Innovation- A New Idea.
- khannaveerkaran779
- Dec 11, 2021
- 3 min read
During my research for this blog, I came across a Hungarian biochemist, Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgi, a noble prize winner for his research on vitamin C, I would like to commence this blog with a quote of his, "Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought" This fits perfectly within the Culinary Arts and Hospitality industry. As chefs, we must be creative and innovative while respecting our traditions and culture. Today, I would like to share two such innovations from the past that I came across when I started learning an Indian regional cuisine known as Awadhi cuisine. These are two cooking techniques, both involving slow cooking at low temperatures. Awadhi cuisine was an amalgamation of central Asian, middle eastern (Persian cuisine), and the ingredients found in Northern India.
One such innovation was in the preparation method, known as the 'Dum Pukth' style of cooking (pronounced as dum- pook-th) and the other innovation was a technique called 'Gile Hikmat' (pronounced as gee-ley hick-mut). Dum means breathing; pukth means to cook.
I'd like to share a brief historical context or a legendary origin associated with this technique,
It was a time of famine in India, 1784 people lost their livelihood. Their condition deteriorated by the day. The Nawab of Lucknow, Nawab Asaf-ud-daulah, took notice of his subjects and started a food-for-work welfare program. People used to go to work in the morning and return to their homes in the evening. Due to this intense work schedule, they did not have the time to cook their food. It gave rise to the origin of the cooking technique known as Dum Pukth. The cooks combined root vegetables, meat marinated with spices, and white rice in a round-bottomed copper vessel and would seal the edges of the cooking utensil with plain dough and cover it with a lid. After that, they placed it on lit charcoals to cook the food at even and low heat. By evening time, the meat would be fork-tender, the rice grains get cooked to perfection. It is also a popular method to make food in large quantities or bulk cooking. A very famous dish call dum biryani is an example which uses this culinary technique.
The second cooking technique, the Gile Hikmat was initially developed by the royal physicians to consume metals that were good for health but were inedible in their original form. Hence, they prepared it in powdered form for consumption. The cooks adopted this method and refined it to their best knowledge. The meat or vegetable usually is stuffed with nuts and specially prepared spices, followed by wrapping it in banana leaves or cloth and then sealing it with Fuller's earth. "Mostly composed of silica, magnesium, iron, and aluminum, it has been used for centuries to absorb dirt and oil" (Infobloom, Jessica Ellis). The wrapped food gets buried 6-8 inches deep into the ground, a slow fire is placed on it for 6-7 hours, after which the food is ready to be dug out and consumed. Due to the fast-paced life we lead, these techniques that consume a lot of time have been restricted to small regions and have yet to receive the global exposure they command.
These innovative cooking techniques have had an impact on me as a cook. They inspire and motivate me to learn different techniques which would help me be more creative and innovative.
1. Dum- phukt cooking technique.
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