Chillies, onions, a plethora of spices ? can you imagine Tamil, or for that matter any Indian cuisine, without these absolutely essential, USP-giving ingredients. But chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar was intrigued enough to find out just what the food of his forefathers was. This Coimbatore-based chef dug into whatever he could find – texts, manuscripts, even descriptions of food ? to conceive a menu that emulates what the ancients ingested, and yet manages to make it delectable. His repertoire of dishes stretches from the second century BC to the early colonial period for this special menu and has highlights of the famous troika of dynasties that defined Tamilham ? Pandya, Chola and Chera. He has already wowed foodies in Chennai and Kolkata and has now started going to other cities. For the last 10-odd days, ending today, he had taken over the kitchen at Agni, The Park, Delhi. Suman Tarafdar samples some of his fare, which combines familiar dishes with unfamiliar tastes!
There is a demand for heritage food across India, and that interested me in looking up the antecedents of these dishes. Unfortunately, there are no recipes still extant from ancient times. Even in the texts that survive, only a few pages ever mention food. Most common are instances where food is mentioned, which I had to rely upon to prepare these dishes. And these, I would try to repeat in my kitchen. An inscription from 348 BC mentions a barrel of biryani being sent by the Chola king to his Pandya counterpart, while the latter corresponded by sending the pinattu, or the fruit of the palm.
We have to remember that food, unlike performances by others which the kings watched, was a personal indulgence, and one in which the king took personal interest. A text called Porunar Aatrupadai mentions 82 cooks being employed at the royal household at a time, and then not repeated for a month as they would have exhausted themselves with the effort. Oon Soru or mutton rice is mentioned as an early avatar of the biryani.
The ancient period had little exposure to spices, ginger and peppercorns being the only ones mentioned, and meat was marinated in a rather raw state and not preserved for too long either. Each century saw some addition of spices and from the 15th century onwards we have tomato, garlic, red chilli and onion added.
Cross cultural exposure lead to innovations ? the rice idli for example emerging from the method of steaming learnt from what is today Indonesia, from where other rice dishes came too. Earlier idli, or ittarika, was made of urad dal batter and then deep fried! The parathas or mandaka for example was made from whole wheat flour, prepared like a handkerchief, and then rolled like a bangle. The maida was an innovation that came with the European missionaries and there was no upma.
However a lot of the dishes have changed as well over the centuries. For example, lamb curry is mentioned with curry leaves, a preparation no longer in use. It?s been a long journey as then there was no onion, red chilli or tomato, all of which got added down the centuries.
If you want to be transported back in time, even in culinary times, and that?s not a choice you get that often, try the kunguna kozhi, a chicken curry from the 10th century spice mix of cumin, poppy seeds or basil, or berrajji, country style vegetables from Thanjavur dating back to 200 BC.
Algin soru
(Turkey biryani. A pre-Christian era recipe)
Ingredients
Chicken (cut into big pieces) 1kg
Crushed peppercorns 3tbsp
Thick coconut milk 3 cups
Coriander powder 3tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Powdered cinnamon & cloves 1 tsp
Cinnamon sticks 5 nos
Cloves 8 nos
Star anise 5 nos
Pepper corns 1 tbsp
Ghee 150 ml
Ginger paste 3 tbsp
Rock salt to taste
Chopped coriander leaves 1 cup
Jeeraga samba rice 1 kg
preparation
* Soak rice for 10 minutes and strain.
* Wash chicken and reserve.
* In a heavy-bottomed kadai, heat ghee and fry cinnamon, cloves, star anise and peppercorns.
* Add powdered cinnamon and cloves and fry for a second.
* Add coriander powder and turmeric powder and fry again for a couple of seconds.
* Add the chopped coriander leaves and the chicken pieces, saut? well.
* When chicken discolours, add salt and crushed peppercorns.
* Add coconut milk and cook chicken till done.
* Add more water as per the quantity of rice and boil.
* Then add rice and cook as for any other biryani?in dum.
