Recently I was reminiscing about my grandparents with the family. And my mum started telling us about how they had had to flee Pakistan when my dad was born. It was a really difficult time for them and they had to leave in a hurry. Most of their belongings were left behind but they brought various boxes with them. Over the years most of these ended up in the loft.
As my mum went on with her stories, my big bro and I got pretty excited and decided to have a rummage around. Among the photographs, paperwork, heirlooms (or junk) there was a collection of Mughlai recipes on some really old-looking parchment. The paper and pictures looked amazing, I got mum to translate some and some of her old friends had a look too - turns out that there were some pretty decadent creations.
One recipe stood out - a three bird biryani with duck stuffed into pheasant, stuffed into peacock and drenched in buffalo ghee. The recipe also included rare black truffles, quail’s eggs painted in edible gold and wild rice from the foothills of the Himalayas. All of this was then perfumed with aromatic spices like cardamom, cloves, cassia and saffron. The recipe specifies the dish should be cooked in a spectacular golden Indian ‘Handi’, a round pot of specific dimensions. This is me getting creative but I imagine it would look something like this:
Now, I've heard of expensive Indian meals, but I estimate that the ingredients in this recipe add up to a staggering £10,000! I guess this is why it was cooked for Mughal Emperors and Maharaja's, only they could afford such lavish cuisine. I’d love to know what it looks and tastes like, and this is where you can help.
I’m asking all of you to chip in to raise the necessary funds to cook this dish. If we can raise enough money I can prepare the meal and share it with you via my YouTube channel. Check out my Kickstarter page for more details of how you can get involved and make my dream a reality!
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