simple, like the Russian Salad and Dahi Tikki.
Pratibha Jain, who co-authored and published award-winning cookbooks such as Cooking At Home with Pedatha and Sukham Ayu, says every family has its recipes somewhere—in a book, as notes or scribbles. “Often, grandmothers and family elders don’t believe that the information they share is worth so much attention. For them, it’s first just a way of life,” she says.
Semolina Fillets By Arshia Arora The unusual dish was discovered in one of the seven diaries that Arora’s grandmother left behind Ingredients 115 gm semolina, 50 gm clarified butter, ½ tsp garam masala, A pinch of nutmeg, 50-75 gm red ball cheese, grated or 170 gm paneer from buffalo milk, sieved , 500 gm milk, 4 green chillies, finely cut, 1-1½ tsp salt, ½ tbsp coriander, chopped Oil to deep fry Ingredients for coating and frying 2 eggs, 500 gm ghee, Dry bread crumbs Ingredients for garnishing Parsley or mint sprigs, Lemon slices Method |
Heat the milk and clarified butter in a saucepan. Sprinkle in the semolina and let it soak for 15 minutes, keeping the flame on low. Let the grains become clear and mixture thicken. Remove from the fire. Add grated or sieved cheese, salt, red pepper, garam masala and finely chopped coriander leaves and finely cut green chillies. Turn out onto two wet plates and allow it to cool. Divide the mixture into 12 to 16 equal parts and shape these like fish fillets. Coat twice with the lightly beaten egg and dry bread crumbs. Fry in deep oil and serve, garnished with lemon slices and parsley or mint sprigs. |
Not just within homes, recipes were safely guarded and passed down through generations in royal courtyards through written documents or word of mouth. “All momentous occasions were celebrated with grand feasts where it was not uncommon to see 200 dishes,” says Sanjiv Bali, founder of Mount Shivalik Hospitality Group, who created two heritage restaurants in Jodhpur, which serve specialties found only in royal kitchens. “We created our menu from these original recipes from royal tables across the country, from the Maharajas of Patiala to Jodhpur, like Murgh Masalam Laung Elaichi from the Patiala household or the Jali Fish or Lal Maas from the Jodhpur royal kitchen. Each family had certain culinary specialties, which they wrote and shared within the family, keeping the tradition alive.”
Thiruvathirai Dosai By the Lena Family In the Tamil month of Margazhi, during the ascendancy of the Thiruvathirai star, a celebration was held in the homes of Nattukottai Chettiars, where families would inform members of their community that they have an eligible bride in their household. As part of the celebrations, a dosai made of raw rice and jaggery was served to guests with the feast. Ingredients 2 cups raw rice ½ cup black gram 6 red chillies, 1 ½ tsp ‘chukku’, powdered, 6 cardamom, powdered, 100 gm jaggery, 150 gm brown sugar Method |
Soak rice for ½ hour and dry it. Grind the rice in a blender to coarse consistency. Spread it on a piece of paper and let it dry. Grind the black gram in a blender without water, to a consistency where you can roll it into a ball. Mix rice flour, chillies, chukku, cardamom together. Add ¼ cup water in a pan and add the jaggery and brown sugar. Let it dissolve completedly, and strain the contents with a muslin cloth. Keep the strained liquid on the stove and cook on low flame till it thickens to the consistency that you can roll it into a ball shape. Remove from flame and allow it to cool on a plate. Add the rice flour and black gram mixture to this liquid gradually and stir it. Let the mixture ferment for eight hours. Heat a girdle and pour a spoonful of this batter to the consistency of a pancake or ‘oothappam’. Use a tooth pick and make 10-20 holes on the batter to ensure it cooks evenly. Serve hot. |
Bali spent years collecting these recipes, some of which were handed down by the royal families and many during interactions at cookouts and dinners. “I have written them all down, starting from 1995, and am digitalising them,” he says. “Old recipes were a celebration in all entirety. Most dishes require slow cooking, be it the Kalia Saphed (lamb cooked in rich white almond and cashewnut gravy) or the Tandoori Batyer (farm fresh quails marinated and cooked in tandoors). Earlier, some dishes were cooked on precious stones and charcoal-fired clay ovens.”
The restaurateur is working on his first cookbook, which focuses on celebrations and feasts. He adds that royal families had their own distilleries. “Sometimes there were over 100 ingredients used to make a single drink,” he says.
