Featured Post

Great Tastes - Pineapple Crab

Image
  From Ruby's Kitchen Crab in Pineapple Crab in pineapple served with corn pulao, salad and chutney Recipe & Method of Preparation Ingredients for Crab (dressed) -500 g Onion Paste -  2 tbsp Garlic paste - 1 tbsp Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp Green Chilli paste(deseeded) 6 pcs Tomato paste ( deseeded ) 3 tbsp Coriander 1 tsp, Cumin 1/2 tsp, Fennel 1 tsp, cloves 1 tsp, black pepper 1 tsp, sesame seed 1 tsp. (All spices to be dry roasted and powdered) Grated coconut 4 tbsp ( ground to powder form ), Basil leaves 2  tbsp              Cooking method Crabs to be thoroughly washed and then mixed with turmeric and salt. Sauté the onions and garlic ginger paste using 2 tbsp oil in a kadai till the onions turn light brown. Next, place the crabs in for frying. After about 5 min pour the dry roasted masala and coconut tomato paste. Keep frying till it dries. Add salt to taste. This process should be carried out in low flame. Meanwhile, slit the pineapple lengthwise and scoop out the pineapple fl
Post a Comment

Wazwan -Great Tastes!

Great Tastes - Wazwan


Where better to fall in love with wazwan than in Kashmir? In October this year I visited this beautiful valley along with my wife for the first time in my life. Through all the breathtaking natural beauty, the rolling green mountains and valleys and snow peaked horizons, my focus, my greatest love, never waivered from the fantastic culinary tradition of this mountain state. Many things combined to create the mouthwatering wazwan Kashmir is so rightly famed for—from the Mughal past, where Emperors commissioned some of the most romantic baghs (gardens in the world), made as the earthly template of heaven, and were also incurable gourmands who searched far and wide for great chefs and gave them their one-point agenda: create exceptional dishes. Kashmir’s wonderful climate, which allows the growing of a mind boggling variety of beautiful nuts, fruits, vegetables and spices, including saffron, the world’s most expensive spice, played an equally crucial part. And of course, not the least, the wonderful chefs who continue to carry the tradition forward with their immaculate mastery and love for wazwan. It is courtesy these chefs that this blog features recipes of some of the wazwan dishes we enjoyed during our stay (and later recreated and experimented with at home).Wow! Believe me it was a grand success.

The recipes are often long and involved, so you need a fair bit of time to make them – but every bit of that time and effort is worth it. All the recipes are on the basis of 500gm of mutton, which can be substituted with 750-800 gm of chicken.

 Rogan Josh

Preparation stage for Mutton Rogan Josh at home

Mutton Rogan Josh

Rogan Josh and Rice

Ingredients:


Mutton----1/2kg
Hing (Asafetida) – 1/4 teaspoon
Cinnamom (darchini)- 2 pieces (1” each)
Clove (labanga) - 5 pieces
Black cardamom (boro elaich) - 3 pieces
Whole black pepper  1/2 teaspoon
Juice of one whole large onion
corriander powder - 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Ratan Jote  - 1 teaspoon
Kashmiri Mirch powder – 2/3 tsp
Hung Curd   250gm
Fennel  powder - 1teaspoon
Ginger powder - 2 teaspoon
Vegetable oil – 1 tablespoon
Method:

Boil 500 gm mutton in roughly 500ml water till soft and keep the stock and the mutton separately aside. Put a large pan on the gas and add oil. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the whole garam masalas and black pepper. When the spices start popping, add the meat and then slowly add the onion juice. Stir fry on low heat. When meat becomes almost dry and the onion juice has been completely absorbed, add hung curd, coriander powder, cumin powder, fennel powder, asafetida, ginger powder, Kashmiri chili powder and ratanjote.Keep frying on slow heat and when the mutton again becomes almost dry, add salt to taste and two pinches of sugar. Pour the entire mutton stock and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes.
Bon appetite!


 Kashmiri Chicken Curry

Kashmiri Chicken Curry and Rice we  had at Prince,Pahalgam.  On the left of Chicken curry is Mutton Kati, another Wazwan dish.

 Ingredient:


750-800gm chicken
Chopped Onion – Finely chopped from 2 medium sized onions.
Whole dry Red Chilli – 3-4
Kashmiri Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
Garlic chopped - 6 /7 flakes
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
Cloves – 6/7 pcs
Cardamom – 6/7 pcs
Cinnamom – ½ pcs
Cashew nuts – 50 gm
Almonds – 25 gm
Hung Curd – 150/200 ml
Coriander leaves – approx. 1 sprig

 Method :


Grind cashew nuts and almonds with the curd till it forms a paste. Marinate the chicken pieces for about half an hour in the paste. Fry the chopped onions in a kadai till it starts browning. Then add the dry red chilis, chili powder and all the other ingredients except the marinated chicken. Saute for a 3-4 minutes and then add the chicken. Sauté till the chicken pieces take up a deep brownish hue. Then add around 2/3 cups of water, and add salt to taste. Simmer in low heat for about half an hour. Garnish with Coriander leaves.
Bon appetite!

 Gushtaba 


Mutton Gushtaba at Adoor's,Lal Chowk,Srinagar. The ball is cut into four segments.

