There was nothing called Punjabi food’

A meeting with Chef Parvinder Bali help in dispelling myths around Punjabi food. In fact, he says, Punjabi cuisine as we know it, never existed. At the Rivaayat-e-Patiala, an ongoing promotion of royal Patiala cuisine, Bali gives us a live demonstration of what he means.

The Dean of the Culinary School at the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development has curated a collection of recipes from a 400-year-old manuscript belonging to the royal family of Patiala. "Low on ingredients, use of ghee, slow simmering and few or no tomatoes are the hallmark of Patiala food. There is a daal called 'Dal bhukpari' which increases your hunger. It uses just salt, black urad, ginger, water and ghee," says Chef Bali who has hosted this promotion in Oberoi in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gurgaon.

 

While researching langar food (free meals made in community kitchen) served in gurudwaras for his book, he met Captain Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab and the scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family. He gave Bali a rare old manuscript with handwritten recipes in Gurumukhi. "I got it translated, typed and sought his permission to do food promotions. He agreed following which I have prepared about 70-80 dishes from the book for these various promotions," states Bali, who has authored five books so far. The notes give basic recipes in traditional units of measurement like pao, tola, ratti and ser.

Chef Parvinder says that many of the cooks working in royal palaces were not literate and hence never documented recipes. "And a lot of them also didn't pass it on to the next generation which resulted in a lot of loss of these things... This has driven a lot of chefs to collate, document and promote the traditional food so as to generate awareness about it."

He says that much against the common perception there was no cuisine of Amritsar or Jalandhar. "It was the food which was prepared in the villages of these areas. There was no daal makhni, malai kofta etc. During the Partition, people set up stalls and wondered why anybody would want to eat the daal which is marvellously prepared in their homes so the food was innovated upon. The community of chefs are also to blame and I feel disappointed that we have projected something wrong," clarifies the senior chef.

Patiala remained a separated kingdom until 1956 and that helped it retain its distinct flavours. "They also had a lot of European guests over from where they imbibed many of influences. The Kings of Patiala were interested in sports and food."

According to Chef Bali, a lot of recipes from this area don't use red chilli and tomatoes. "Using tomatoes in food came from Portuguese influences. Even in chukandarvala gosht, there is no turmeric, no tomatoes, no red chilli. The dish uses yoghurt, black pepper, beetroot. Cinnamon, black cardamom, cumin and black pepper are commonly used spices and even the whole garam masala is used only to curb the strong meat flavours."

The royals of Patiala ate locally grown vegetables like gullar - a fruit of the Banyan tree, Bauhinia or Kachnar, a flowering plant fiddlehead fern, wild cucumber creepers called tarai.

"These traditional vegetables, spices and recipes are going away. I fear that in some time, people would setting curd at home, stop making paneer and pickles at home. We have also stopped eating seasonal food," says the chef adding that traditional food was largely healthy and meant for people who indulged in physical labour.

"The food was nutritious, local and seasonal. People worked in farms. Today for the Indian genetical structure, Bajra (millet) works best."