From UAE to Bhopal: Travel to try flavours from India's royal kitchens

In the sherbet-imbued world of the Begum-queens of Bhopal in central India, the royal kitchens were wreathed in the sizzle and scent of their simple but delicious menus.

The fearless Muslim Begums ruled the fiefdom of Bhopal with as much elan as they did their kitchens. The feisty ladies presided over a male dominated society from 1819 to 1926, led armies into battle, embarked on royal hunts, played polo and also gave Bhopal its royal cuisine.

The cuisine was rustic, hearty and shaded with fleeting nuances. “They were basically simple women and brilliant administrators,” said the elegant Sonia Rashid, a former royal, whose husband, the late Nadir, and his brother, the late Yawar Rashid, converted the heritage Jehan Numa Palace in Bhopal into a hotel and thus resurrected a lost charmed world for their guests. The late Nadir and Yawar Rashid were the grandsons of General Obaidullah Khan (builder of the Jehan Numa Palace, and the second son of the last Begum.) His grandsons figured that via a palace-hotel (which is now an icon of muted style), they could share their unique heritage with the world. Today, the great grandsons of the general, Faiz and Aly Rashid, are also giving guests a taste of their gastronomic legacy via the family business of four luxury hotels in central India.

The former royals are now the sole custodians of the recipes and are digging deep into the past to revive forgotten flavours. They have decoded the Begums’ handwritten recipes and are serving up royal fare at their palace-hotel in Bhopal and their wildlife retreats and lodges in Madhya Pradesh.

Chefs at the Jehan Numa Palace hotel earn their spurs at the Kothi on Shymala Hill where the former royals now reside. They are trained by members of the erstwhile royal family and their khansamas, or chefs, which gives the cuisine served at the group’s hotels an inimitable luscious overtone. “In the days of yore, 33-course meals would be served,” revealed our loquacious story-teller guide and author Sikander Malik. And we got a taste of those royal banquets at a private dining experience called the General’s Table at the palace hotel where around 27 courses were served. Our table was laden with white roses which glowed in the light of lamps that hung from the branches of surrounding trees and flickered on a tiered stand.

While we were being served course by course, the white walls of the palace gleamed in the moonlight and, nearby, an over 150-year-old mango tree spread its lush canopy over the diners.

The dishes were fragrant rather than capriciously smothered in spices – dahi ke kebab with soft creamy hearts encased in a crisp outer covering; Bhopali machli korma (concocted with lake fish reeled from the fish-speckled lakes in the city); dhuaar daal lauki, bottle gourd infused with a smoky flavour; yakhni pulao, aromatic with whole spices and cooked in mutton stock; the complex, velvety gravy of tender chicken in murg makhane ka salan… The slight bite of these dishes was doused with luscious desserts like shahi tukda, a type of bread pudding, simmered in saffron-hued reduced milk, and other desserts like chana dal halwa made with lentils.

Straight from the jungles

The private dining event was like an Insta reel come alive and gave an insight into the Begums’ culinary leanings. These women, it seems, preferred their cuisine hearty and full-bodied, and menus that were seasonally accented. They liked to hunt in the luxuriant game-rich jungles of Madhya Pradesh and, post a shoot, the meat of wild deer would be immediately chopped and slow cooked on wood fires and enhanced with garlic, whole chillies and salt, Faiz Rashid, managing director of the group, had revealed on an earlier visit.

And so was born the dish, jungli maas, a red meat dish evocative even today of jungle scents. In the dark wildlife-infested forests of central India and over crackling fires, dishes with a distinct muscled edge were born — filfora, coarsely hand-pounded mince cooked with whole spices and similarly, kaleji or liver. Excess meat from the hunt would be boiled with salt and garlic and then dried and stored for future consumption. A specialty called sukhad was essentially slender slivers of meat sun-dried on skewers and then cooked in a miscellany of spices.

Royal Bhopali food, however, is rooted in the tribal fare that simmered in the cooking pots of the region. It was only after the arrival in Bhopal of the swashbuckling Afghan soldier Dost Mohammad, founder of the dynasty in the 17th century, that Bhopali cuisine evolved. Afghani and Mughal influences transformed the cuisine into what it is today.

Over time, the cuisine grew more nuanced, but retained its earthy character. The royal kitchen brimmed with the tantalising aroma of Bhopali rezala, which was cooked with game meat in the days of yore, but more likely chicken today, stirred with chillies, coriander and mint, which gives it a typical green hue. Or exotica like the besani maachli (fish fried with gram flour); grape leaf fritters, the melt-in-the-mouth gosht ka halwa, a sweet confection with minced meat or egg thrown into the mix and even attar paan, a scented mouth freshener.

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