Shahi Tukra: dessert from a forgotten court

Shahi Tukra means 'royal piece' — and the name is not exaggeration. The dish was invented in the Mughal courts as an answer to a simple problem: what to do with day-old bread.

The bread is fried in pure ghee until it puffs and turns the colour of old gold. Then it is dunked in saffron-cardamom syrup, layered with thick rabri reduced for hours over low flame, and showered with slivered almonds and pistachio.

It is not a dessert you eat with a fork. You eat it slowly, with a small spoon, the way the kings did — and you do not speak while you eat it.