Mutton Ball Curry Found in the ‘Chronicles of Whitefiled’ menu presented by Vivanta by Taj-Whitefield, Bengaluru Minced meat in India was introduced by the early Dutch settlers and in time the meat took shape of balls and was cooked in thick gravy. It’s a typical Anglo-Indian favourite and pairs up well with yellow rice. Ingredients 3 onions, chopped, 3 tsp chilli powder, 1½ tsp coriander powder, 3 tsp ginger garlic paste, 3 tomatoes, pureed, ½ cup ground coconut paste, 1 tsp all spice, 1 tsp oil, Coriander leaves, chopped finely, ½ tsp turmeric powder, Salt to taste Ingredients for the mince balls (Kofta) 500 gm mutton, finely minced, ½ tsp all spice powder, 3 green chillies, chopped, 1 bunch coriander leaves, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, Salt to taste Method |
Heat oil in a large pan and fry the onions till golden brown. Add ginger and garlic paste, and fry for some time. Add chilli powder, coriander powder, spice powder or garam masala powder, turmeric powder and coconut, and fry for a few minutes till the oil separates from the masala. Add tomato juice and salt, and simmer for sometime. Add sufficient water and bring to boil. Mix spice powder, salt, chopped green chillies, turmeric powder and coriander leaves with the minced mutton and form into small balls. Drop in the mince balls carefully one by one slowly, when the curry is boiling. Simmer on slow heat for 20 minutes till the balls are cooked and the gravy is not too thick. Serve hot with coconut rice. |
Late celebrity chef, food historian and spice collector Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni was on a mission to discover authentic South India specialties when he met home-maker Jawaharunisa in 1997 in Madurai. “I learnt cooking from my mother at the age of 15. After my marriage, we kept moving to cities due to my husband’s job. I would participate in cookery shows and competitions to share recipes,” says Jawaharunisa, 72. The stringy parotta she shared with Jacob during his trip to the temple town caught his attention. He added it to the menu of his restaurant Jacob’s Kitchen in Chennai, christening it Jawahar Jaloor Parotta.
Jenny Mallin documented her family cuisine in A Grandmother’s Legacy, a book that provides a peek into the lives of five generations of Anglo-Indians. Taking almost five years to complete, she explains that there is always a defining moment in everyone’s life. For her, it came shortly after her father passed away in 2010. “I was acutely aware that if I lost my mother as well, a generation of the last of the Anglo-Indians who were born in India during the days of the Raj would be gone. I saw my grandmother’s book filled with recipes, and wanted to preserve them for posterity,” she says. She recollects that instructions like “wash the rice sharp”, “use 5 pollums of plums” or “1 ½ oil: Mysore dhall” required much more research and time to understand than “place in a quick oven”. Deciphering the unusual cooking methods and the measurement terminology were one of my biggest challenges,” she adds. The dishes that she churns out from her modern kitchen in Kingsclere, UK, include the Lamb Almode, Green Masala Chicken, Prawn Coconut Curry and Pepperwater, Rumble Tumble (scrambled eggs made in the Anglo Indian way),” she adds. She recollects that coconut oil was used liberally earlier as it was the local oil. “I use Rapeseed oil as it has less saturated fat and has a high burn point level, which is ideal for frying,” explains Mallin. “I use the microwave, which they didn’t have,” she says with a smile. She is working on her second book, which will feature her grandmother’s recipes from various regions they lived in.
Bhaja Moong Dal By Usha Banerjee Bhaja is a bit of a misnomer, since the moong is pan-roasted rather than fried. All this does not prevent it from being delicious. It was once a luxury dish, laced with expensive spices such as cinnamon and clove, loaded with raisins and bits of coconut, served only on special occasions such as weddings. Today, however, it is easily made at home. Ingredients 100 gm moong dal, 2 bay leaves, 1” cinnamon, 4 green cardamoms, 4 cloves, 1/2 tsp sadha jeera, 1 tsp ginger paste, 2 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, 2 tsp cummin powder, ½ tsps tumeric powder, 1/2 cup coconut, thinly sliced, 2 tbsp raisin, 3 green chillies, 2 tbsp white oil (soya, ground nut or any other light coloured oil), 3 cups water, Salt Method |
Fry moong dal in a dry pan till golden brown. Fill two cups of water in a pressure cooker. Add fried dal. Add ¼ teaspoon of turmeric and salt as required. Pressure-cook for five minutes. Add oil in a pan and fry the coconut. Add the dry whole masalas and fry for two minutes. Add ginger paste, coriander powder and cummin powder, and fry for a minute on slow fire. Pour the boiled dal into the pan. Add another cup of water if it is too thick. Add the raisins, let it come to a boil. Serve in a bowl with green chilli and luchi or rice. |
Another Anglo-Indian cuisine revival was in 2012, when executive chef Arzooman Irani (then at Vivanta by Taj-Whitefield in Bengaluru) was presented a vintage book containing 130 recipes and dating from 1906. He got it from the grand-daughter of Harry Blake, one of the original British settlers in Whitefield. Holding the almost tattered book, Irani knew “it was not just a new menu that I could envision, but a window to the rich heritage and culture, which is associated with Whitefield.”
