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India is a land known for a wide variety of sweets from the Modaks of Western India to the Rasagollas and Pithas of Eastern India, from the Halwas of North India to the Payasams of South India. And yet, you won’t easily come across the unique sweet dish called Badam Ki Jali beyond Hyderabad—unless locals and celebrities introduce you to it. As the name suggests, Badam Ki Jali is a tray of specially crafted barfi (of sorts) made of almonds and cashews which has patterns, calligraphy and intricate designs on it. And the Hussaini family from Hyderabad has been keeping the legacy of this sweet treat intact for four generations now.
It is believed that Badam Ki Jali is a sweet dish that originates in the old Madras (current day Chennai) areas of Tamil Nadu. In the 1960s, Syeda Aijaz Unnisa, whose ancestors were from Madras, married into a Hyderabadi family and brought the recipe to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana capital. She then taught the recipe to Syed Nafees Hussaini, her daughter-in-law, who decided to start a business based on Badam Ki Jali. Syed Nafees Hussaini then passed on the recipe to Syed Nasreen Hussaini, her daughter-in-law, and Aisha Jahan Hussaini, her granddaughter-in-law.
So, over four generations, the recipe of Badam Ki Jali has been passed down like a sweet legacy and the family has, by now, created a very successful business out of it. From a home-run business to a store in Sultanpur, the legacy of Badam Ki Jali is now being carried by Aisha Jahan Hussaini, her husband Syed Aliuddin Hussaini and brother-in-law, Syed Saif Hussaini. Slurrp caught up with Aisha Jahan to understand more about Badam Ki Jali and their family-run sweets business, The Imperial Sweet House. Here’s all she had to say.
Marrying Into The Legacy Of Badam Ki Jali
Aisha explains how this family-run Badam Ki Jali business started with Syeda Aijaz Unnisa, who used to make the sweet dish at home for special occasions. Once her talent for the dish was recognised, she taught the recipe to her daughter-in-law Syed Nafees, who partnered with her husband, Syed Mohammed Hussaini to expand it as a business. “They had one son, so she could take the time to start the business that was then called Badam Ki Jali Sweets,” Aisha explains. It was only with Syed Nafees’ daughter-in-law, Syed Nasreen Hussaini and her husband, Syed Ali Abbas Hussaini, that the family-run home business was turned into one with a store in Sultanpur.
“I got married in 2016,” Aisha says. “I used to sit with my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law and learn how to make Badam Ki Jali from them. My husband was in Dubai and I thought this was the opportunity for me to learn something new and contribute. These heritage recipes, it takes a lot of time to understand how to make them even though they look simple. My mother-in-law taught me how to taste the almonds and cashews and pick the right suppliers for the dish. We get the almonds and cashews from the Begum bazaar shops where we have trusted suppliers. Even the workers here have been around for many years. They showed me how to select the right quality of nuts and how to do the stamps and cut-outs on the Jali.”
Once she officially joined the Badam Ki Jali makers and started contributing to The Imperial Sweet House, Aisha says she started innovating based on her own ideas too. “After my mother-in-law, my husband and I continued the business and the art of Badam Ki Jali. Right now, Badam Ki Jali has become very famous as a delicacy from Hyderabad. My brother-in-law, Syed Saif Hussaini, helped us set up on social media so we could expand. My husband looks after the financials and deliveries. The workload for the three of us is shared, so we are managing it well. I do the message writing, Urdu scripting, designing of the trays of Badam Ki Jali. My grandmother-in-law also helps us from time to time if the orders are heavy.”
Understanding Badam Ki Jali: How This Hyderabadi Delicacy Is Made
Aisha, who is now an expert at making Badam Ki Jali, explains how the sweet dish unique to Hyderabad is made from scratch. “Only three ingredients are used to make Badam Ki Jali, which are almonds, cashews and sugar,” she explains. “First, the almonds are soaked and peeled. The nuts are then ground into a paste and then it is cooked with sugar to make a soft dough that is white or off-white in colour. We make a layer or Jali of the dough, which resembles Marzipan. This Jali is then cut out by hand to make patterns and shapes. Nowadays, even edible colours are added to the Badam Ki Jali dough to make the floral patterns more attractive.”
In an era when food deliveries have become easier and social media has brought the world closer, Aisha says that their small family-run business based on Badam Ki Jali is thriving now. “Badam Ki Jali is a regular sweet, but we make special designs for special occasions like weddings, naming ceremonies, baby showers, for Eid and Diwali also,” she says. “We have also sent specially designed Badam Ki Jali to many celebrities, including Neha Sharma and Mohammed Siraj. One of our relatives is friends with Dia Mirza and they ordered a special tray of Badam Ki Jali for her wedding to Vaibhav Rekhi. I myself made her tray with her husband’s name designed with Badam Ki Jali shaped as roses and hearts.”
The Times, They Are A Changing: Badam Ki Jali Today
Aisha Jahan explains how over the four generations since Syeda Aijaz Unnisa, Badam Ki Jali has not only sweetened the Hussaini family’s lives but also shown the current generation how constant efforts over decades can help keep the legacy of the dish as well as their ancestors intact. “When Syed Nafees Hussaini started the business with her husband, they used to deliver Badam Ki Jali on cycles,” she reminisces. “At that time, very few people knew about Badam Ki Jali, but then people saw the trays at weddings and other occasions, the business spread through word of mouth. My grandmother-in-law started getting orders on the phone for special occasions.”
The business, she explains, has expanded generation after generation, starting from word of mouth to landline phones to now, social media. “We have also done many exhibitions to help people get a taste and familiarise themselves with it,” Aisha says, explaining further what dishes The Imperial Sweet House creates today. “We make two types of Badam Ki Jali: one is with cashews and almonds mixed together, and the other is made purely with almonds. Apart from Badam Ki Jali, we also have Puran Puri and Badami Maske Ke Lauz. These are also quite popular. We want to expand the business and keep the shop too, so we are working on it.”
To sum up their journey with Badam Ki Jali and its legacy, Aisha explains that while people mostly notice the fact that the recipe’s legacy has been passed down the generations to women by women, the men of the family have always had a huge role to play. “This is a family business, and while the recipe for the dish itself is handed down the generations from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, without our husbands, we wouldn’t be where we are,” she explains. “The men in this family have always supported us and been our backbone.”
