Lucknow. The land of the Nawabs, the quintessential Gourmet Central for every food enthusiast.
Some of the yummiest delicacies you will ever have in your life can be found tucked away behind dimly lit ‘nukkads’, inside the craggiest of lanes and at the most ramshackle of roadside shanties!
There are many reasons we love Lucknow. Its sumptuous, melt-in-your-mouth kebabs are right at the top of that list.
Whether it’s the all too-well-known galouti kebab or the saffron infused kakori kebab, just a mere mention of the name can get many of us salivating.
We bring you the top 5 kebabs from a Lucknowi kitchen that will put any fine dining restaurant to shame.
Kakori Kebab
This kebab derives its name from the city of Kakori, located on the outskirts of Lucknow. Giving a whole new meaning to ‘melt-in-the-mouth’, this is made using minced meat that is smeared with a luscious marinade of desiccated coconut, cashew nut paste, khoya and aromatic spices topped with saffron.
Charred to perfection, this kebab is the star of most dinner parties. If you’re hosting one and have run out of starter options, this kebab should be your best bet.
Galouti Kebab
The Lucknowi kitchen is the gift that keeps on giving. What makes this kebab irresistibly delicious is the heavy use of spices like black pepper, cardamom and star anise among others. These spices are added to a rich, thick paste of papaya, yoghurt and gram flour, blended in with minced meat and made into small ‘tikkis’. These tikkis are then grilled on a charcoal pit.
Fragrant, aromatic and flavoursome, these kebabs are sure to stoke your hunger and leave you craving more! They can be had with parathas as a main course but we reckon, you’d probably relish them more as starters with drinks.
Tunday Kebab
One of the world’s softest kebabs (for the most toothless of Nawabs) tunday kebab is the stuff dreams are made of. Meat-encased, carnivorous ones, that is.
Legend has it that a particularly morose Nawab, who’d just lost his teeth, wanted a group of chefs to make him kebabs he could actually eat. The softest, tenderest ones were made by a one-armed chef, and it is he who the Lucknowi delicacies are named after. (A one-armed man is irreverently called ‘tunday’ in Hindi.)
Though the recipe is the best kept secret, some of the main ingredients are yoghurt, spices, dried mint and vinegar. You’ll find that they are popularly had with ulta tawa parathas in Lucknow’s streets.
Shammi Kebab
The shammi kebab has travelled far and beyond the Lucknowi kitchen, but there is no denying its Awadhi roots.
Probably one of the most commonly available kebabs in the rest of India, the shammi kebab is made from minced meat, lentils and spices. These succulent balls of meat also find use of gram flour, coriander and mint. Coated with eggs and pan fried to a crisp golden brown, these kebabs are an absolute royal indulgence!
Neza Kebab
These kebabs could pass off as ‘Lucknowi chicken lollypops’, heavy on spices and flavour. They are prepared using chicken drumsticks marinated in spices and vinegar. Roasted gram flour, whisked eggs and cream are generously mixed and brushed onto the chicken drumsticks with the marinade. It is then chargrilled on skewers.
(A freelance food and fashion blogger, Pranjali Bhonde Pethe aims at getting people and their favourite food and style closer through her blog moipalate. Email her at pranjali.bhonde@gmail.com and follow her on @moipalate.)
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