5 Mughlai Desserts That Will Make You Smack Your Lips Twice (2024)

FAQs

What did the Mughal emperors eat? ›

Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the Mughal emperors, was fond of deer meat or venison because of his fondness for hunting in his younger days. He also liked lighter food, particularly Moong-ki-Daal, which came to be known as 'Badshah Pasand'.

Shah Jahan, like most Mughal emperors loved mangoes. He also said to have drunk water only from the Yamuna River. Shah Jahan's kitchen ingredients were fetched from gardens which grew fresh fruits and vegetables. Legend has it that the spicy meat dish, nihari, was actually devised during his reign.

Mughlai cuisine consists of dishes developed or popularised in the medieval Indo-Persian cultural centres of the Mughal Empire. It represents a combination of cuisine of the Indian subcontinent with the cooking styles and recipes of Central Asian and Islamic cuisine.

The famous Mughlai cuisine evolved in Medieval India during the Mughal Empire. The cuisine that portrays a mix of culinary styles and recipes of North India and Central Asia is highly influenced by the cuisines of Central Asia that has a rich history of rule of the Turco-Mongol Mughal empires.

Akbar was a vegetarian for 3 days a week and for the other days, he used to relish on the traditional Mughlai food like Murgh Musallam and Navratan Korma.

Akbar's son, Jehangir, was a hearty consumer of alcohol and drank well and long. His successor, Shah Jahan, was a moderate drinker, but Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan's son, was a teetotaller.

Throughout the reign of the Mughals, fruit occupied a special place in court culture as well as on the court's table. They imported dried (small nuts, apricots, and raisins) and fresh fruits like Mellon, apple, pears, and grapes from the Samarkand which is a city in modern-day of Uzbekistan.

Akbar brought in a lot of Indian influence on the royal kitchen, thanks to his marriage alliances in Indian families. He was a vegetarian, three days a week and is said to have an exclusive kitchen garden which was irrigated with rosewater to impart fragrance to the produce.

The most religious and frugal of all the Mughal emperors, Aurangzeb fancied vegetarian dishes like the aforementioned panchmel dal more than the roast meat dishes that found favour with his uncles and brothers.

Some of the common dishes that you can find in this cuisine are Murgh Musallam, Mughlai Paratha, Kadhai Gosht, Chicken Lababdar, Murgh Jehangiri, etc. Not just that, its vegetarian options are also quite delicious like Kabuli Pulao, Shahi Paneer Korma, Aloo Gobhi KI Tehari, Bharuchi Dal and Navratan Korma.

Is biryani a Mughlai dish? ›

According to Pratibha Karan, who wrote the book Biryani, biryani is of Mughal origin, derived from pilaf varieties brought to the Indian subcontinent by Arab traders. She speculates that the pulao was an army dish in medieval India. Armies would prepare a one-pot dish of rice with whichever meat was available.

It is believed that the Mughlai paratha originated during Mughal emperor Jahangir's reign and it was a creation of his cook Adil Hafiz Usman, who originally hailed from the Bardhaman district of West Bengal of Hadhrami Arab descent.

It is mildly spiced in a way it's intensely flavorful; and not at all spicy. I have made Mughlai chicken curry on countless occasions, which turns out to be a gourmet delight every time I make it.

Mughlai food uses an array of aromatic spices that give the cuisine a spicier palette than the other North-Indian cuisines. The dishes are also a tad heavier compared to other cuisines, given the amount of dry fruits, heavy cream, and milk used to prepare them - a virtue that highlights the cuisine's Persian influence.

Due to the range of spices used in Mughlai cuisine, the dishes can have mild to spicy flavours. Also, earlier the amount of dairy used in the Mughlai cuisine was the main reason that most of the dishes were so heavy that a normal person could only have a few bites.

Nal Badiya, Amal Ka Saag, Bhutte Ka Kees, Chicken Sekwa, Keema Kofte ki Kadhi, Lal Mirch Paneer and Bambaison are not rustic local dishes, but the names of imperial delicacies that once spread their illustrious aroma in the kitchens of the royals of India.

In true Mughal fashion, crockery and cutlery was made of gold and silver, gems and stones. While his predecessors preferred Indian, Persian and Turkish foods, Shah Jahan introduced European varieties: from chillies, potatoes, tomatoes to cakes and puddings.

The emperor used ten special boats that constantly brought in ice from Panhar, where ice was loaded in '12 seer' bundles firstly wrapped in very clean cotton muslin, over which jute cloth was covered twice over, then it was placed in a wooden box and wood shavings filled in the gaps.