The Bohri Food Festival at Deccan Pavilion at ITC Kakatiya

A typical Bohri meal starts with a pinch of salt, which is supposed to act as a stimulant to the taste buds.

Bohras love their desserts and in fact usually a sweet is the first item at a meal. Meetha and Khaara (savoury) items are alternately served at the beginning of any meal. The cuisine has many versions of halwa – ranging from pineapple, khaara to the more popular carrot. Homemade ice creams are very popular too. Patti Samosa, Keema Samosa, Cutlet and Patties are some of the special starters from the cuisine. Mutton is eaten extensively, and in fact, there are few dishes where are adapted from the vegetarian Gujarati cuisine and mutton is added to it. Among the popular main courses, there are Dabba Gosht (a mutton dish cooked in an aluminium container), Khichda and Lagan Ni Seekh (a keema and egg dish prepared on a tawa) and even the humble Kaadi Chawal. The biryanis that they make also deserve a mention, where like Hyderabadi kitchens, they have a kachhi version where meat is completely cooked along with the rice. Bohri cuisine also makes extensive use of mutton offals in their preparations.

Chef Ismail Khan of ITC Maratha Mumbai is currently in Hyderabad curating the "Bohri Food Festival” at Deccan Pavilion. Chef Ismail stressed on the fact that community eating is very important to the Bohras. A complete spread of Bohri delicacies is available as part of the dinner buffet at Deccan Pavilion for a limited period. Here are my picks from the items at the festival.

Khichda: Khichda is a complete meal by itself with wheat, mutton chunks, and lentils being the main ingredients. The Khichda here is boneless while Chef stresses that in Bohri homes the dish is prepared with mutton having bones. The dish is more of comfort food with minimal spices and Chef informed us that unlike Hyderabadi haleem, Khichda uses about 3 different lentils in it.

Bohri Biryani: The biryani is one of the few “kachhi” recipes that I have found. Marinated meat is put on dum along with slightly pre-cooked rice in this dish. The masala is also sauteed before adding to the meat.

Murgi Fry: This can be called Bohri Fried Chicken. Chicken is deep-fried after marinating in rich spices.

Baida Roti: The dish is common to many Islamic cuisines of India. This paratha is stuffed with a mixture of egg, mutton mince, along with coriander, mint, chaat masala and onions, and eaten with tomato or mint chutney.

Gosht Halwan: This mutton preparation is usually prepared with a full mutton leg, but here lamb shanks have been used instead. The gravy mainly has cream and tomato in it.

Apart from these, some of the other items which are served are Paneer Kandi, Veg Roll, Lauki Chana Dal, Pomfret Masala and Gajar Halwa. Chef also mentioned that Dabba Gosht and Lagan Ni Seekh are on the menu, which changes every day.

The Bohri Food Festival is on until 30th June only for dinner at Deccan Pavilion, the all-day dining restaurant at ITC Kakatiya Hyderabad.