Breaking Bread in Hyderabad
Clockwise from top left, char kona naan, dil naan and kulcha.
Photo courtesy ITC Hotel Kohenur.
The Hyderabad flag is yellow with a white circle, and the circle represents a kulcha. For the uninitiated, a kulcha is a soft leavened flatbread typically eaten with gravy and a variety of curries. Despite being in the South of India, where rice is the staple grain, the breads of Hyderabad have managed to hold their ground.
History Meets Food
Hyderabad is a cauldron of cultures, and the Persians and Turks who invaded in 1739 brought their own. The breads eaten here paint a clear picture of all of these cultural convergences.
Among the distinctive breads are the square-shaped char kona naan, heart-shaped dil naan and round sheermal made from a richer dough with ghee included in the recipe. The most popular bread, however, is seen in a story that is widely believed to be linked with the Nizams who ruled Hyderabad.
The story is that in 1712, Mir Qamar-ud-Din, the governor of Deccan, went to meet his spiritual guide, the Sufi mystic Hazrat Nizamuddin Aurangabadi. Hazrat Nizamuddin offered him kulchas tied in a yellow cloth, and the hungry Mir Qamar-ud-Din ate seven. After his meal, Hazrat Nizamuddin blessed him and prophesied that he would soon be king and that his descendants would rule for seven generations. The Mughal Empire soon collapsed, and Mir Qamar-ud-Din declared independence to lay the foundation of the Asaf Jahi dynasty in Hyderabad. As a means of gratitude to the Sufi saint who had blessed him, Mir Qamar-ud-Din adopted the symbol of the kulcha as part of his royal insignia and the colour yellow to denote the cloth the kulchas were packed in as his official flag. Interestingly, the Asaf Jahi dynasty only lasted seven generations.
“There are a lot of stories of the first Nizam Qamar-ud-din Khan was starving and was saved by a poor kulcha maker and the Nizam honored him by adding a symbolic kulcha in his flag,” Varun MB, executive chef of the Novotel Hyderabad Airport. “Moreover, it is said that kulchas in its various forms were an equalizer for the rich and poor and the Kulcha gained its popularity as it was the most convenient bread that could withstand the weather of Hyderabad, especially the hot summers.”
Mohd Zubair Ali of Hyderabad Food Diaries, who organizes food tours in the old city says, “Nizam was fond of breads and he had asked his kitchen chefs to come up with a bread that could be eaten at any time. It then became famous as the elite families of Hyderabad took a fancy to it. The popularity then saw it being sold to all through many small shops.”
While there has been questions on the veracity of this story, the sixth Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan put all doubts to rest declaring that the circle was indeed the kulcha.
Cuisine Cues
Hyderabad cuisine boasts of qormas (vegetable- or meat-based curry) and qaliya (a meat-based curry that was initially prepared in the royal kitchens of the Delhi sultanate) that team well with bread, especially leavened bread to soak up the gravy/broth/sauce.
“The cuisine of Hyderabad is an evolution of Middle Eastern cuisine that has been influenced by the local Andhra and Telangana cuisine that is high on spice levels,” says Varun. “To balance these heavy spice levels Hyderabad cuisine uses breads that were traditionally made in the Middle East using the ‘khameer’ method, which is cooking breads in a [clay oven] and raising the dough using yeast.”
This makes this bread semi dry so that it can balance the harsh spices in various preparations.
While the ingredients of the dough remain the same, it is the shape crafted by the skilled hands of the maker that eventually gives the bread its name.
“A popular street version of the kulcha in Hyderabad is called the char kona naan, a square shaped kulcha with rudimentary ingredients mostly flour, water and oil,” says Yogen Datta, executive chef at ITC Kohenur. “The kulcha is torn to bits and dropped into a shorba (soup) or a qorma, to soak up the flavorful broth.”
Photo by Bindu Gopal Rao.
Bread Tales
Sajjad Shahid, secretary for the Centre for Deccan Studies and a heritage activist, says, “Hyderabad traditionally was the last place when you came from the North that had the tradition of the tandoor to bake bread, especially kulchas and naans. Kulcha became a symbol of the Hyderabad is semileavened and is smaller in size. A variety called happa kulcha, a larger one, was also said to be popular, but I have not eaten it…. Naan is the fluffier and softer bread whose design and shape was based on the occasion in the old days. The round or star-shaped naans were associated with joyous occasions while the naan shaped like a Betel leaf used to be served when grieving for a departed soul.”
Chef Aamer Jamal, executive sous chef of Dum Pukht Begum’s at the ITC Kohenur also gives an interesting insight into the use of iron tandoors as opposed to clay tandoors.
“The famed naan Munshi Sahab, the last of the house of the rikabdars, or the bakers, have been using an iron tandoor for the past 100 years,” he says, “possibly because these breads are baked at a temperature ranging between 100º [and] 150º centigrade, which is not possible when using a clay pot tandoor. The leavened dough, which is also evidence to the art of baking with sourdough, bakes well at a low temperature and suits metal/iron better. But the real reason I suspect that the means of cooking had been adapted is because of its longevity, as it would have been very difficult to transport a clay pot tandoor when it is still warm after being used while [traveling in a] caravan, without having it damaged.”
Old City Charm
Today, a good place to see and taste this history’s current forms is Hyderabad’s Charminar monument and mosque. It is home to Purana Haveli, an area filled with small, hole-in-the-wall stores that continue to make these flat breads. Khadeem Munshi Naan is among the oldest stores, with a history of over 150 years, as is Abbasi Naan, which sees a continues stream of people to buy the naans.
Sabyasachi Raychaudhuri, food columnist and food enthusiast based in Hyderabad says, “At Purani Haveli, there are several small naan stores and costs Rs 16-18 [$0.21-$0.24] per piece. It is square and has perforations and as Hyderabad has a history of community eating this naan can be shared by four people. Paya nihari (a broth made with goat meat and paya or trotter) is a popular dish into which the charkoni naan is dunked into and eaten. In marriages too these naans are made in the shape of a heart and are called Dil naan (Dil means heart). Many people buy Naans from Munshi and head to the nearby Irani cafes where they order the gravies and eat the naans.”
The circle in the flag of Hyderabad may or may not represent the kulcha but what it certainly represents is that the flag of the cuisine of the city is flying high and every true-blue denizen would bet anything on that.
Hyderabadi Kulcha
Recipe courtesy Varun MB, executive chef, Novotel Hyderabad Airport
Ingredients
½ cup warm water
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cup all-purpose flour, plus ¼ cup for rolling out and shaping
2 tablespoons powdered milk
Salt, to taste
2 teaspoons butter, melted, plus more to taste
Instructions:
Heat tandoor, or heat oven to highest temperature.
Mix water, sugar and yeast, and let rest for 15 minutes for the yeast to activate.
Sift together flour and milk powder together and add it to the yeast mixture, add melted butter to the dough and rest it for 1-2 hours.
Punch the dough to release the air.
On well-floured surface, portion dough and roll to your desired shapes.
Punch in 4 holes in dough.
Bake the rolled-out dough in a hot tandoor.
Apply generous amount of butter over kulcha before serving.
