How murabba became a staple winter goodness in India
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)
Summary
Sugar, spices, and fruit—preferably fruit high in pectin—come together to form a preserve called murabba. The fruit is either consumed whole or chopped into bits before being boiled in sugar, a powerful humectant.
The Arabic term murabba (also spelt murraba or murrabo) is used to describe many kinds of achar or jam pickling that are popular in many parts of Iran, Pakistan, and North India. Made with apricots, raw mangoes, plums, sugar, and spices, this traditional treat is similar to a fruit preserve like orange marmalade or apricot conserve.
These days, Georgians also use local fruits like strawberries and cherries to make a drink called murabba. Upon arriving in India, the Gurjs altered the recipe to make use of the native mango, which quickly became a staple in the diets of the state’s inhabitants. Once a year, Georgians prepare murabba and stock their shelves with bottles of the drink all year long. Breakfast in Iran often consists of jams preserved in oil, bread, and tea.
Background on the Murabba and its state-specific popularity
Mango season is drawing to a close. However, there are plenty of ingenious ways to make the most of mangoes year-round thanks to Indian culinary customs. Dried raw mangoes may be used as a sour ingredient in sauces and condiments, or they can be transformed into spicy chutneys and pinching pickles. Or, if something sweet is more your speed, try fresh mangoes cooked in syrupy syrup to produce murabba that is glossy and reminds you of balmy summer nights.
Also Read: How familiar are you with India’s historic villages that spell out the country’s rich heritage
Sugar, spices, and fruit—preferably fruit high in pectin—come together to form a preserve called murabba. The fruit is either consumed whole or chopped into bits before being boiled in sugar, a powerful humectant. This prevents the fruit from dissolving in the syrup when the sugar seeps inside. The last touch is to add aromatics including rose water or Kewra, along with other spices. Delicious whether served dry or doused in syrup, this hybrid of jam and candy is hard to resist.
The history of murabba is intertwined with those of international commerce, conquest, migration, and culinary science. Historically speaking, it is generally accepted that India was the first place where sugarcane was cultivated on a massive scale. As a result of its sweetness and therapeutic properties, sugar was exported to Persia. Jams were probably invented in Sasanian Persia.
Once the Arabs learned how to make sugar in Persia, they took it to the next level by coming up with inventive new methods to cook with sugar, resulting in decadent treats suited for the elite of medieval society. Arabic is where we get the term “murabba” from. A chapter on the making of preserves (murabbayat) and electuaries is contained in Ibn Sayyr Al-10th-century Warrq’s cookbook Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchen (juwarishnat). It includes instructions for making murabba with ingredients including ginger, dates, cucumber with ridges, citron, and more.
Arabs traditionally added medicinal herbs and spices to their murabbas for added health benefits. The native language of this group has a name for fruit preserves called anbijat. Mango comes from the Sanskrit word aamra, which was Arabicised to become the Persian word anbah. Jam, or anbijat as it is more often known, has its origins in the old Indian practice of preserving or storing mangoes in honey, which became very prevalent in the Arab world.
Also Read: The mysterious Bullet Baba temple, where bikers seek good luck for their rides
Babur was asked to battle Ibrahim Lodhi, ruler of Delhi, by Daulat Khan Lodhi, governor of Lahore. The invitation came with half-ripe mangoes soaked in honey. Because of this, Babur saw it as a sign that he should go to India. In his memoirs, Babur praises the mango, writing, “Unripe, they make great sauces, are good likewise preserved in syrup,” amongst more melancholy reflections on the fruit of his own region.
Crafts Brought From Afar
Although the Babur narrative lends credence to the idea that storing fruit in sweet syrup predates the advent of the Mughals, the widespread belief is that India received the practice of producing murabba from Western Asia. A number of other hypotheses have been proposed to explain how murabba got to the subcontinent. It is widely believed that murabba first came in the northern portions of the subcontinent with the tribal people of Gurjistan, modern-day Georgia. Others say the Portuguese deserve the credit. Francis Bernier, a French historian, visited Bengal in the 17th century and wrote of the region’s delicious sweetmeats and confitures, which he attributed to the Portuguese ability in preserving fruit in sugar.
They keep enormous citrons like the ones we have within Europe, along with a special delicate root around the length of amba, sarsaparilla, and pineapples, two popular fruits of India, and little myrobalan plums, which are delicious.
