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Jigging together a delight
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SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY finds out the secrets of Jiggs Kalra's Avadhi food recipes, a few days before the ace chef's book hits the market.
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Jiggs Kalra in New Delhi. Photo: V. Sudershan.
LEAF THROUGH this one and take the bet. The long and rather majestic names, if they don't make you greedy well beyond your lunch and dinner time, then you win. Over temptation?
Look again... Jehangirabadi Qorma, Pishtey Ka Saalan, Kundan Kaliya, Shahjehani Qorma, Makai Shahzaadi... .well, well, well. If you have even a pinch of taste for good food in you, then you sure won't mind losing this bet.
"Avadhi food is something very easy to fall in love with and extremely difficult to get out of," in one line, ace food critic Jiggs Kalra gives you the gist of not only about Avadhi cuisine but also about his soon to be launched book "Classic Cooking of Avadh". Garnished with Jiggs' usual all-dentures-out smile.
Brought out by Allied Publishers, the book is done in conjunction with Food Consultant and Chef Trainer Raminder Pal Singh Malhotra and TV producer Pushpesh Pant with eye-catching photographs by Ian Pereira. Before getting imprisoned to a wheel chair due to a cardiac stroke some time ago, Jiggs is known to have visited Avadhi capital, Lucknow "every three months," the most important fall-out of these trips being the export of the dying legend of age-old Tunda Kabab to the world outside. Talk about it and Jiggs knows no stopping.
Evolving food
"The best part is, the food in Avadh has never ceased to evolve. Even after the great aesthete, Wajid Ali Shah was banished to Calcutta by the British, the tradition of lavish hospitability survived," he says.
Sadly, he adds though, "what is most saddening is the slow and imminent death of street foods in Lucknow, the hub of Avadi food." He though has "managed to get to Delhi a few good Avadhi hands" to work for him here.
And, that is some good news. For those wanting to go beyond Jiggs' food festivals and tempted enough to try out the recipes themselves, a copy of the book would soon be available in the market with a price tag of Rs.300.
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