Exotic Cuisine

by The Oxford Chronicle

Welcome to An American Introduction of Mughlai Cuisine!

May 25th, 2008 by Chaashni Mahmoud

Mughlai cuisine comes from the kitchens of the Mughal Empire. This cuisine is predominant in North India and Pakistan. It has the strong influence of Muslim cooking. The cuisine is spicy and has a distinctive Indian aroma and taste of ground and whole spices.

According to Nita Mehta, one of India's most celebrated chefs "Mughlai Khaana stands apart as the empress of the Indian range of cooking.  Though it is a legacy of the Mughals, Mughlai cooking is a part of almost all Indian festivals and celebrations."  I couldn't have said it better myself, there is a lot to love about this rich and satisfying cuisine which hails from current day Northern India and Pakistan.

Mughlai food lays stress on good ingredients, low flame and rich spices.  Ingredients such as almonds, poppy seeds and flavoring spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace and nutmeg, are used to prepare Mughlai dishes.  Curd and cream form the base of gravies having less of a focus on tomatoes although, you do still see them.  Onions are usually deep fried to a golden brown color and then blended to a paste and used in gravies. Another important aspect of this type of cooking is that the spicing of the meat dishes brings out the deep flavor of the meat.

In the Mughal era, the foods laid out before Mughal royalty might well have included an aromatic pullao, a do piaza (meat cooked with a lot of fried onions), and a dum pukht (meat or chicken, smothered in almonds and raisins and then braised in butter and yogurt).  Eggplants cooked with ginger and lime juice, various skewered and grilled or pan-fried kebabs of lamb and chicken.  Most of these dishes have survived, intact, to this present day.

Kebabs are the specialty of Mughlai cooking and served as snacks as well as meal time accompaniments.  Rice preparations, such as Biryani, holds a special place in Mughlai food.  A special way of decorating both savory and sweet Mughlai dishes is to use "varq" - beaten silver leaf, which is edible.

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