Kayastha food is home-centric, experimental and detailed in preparation. There is also a certain amount of precision that goes into the making of its dishes. Navneet Mendiratta tells us more about the food which has close Mughal links
It was a food promotion with a rather humble beginning that brought my attention to Kayastha cuisine some three years ago. A food journalist and Kayastha herself, Anoothi Vishal had struck up this idea to promote her community cuisine. A proud Mathur, she first started with Mathur food promotion at The Park, New Delhi. The festival was well received and earned her several invitations from leading five-star fine dining spaces across India to host similar promotions for them. She even hosted several pop-ups in the city encouraged by the response. “Kayastha cooking is a lot about elaborate and slow-fire cooking as it is about individual spicing and technique,” she had shared then, speaking on the challenges of bringing community cuisine into commercial spaces.
All that she spoke about the food from her community came back to me recently when I came across a neat compilation of recipes from Kayastha kitchens across India by Preeta Mathur, another food writer from the community. There really is no undermining the power of documenting traditions. In fact, lack of that is the biggest drawback of our times. The book, The Courtly Cuisine: Kayastha Kitchens Through India (Roli Books), does exactly that — document what is getting lost.
“This is one community that is spread all over India,” says Vishal laying out the geological chart and interpreting it for laymen. “With surnames like Mathur, Saxena and Srivastava in Uttar Pradesh, the community may have a stronghold in the State (and with it north India), but there are Kayasthas in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and even deep down south. It is, therefore, natural that regional influences creep into the cooking and especially recipes that we have been holding close to our hearts,” she explains.
But what is it that makes food from this community stand out and challenge regional cuisines that more clearly define the Indian food, other than Parsi food perhapsIJ “I would say the skillful blending of ingredients and the subtle cooking techniques, including dum, bhuna and dhungar, that are not only time-consuming but also sound daunting, are what raise this cooking to a sublime art form,” says Mathur.
Other than certain recipes, if there is one thing that is common to all from the community, it is the desire to play with the ingredients and create something that is a work of art, which is delicious and appetising at the same time. “Each preparation requires laborious and careful processes — be it siri in which all the parts of a goat’s head are cooked in exoticmasala, or the shabdeg in which different meats and vegetables are cooked overnight on an extremely slow charcoal fire,” she says. Then, she spoke of another delicacy called daulat ki chaat or nimish, where milk is left uncovered all night under the winter skies to infuse dew. Very exotic, indeed.
For those who are wondering, who the Kayasthas are, here’s a brief on their history and lineage. Kayasthas are said to be the descendants of Chitragupta — the son of Brahma — making them as old as the creation itself. They are placed second to the Brahmins and above Kshatriyas in the ancient varna system, making them close to both. “Because of their traditional occupation, that of writers to the royal court in the times of the Mughals, they were exposed to the cuisine of Muslims,” says Mathur, explaining the techniques from Muslim cooking, like dum, in their food preparations.
“In fact, all Kayasthas are avowed meat-eaters. Mutton is their preferred meat, with fish being the second and chicken comes at third and an extremely unfavourable position,” says Vishal, adding, “At the same time, Kayastha community is highly specialised with its vegetarian cooking. It comes to us quite instinctively and we can cook vegetables, besan quenelles and lentils with as much flair as we cook meat.” It is this love of labour perhaps that lead to the creation of mock meat dishes for the strictly vegetarian, with long hours of preparations and detailing going into preparing something as seemingly inconsequential as shaping soya into cubes to approximate the appearance of mutton botis!
like Punjabis, Kashmiris and Rajasthanis, Kayasthas are known for their love for ghee. Speaking on the cooking medium, Mathur says: “Traditionally, the north Indian Kayastha food is cooked in ghee, but the medium is now being changed to oil, in keeping with healthier cooking order.” Cooking in ghee, she insists, gives that wonderful flavour to the dish that the cuisine is so known for. The Kayasthas of east and south India have switched to mustard oil or sunflower oil, she shares. Ghee, however, remains reserved for special occasions.
Though regional influences tend to now dominate in the preparations, there are some recipes that remain uniform and typical to the community even today, such as aaloo ke kulle (stuffed potato baskets), kanji ke bade (fried black gram balls soaked in spicy sour water), Phale (tempered and stuffed wheat roundels), takke paise (Gram flour roundels in gravy also known as besan ke gatte in Rajasthan) and Badi Bauwa ki Handia (earthy flavoured chicken cooked without onions), to name a few. Pasande, Dum bater (slow cooked quail) and Khade masale ka gosht (lamb cooked in whole spices) are some of the other traditional favourites.
“Each dish has to have its own spicing and flavours,” insists Vishal. “Also what is peculiar to Kayastha cooking is that we use yogurt and not tomatoes to add tang. Amchoor is another ingredient that is to be found in dishes originating in Uttar Pradesh, as also Delhi. Hyderabadi Kayasthas love their khada masala. So in a way, this is also indicative of regional influences,” she adds.
Making a note in her book, Mathur also points at the variations indicating regional preferences in her recipe of Takke paise. She writes; “It is a versatile and delectable dish with a deft play of ingredients. Rita Sinha of Bihar adds soaked and pureed dried figs, while Char Nigam of Rajasthan adds carom seeds and Kacheri which grows in abundance there, to make this dish. Geeta Shankar uses a portion of curry masala and yogurt while kneading the gram flour.”
Even as we attempt to decode this cuisine, we are struck by the biggest positive about it — it is home-centric, experimental and detailed in preparation. There is also a certain amount of precision that goes into the making of the dishes. Each of the ingredients is weighed, measured and then used according to the recipe. The masalas are roasted and ground fresh. In short, it is all about labour of love — one that translates in gourmet’s delight. Fit for the royal in all of us.
