Would they eat murgh-musallam with dollops of butter and ghee trickling down chicken thighs, or juicy red meats and shahi paneer in palaces and forts every single day? What would be on the silver or gold thaali when a prince or princess were coughing their wits out? What is that one dish the rajmata made that no one can replicate? Sunday mid-day spoke to some begums about comfort foods from their kitchens that are most dear to their hearts.  

Matar pulao for King Wajid Ali Shah’s scion

Chilkedaar moong ki khichdi and matar pulao,” pat comes Manzilat Fatima’s response when asked about her comfort food. The great-granddaughter of Awadh’s last King, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, Fatima was only 10 years old when her tryst with food began—she helped make a steaming pot of khichdi while living with her father, Kaukab Quder Sajjad Ali Meerza, in Aligarh. He served as faculty at the Aligarh Muslim University’s Urdu department. “My mother and two other siblings had stayed back in Kolkata to safeguard the family home,” says the Kolkata resident. “I managed school, cooking and washing my clothes too. Bawa would say ‘Cook what you can—raw or undercooked—and both of us will eat it instead of ordering out every day.’”