Whenever Mughal cuisine comes up for discussion, meat takes centre stage, though Aurangzeb, a known hardjawed religious personality, preferred not to eat meat. He rather fancied vegetarian dishes like panchmel dal, which is made evident in ‘Rukat-e Alamgiri’ a book comprising a bunch of Aurangzeb’s letters to his son.

Most interestingly, Aurangzeb’s ancestor, Emperor Akbar, maintained a vegetarian diet three times a week. He, however, was fond of murgh musallam and navratan qorma. His grandfather, Babur, born in Uzbekistan, loved the food of Samarkand and Farghana, from which he procured vegetables and fruits.

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His son Humayun loved khichdi and the sweet sherbet. Spices, aromas, and tastes define Mughal cuisine. The love for good food is found in their legacy of maintaining cookbooks and keeping this narrative about their passion for meat, sweets and varieties of bread, butter and bakery items alive.

Food lovers in Bengal have been long comfortable with some known mouthwatering Mughal cuisine like biryani, kebabs, and chaap. Biryani was introduced to Kolkata by Nawab of Awadh Wajid Ali Shah while exiled to Metiabruz, Kolkata, by the British in 1856.

“There are uncountable delicious dishes and desserts introduced during the eras of the Mughal and Mamluk dynasties, and those still remain almost untested in Bengal and the eastern region,” said Naseem Khan, owner of a notable chain of Mughlai food restaurants in South Bengal.

He said, “We’d tried to bring to the surface some dishes like meat darbari, navratan qorma (a vegetarian dish with paneer and nuts), and some desserts like makhuti (a sweet prepared with pulses, ghee, khoa and dry fruits), besides murg malai kebab, a roasted chicken marinated with milk cream and spice, but these failed to catch the imagination of the people we didn’t try further.”

Emperor Akbar’s favourite chicken qorma, prepared by his Rajput chef in conventional Hindustani recipes and maintaining a creamy gravy, found easy acceptance in northern India, though Bengal’s response to this was timid.

The same thing happened with yakhali, a Mughal dessert prepared with cashew, butter, and curd dried after mixing the brains of mutton and lamb, and Akbar’s favourite nehri kofta (mutton bone bearing thin pieces of steamed flesh and coated with egg). But the galouti kebab introduced by the Nawab of Lucknow gripped the taste buds of Bengal promptly.

Tehri, a preparation synthesising khichdi and biryani with rice, chicken, or mutton and vegetables as mandatory, though introduced, didn’t click either,” said Ali Hossen Khan, a chef employed with another star-category hotel operating in Kolkata, Durgapur, and Asansol.

Kobi Dutta, the key person of the hotel chain, said: “We’d also tried a few unconventional Mughal dishes earlier, but many of these did not do too well, except the zarda pulao. It was the Delhi Sultanate that had dominated prior to the Mughals that actually introduced the tandoori kebab, qeema, and naan bread, which were well accepted by the Mughals, too. Efforts are made from time to time to bring back breads like bakarkhani, shahi tukda, and sherman, but these are popular only during the Ramdaan fast. And even though desserts like carrot halua, laddu, and firni have become common these days, pumpkin halua or egg halua have not.

The author is a journalist on the staff of The Statesman