Ahdoors-a famous Wazwan restaurant located at Srinagar





Inside Ahdoors restaurant








Gushtaba garnished with coriander leaves




  
Ingredients:


Finely minced mutton – 1/2kg
Kashmiri Garam Masala- 2/3 tsp
Kashmiri chili powder – 2/3 tsp
Fennel seed – 1tsp
Ginger powder – 1 tsp
Whole black pepper – 2/3 tsp
Cardamom – 4/5 pcs
Coriander powder – 1tbsp
Khoya – half cup
Hung Curd – half cup
Milk – approx. one cup
Ghee – 2 tbsp

Method:


Make a smooth paste with the Kashmiri chili powder, fennel powder, ginger powder, coriander powder, garam masala, minced meat, a little curd and ghee. Then form balls of around 2 inch diameter. Heat the ghee and add Khoya, curd, garam masala and salt to taste. Pour the milk after sometime and then add the Koftas. Simmer in low heat till the liquid evaporates partly. Each Gustabha meat ball is quite large in size and soft after it is cooked.Suggest slice each ball into four equal segments to savor it with plain rice or tandoori roti or naan.
Bon appetite!


Rista
Mutton Rista at Gulmarg. The size of Rista is almost same as a standard Nargisi Kofta

 Ingredients:


Ratan Jote – 1 cup
Saffron soaked in water – approx. one cup
Kashmiri Chilli powder – ½ tsp
Ginger powder – 1 tsp
Cardamom – 4/5 pcs
Fennel powder – 2tsp
Cinnamon sticks – 2/3 pcs
Cloves – 3/ 4 pcs
Hing – roughly a pinch
Bay leaves

Method :

Make around one inch balls from minced meat after mixing cardamom powder, a little salt and one tsp ginger powder. When the oil gets heated, add all the ingredients except the koftas, saffron and ratan jote. After a few minutes add the keema balls and stir fry gently till the Koftas turn reddish brown. Then add saffron soaked in water and a cup of Ratan jote. Add salt to taste and simmer on low heat for around ten minutes. The Koftas after cooking should have a characteristic rubbery bite in contrast to Gustabha where the meat balls are soft and melts in the mouth. Best served with plain rice or roti.
Bon appetite!




Comments

Basit Yousuf said…
that's nice, have you ever been in Kashmir?
16 June 2017 at 11:08
Mark Walker said…
You have provided very useful information. This will be very helpful. we are also providing information about sports kindly visit our website for more information and suggest us about our article which we have write on our website.
23 April 2023 at 18:30
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Florence

Image
FLORENCE     Florence –  the capital of the Tuscany region and the cradle of Renaissance   We opted for Flix Bus while traveling from Venice to Florence. The road journey takes about three and a half-hour. In Florence, it terminates at the rear end of Santa Maria Novella (SMN) train station. One of Italy’s busiest stations, it got its name from Santa Maria Novella Church just across the plaza from the main entrance. We debarked at the station and refreshed ourselves at McDonald's before hiring a cab for our hotel. Florence, popularly known as ‘Firenze’ by the Italians, is located in central Italy. This dreamy city with a romantic name is the regional capital of the lovely Tuscany region.   Columbus Hotel, where we stayed, is located in Lugarno District. We always prefer to book our hotels through Booking.com as we always land up getting good hotels at good locations. Despite being a little away from the heart of the city and Santa Maria Novella station
Read more

A Roman Holiday

Image
ROMA - Ancient Rome & Papal Rome Imagine going back 2000 years in time and space while standing on the stone floor inside a colossal amphitheater. Amidst thousands of Roman spectators. The booms of drums reverberate as the ceremonial parade enters the stadium. After saying ‘Ave imperator; morituri te salutant’ (those who are about to die salute you) to the Emperor, the gladiatorial combat begins. The crowd shouts jeers and throw their hands up in excitement. 60000 spectators? Like the excitement at Eden Gardens in Calcutta while watching a Cricket match. The gestures, the excitement, the uproar may be different from our present-day Mexican waves. But how does that matter? After all, a stadium is a venue for entertainment – be it the bloodiest sport in the history of mankind. And how the Romans loved watching violence and killings. Historians remain befuddled as to how Romans who are regarded as the precursor of human civilization could have indulged and e
Read more

Phnom Penh - from Killing Fields to a Humane City

Image
Phnom Penh-a great Cambodian City Time began with the Big Bang about 13.77 billion years ago. Our universe originated and began expanding from Day One which included the formation of our planet Earth. But not so long ago, on 17th April 1975, a Cambodian school teacher Pol Pot (who had been to Paris on scholarship to study Radio Electronics and returned to Cambodia to take up a teaching assignment) declared Year Zero in Cambodia. That was in line with the concept of Year One declared during the French Revolution. The idea was to discard and destroy all culture and traditions within the society and bring in revolutionary culture. President Lon Nol fled Cambodia on 1st April 1975 following a bloody civil war that lasted for five years. And on 17th April 1975, a swarm of locusts in the guise of Khmer Rouge descended on Phnom Penh to devour teachers, artists, and intelligentsia of the Cambodian capital. Pol Pot’s intention was to eliminate threats to his idea of agrarian society. That wa
Read more

Italy's Floating City

Image
Vienna to Venice On the last day of our stay at Vienna, we had moved to an apartment closer to Wien Meidling Railway station. This was because we had to catch a train for Venice, early the next morning. The beauty of the ‘La Petit’ apartment was that our window opened out to the rail station, a tram terminus, metro, and a bus stop. After breakfast and a little shopping at the supermarket next to the metro station, we rode a tram to Karlsplatz. From there we walked down towards the famous Kunsthistorishes Museum (Art History Museum). In short – Kuntz Museum. A refreshingly pleasant walk in this beautiful European city with the mesmerizing sight of imposing buildings on both sides of the road glistening under the clear daylight. Built in 1891, near the Imperial Palace, the imposing façade of the museum is a treat to watch. The museum houses extensive collections of the Imperial Family ranging from Artworks of Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque era.
Read more