“Our chef took two years of research and trial and finally launched a special menu called ‘Chronicles of Whitefield’. All the original recipes were followed to the letter, making only a few alterations to the amounts of sugar and mustard used by Blake,” explains Sunil Taneja, general manager, Vivanta by Taj-Whitefield. The team found that the Anglo-Indian recipes embrace Indian spices with ease. Chili, turmeric, coconut, cummin, coriander and tamarind are used judiciously along with cooking techniques from both cultures, including slow cooking, braising, roasting and tendering.
“Moplah cuisine, a very old cuisine found in the Malabar district in Kerala, is on the verge of extinction,” explains C P Moosa, 63, and his wife Faiza, 58, who run a quaint home-stay called Ayisha Manzil in Thalassery, Kerala. “The cuisine is elaborate, and needs time to prepare and cook. We have the time and passion, hence we continue to write and teach people who are interested,” says Moosa.Faiza conducts over 400 hands-on cookery classes at their home-stay ever year and has written a book titled Classic Malabar Recipes: Culinary Treasures from North Kerala in 2015.
Today, wherever there is a Muslim community in India, there is biryani, sometimes as many as six. Faiza writes in her book, “Besides mutton and chicken biryani, Malabar has unusual seafood biryanis. The fish biryani, in particular, is stupendous. A tinge of rosewater takes away the ‘fishiness’, so that what you get smells good and tastes like Ambrosia”. Kozhi Thalayan (chicken pillow) has hard-boiled egg buried in a whole chicken, which is encased in a ‘pillow’ of dough. In mappila cuisine, the love of layering and wrapping is continued further with desserts like the Chatty Pathiri (layered chappati cake with a sweet egg filling), and Lakkottappam (crepe wrapped around a sweet egg coconut filling wrapped in a larger crepe to give a moist and rich dessert).
Jonna Rotii By Tanya Reddy Once popular in the villages, this bread is a perfect accompaniment to meats and vegetable gravies. Instead of rolling pins, the best way to make this bread is to use your hands to shape the dough. Ingredients 1 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup water, Salt to taste Method |
Boil one cup of water and sprinkle some salt to it. Switch off the flame. Add the flour, little by little and mix it. Knead it into a soft dough. Divide the dough into equal size balls. Use your hands to flatten the dough and get a round shape. Heat a iron griddle and cook the bread. Use a damp cloth and press on the bread before flipping to the other side. Serve warm. Note: You can use rolling pins to roll out the dough. |
Documenting heritage recipes is not a solo journey. In the process, you connect and re-establish ties with family once again. That’s what happened when a four cousins and an aunt from Devakottai, Tamil Nadu, gathered to create a family cookbook in Tamil. “A lot of our family members are excellent cooks; closely held recipes of the Nagarathar community in Chettinad have been perfected to taste by them. We wanted to pass them on to the next generation,” says Anuradha Azhagappan, 50. Titled Nammu Veetu Samayal (Our Home Cuisine) published in 2013, the women reached out to relatives across the globe to share recipes for the book. Over 150 recipes were shared through word of mouth, letters, notes and email in five months, of which 16 dishes were recreated, plated and photographed. The book features traditional Chettinad cuisine, family favourites like the Ravai Panniyaram and Paal Kozhukattai, healthy recipes like Vallarai Thuvayal, Sundakkai Kuzhambu and even tacos with salsa sauce. But what makes it unique is the mention of recipes like Thiruvathurai Dosai, which has become a forgotten memory. “There was an elaborate religious celebration in the Tamil month of Margazhi, and this jaggery filled dosai was served to guests who came home,” explains Meena Arunachalam, 69, the eldest in the team who guided the project.
As Jain aptly says, “There are millions of recipes waiting to be discovered and there are millions of women willing to share them with you.” Maybe, this will motivate many others to check their lofts and attics for a trunk box that might hold a diary with stories from an old Indian kitchen.