In the 1800s, Muhammedans from the Western side brought the art of morobba to Maldeh (modern-day Malda). Due to the decline of the Islamic Empire, once-thriving delicacies including amra, amarosh, amloki, horitoki, kushmando, shotomuli, sriphol, and tetul have been reduced to a single exponent.
Regardless of its backstory, murabba’s appeal among Mughal epicureans cemented its place in the history of Mughal cuisine. The Mughal badshah’s were always concerned with finding new ways to store their favourite fruits so they could eat them throughout the year. The sweet murabba, prepared with delicious fruits and costly sugar, quickly became an essential feature of the royal feast, joining a variety of spice-laced pickles.
Also Read: With return of peace, Kashmir is a popular destination for wedding clicks.
The British gave the nawab, Mir Zafar, a maund of murabba, which cost him 19 rupees, upon his arrival in Calcutta in 1764.
The abundance of fruit, in addition to royal support, spurred the growth of businesses dedicated to preserving it. Murabba production flourished in modern-day Haryana, with the city of Thaneswar serving as a center for the industry. Mango and myrobalan-based varieties in particular were very popular there. Traditional turunj (citron peel) ka murabba was especially well-known in the cities of Rampur, Rohilkhand, and Lucknow in modern-day Uttar Pradesh. Bidar’s jaiphal murabba was famous across the southern Indian subcontinent.
The Bengali word for “murabba,” morobba, comes from the village of Shiuri, which serves as the district capital for the Birbhum region. The legend is that the morobba tradition in Bengal may be traced back to the nawab of Rajnagar, who, after sampling the fruit confection in Benares, brought back skilled artisans from India. The morobba created from the rhizome of shotomuli, a medicinal herb used in ancient Indian medicine, became Shiuri’s hallmark product.
Cures you can make at home
Additionally, murabbas are also used as regular home treatments. For instance, gastrointestinal problems like diarrhoea and dysentery may be helped by taking bael murabba, while ginger murabba can be used to treat a cough or the common cold, and amla murabba can be used to strengthen the immune system and improve digestion. That’s only the beginning of a long list.
To prepare banana stem (thor) murabba, another unique option, t The fruit must be soaked in water laced with slake lime before being cooked precisely, a process described in murabba. Antibacterial guava and Jamun leaves are used in a few of the recipes.
Kashmiri bumchoonth murbe is made by stewing bumchoonth (quince) with honey and flavours including cardamom, cinnamon, and fresh ginger. The addition of a little saffron to some dishes is also recommended.
Gajar ka murabba, carrots cooked till tender and coated in sugar, is a popular dish in North India during the winter. Murabba, prepared with black carrots that are in season, is delicious when topped with a scoop of fresh malai.
The ash gourd murabba may be the most democratic of all the varieties. Petha, also known as oal ka murabba, is a refined variant of murabba created from ash gourd by marinating the required vegetable with lime before simmering and soaking it in syrup. Petha, made from ash gourds, is said to have originated in Shah Jahan’s kitchen in Agra, however culinary historians dispute this.
The unique flavour of ash gourd murabba and karonda murabba is what sets desi fruit cakes apart. Shahi Zarda (sweet and sticky rice dish) stuffed with nikuti and ash gourd morobba is a popular dessert in Bengali Muslim families during the holiday season. Mahapatra grew raised on homemade morobba, which his mother meticulously cooked over the course of three days using seasonal fruit. Over the course of three days, the fruits would alternate between being simmered and steeped in syrup, with sugar being added in stages. The outcome was stunning.
Tutti frutti, the quintessential Indian treat before liberalization, was really papaya or watermelon rind cubes called murabba that was used in diced fruit cakes, biscuits, and ice cream. Then, there’s the pointed gourd (or parwal) version of murabba, which is filled with a sweetened khoya (or kheer) and sprinkled with nuts like almonds, cashews, and pistachios. Silver warq flecks make it a high-end dessert.
When the last king of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah, invited the prince of Delhi to eat with him, the prince anticipated a lavish murabba. Prince was tricked into eating savoury beef korma by the nawab’s khansama, who presented the meal as a sweet murabba. It is believed that the prince responded by serving a lavish feast of sugar-made pulao, loaves of bread, kormas, biryani, and kebabs.
Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout
3 Mins Read
Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter
KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow
5 Minutes Read
Daily Newsletter
