Inside the Mughal Kitchen: Salma Husain on Nur Jehan’s Dazzling Table of Colours |
In a conversation with Shailaja Tripathi, the food historian decodes the 16th-century Persian manuscript Alwan-e-Nemat , revealing how Empress Nur Jehan turned the royal table into an edible work of art.
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FOOD HISTORIAN, author, and Persian scholar Salma Husain’s latest book, Alwan-e-Nemat (Colours of the Table), brings alive the opulent culinary world of Emperor Jahangir and Queen Nur Jehan. Based on a 16th-century Persian manuscript, the work is exquisitely calligraphed across 155 cream-coloured pages bordered in delicate blue — an artefact as refined as the food it documents. Unlike most studies of Mughal cuisine, Alwan-e-Nemat is devoted entirely to recipes, food processing, and presentation. It captures the era’s attention to detail — from etiquette to garnishing — and highlights the Empress’s singular influence: her multicoloured fruits, coloured oils, floral breads, and visually stunning yoghurts. “Nur Jehan was passionate about food and loved to experiment,” says Husain. “Her creativity gave colour to the royal table.” Published by Penguin Random House India, the book extends Husain’s decades-long immersion in Mughal culinary history. Her earlier works include Nuskha-e-Shahjahani (released as The Mughal Feast), Around India’s First Table, The Pull of Pulses, 50 Great Sherbets of India, Flavours of Avadh, and Islamic Food with a Healing Touch . A long-time consultant with the ITC Hotels Group, she has also translated rare Persian texts, bridging language and kitchen with equal ease.
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THE DISTINCTIVE FLAVOURS OF JAHANGIR’S COURT “What I loved most about this manuscript,” Husain says, “is how it records things missing from other sources, especially the garnishing done by Nur Jehan. She brought artistry to the royal table.” Each page, she adds, also reflects a concern for hygiene and etiquette. “When people sat down on the dastarkhwan, they first praised the food. Hands were washed, and even the person pouring water was spotless. That level of refinement isn’t seen in other Mughal kitchens.” A MANUSCRIPT THAT COOKS Where the Ain-i-Akbari merely lists dishes, Alwan-e-Nemat describes how they were cooked...the earliest detailed record of royal techniques. “They didn’t have gas or microwaves,” Husain explains, “so they managed heat by fans: ek pankhe ki hawa for slow, do pankhe ki hawa for medium, teen pankhe ki hawa for high.” Many dishes were cooked on dum, steam sealed beneath hay and fine muslin. “They would boil water, place hay above it, cover it with cloth, and then rest the chicken or fish on top,” she says. “That’s how they achieved that gentle Mughal tenderness.” |
DISCOVERING ALWAN-E-NEMAT Husain first encountered the manuscript at the National Museum while working at the National Archives. “With the help of a friend, Nasim Akhtar, I found Alwan-e-Nemat. Later, I traced another copy to the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, and yet another in the British Library, London, though under a different name.” Translation took nearly five years. “I was the first to translate a Persian food book into English. It required knowledge of both the language and cuisine; I was fortunate to have both,” she says. |
NUR JEHAN’S INVENTIVE PALATE Nur Jehan’s flair extended far beyond politics or perfume. “She made fruit yoghurt long before supermarkets did,” Husain smiles. “In Jahangir’s time, she even made five-colour yoghurt in one bowl.” The Empress created partitions in a bowl using sunmica, poured in tinted juices — spinach for green, saffron for red — and then added milk and starter. “When it set, she removed the partitions to reveal the rainbow yoghurt,” says Husain. Nur Jehan also coloured oils and breads with floral extracts and fruit juices, used muskmelon in meat dishes, and introduced mango pulao — Jahangir’s favourite fruit rendered royal. “Shah Jahan later called mango ‘the best fruit’,” she adds. A QUEEN’S FAVOURITE DISH “Her favourite was Baba Farid ki Khichdi,” Husain reveals, “made with chana dal, khoya and sugar.” Jahangir’s travels in Gujarat had brought him close to a jeweller-financier who served him khichdi; the emperor loved it and passed the recipe to the queen. “She then asked her chefs to create many kinds of khichdis — Mukhtarkhani, Karamkhani — each named after the chef who devised it. The poor man’s food became royal fare, enriched with dry fruits, meat, and khoya.” |
A MELTING-POT OF REGIONS AND EMPIRES The Mughal table was a confluence of Persian, Central Asian, and Indian traditions. “Nur Jehan was Iranian; Babur preferred Afghan and Central Asian food,” Husain explains. “He distrusted Indian cooks after a poisoning attempt by Ibrahim Lodi’s mother.” Over time, Akbar’s marriage to Jodha Bai added Rajasthani flavours; Jahangir’s wanderings brought Kashmiri dishes like rogan josh and gushtaba, and his fondness for Gujarat added sweet-spicy khichdis and khandvi made with fruit juices. “By Shah Jahan’s reign,” says Husain, “the royal table became even more Indian, with Persian, Central Asian and European flavours blending together. What we eat today as ‘Mughlai’ — rich, oily, heavy — was never that. The originals were light, aromatic, and beautifully balanced.” |
THE AESTHETICS OF APPETITE
Nur Jehan transformed dining into a spectacle. “She gave an aesthetic sense to food,” says Husain. “That’s why garnishing became so important. No royal woman entered the kitchen, but Nur Jehan did.”
She not only supervised the chefs but also invented new dishes and organised lavish feasts to delight the emperor. “Jahangir encouraged her passion. She enjoyed giving instruction and advice, and together they created an unforgettable culinary legacy.”
In Alwan-e-Nemat, Salma Husain revives that luminous world: a time when even yoghurt blushed with colour, oils gleamed green with spinach juice, and every Mughal meal was a poem of taste, texture, and grace. |
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| | Biranj Anba or Mango Pulao |
A historical Mughal-era dessert, specifically a layered sweet rice dish featuring ripe mangoes |
2 cups pulp of ripe mangoes
1½ cups rice
2 cups milk
8½ cups sugar
1½ cups cream
½ teaspoon saffron
2 tablespoons desi ghee
For garnish, mango slices
2 tablespoons each finely sliced almonds, pistachios & rose petals |
Heat the milk, add sugar and let it simmer for ½ hour till the milk becomes thicker. Turn off the flame and let it cool down. Strain the mango pulp. Add whipped cream and saffron to it. Set aside. Boil the rice with a pinch of salt and ½ tbsp ghee. Drain the water, then add the thickened milk. Cook on medium heat for 10 mins. Keep stirring. Then turn off the flame and let it cool. In a 'lagan' (vessel/pot), put a layer of half the rice, then mango pulp, then the rest of the rice. Add the rest of the desi ghee on top. Place on 'dum'. Finally, garnish with mango slices, almonds, pistachios and some dried rose petals. |
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