A culinary celebration of Eid in city

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 15

Curating the best of gastronomical delights from the Mughlai and Awadhi cuisines, the culinary celebrations of Eid seems to have taken the holy city. Though the Muslim community living in the city is numbered, Amritsar’s culinary connection with the festival comes through meat.

“Punjabis love their meat and have accepted some of the specific dishes from the iftar platter as their own,” says Chef Shiv Parvesh, executive Chef, Hyatt Regency.

“Iftaar feast boosts of Mughlai and Awadhi cuisine, and some local influence of ingredients as well. In the city, special recipes such as seekh kebabs and tikkas have been absorbed as Punjabi cuisine staples,” he says.

The journey of iftar across the food map of the country has many variations. Chef Parvesh’s spread brings some innovations like amalgamation of Hyderabadi and Kolkatta biryani, where both egg and potato are used; dum aalo served with khamiri roti, Kashmiri-style layered breads and varqui parantha (laminated bread), galouti kebabs and naanza (a mix of pizza and naan with Indian seasoning and dressing). He has a revived version of ‘Mirchi ki Sabzi’, a lost recipe from the region that finds its origins in areas falling near Rajasthan-Punjab border. Amritsar might not match the narrow bylanes of old Delhi with its iftar food display, but the city has a history of inspired dishes from the festive platter.

“There was no specific time for Eid as it could fall in any season. So, travellers used to prepare simple dishes for iftar using flour to cook or for making gravy, only adding some spices as seasoning. Either plant or animal protein was used in the gravy to make the food nutritious. A lot of dishes such as atta chicken or vegetarian gravies have been inspired through such cooking. But most have been lost through time,” says Jyoti Arora, culinary expert from the city.

“Since the pre-partition Punjab province had influences from Kashmiri cuisine, a lot of Amritsari dishes reflect upon the spicy, dum-cooked recipes from the valley as well,” she adds.

According to chef Parvesh, the desserts specifics such as Shahi Tukda and seviyan have been innovated and designed to suit the modern palate.

“Variety of shahi tukda with chocolate, fruit and other flavours find mention in restaurant menus and even seviyan have been given a modern twist.” Traditional versions include cheese-flavoured seviyan made pudding style inspired from Turkish cuisine.