pasanda

Pasanda comes from the Persian-Urdu word pasand, meaning liked, chosen, or pleasing, from the Persian verb pasandīdan, to approve or to favor. In Mughal culinary vocabulary, a pasanda was the favored cut: the flat, tender inner leg of lamb, tenderized by pounding and marinated in yogurt and spices until the fibers loosened. The name was both description and endorsement, the kitchen's way of declaring that this was the meat the court preferred.

The Ain-i-Akbari, the administrative compendium of Emperor Akbar's court completed by the historian Abu'l-Fazl in 1590, records a preparation called gosht-e-pasanda among the royal kitchen entries. The technique of flattening meat before cooking came from Persian culinary practice, where pounding allowed the marinade to penetrate quickly. In the Mughal version, the flattened meat was braised in a sauce of cream, ground almonds or cashews, and saffron. This slow braise became the template for all pasanda recipes that followed.

Regional courts developed their own variants after the Mughal empire's weakening in the 18th century. Lucknow's Nawabi cooks made a lighter preparation with more cream and less of the heavy aromatic base. Hyderabad's Nizam cooks added dried plums for tartness, shifting the flavor profile toward sweet-sour. By the 19th century, pasanda appeared in Anglo-Indian cookbooks aimed at colonial households as a recipe that could be adapted with available ingredients.

British Indian restaurants in the 1970s adopted pasanda as a menu category. Mrs. Beeton had called it pussanda in her 1861 Book of Household Management, describing it as a mild lamb preparation. In restaurant menus across Britain, pasanda became shorthand for a mild, cream-based curry suited to cautious diners. The word that once meant the emperor's choice now meant a dish chosen by those who prefer not to be challenged.