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Though not an Indian custom, Valentine’s Day has become a very integral part of the Indian custom. TV commercials, newspaper ads 14th of February has turned into another day of celebration and festivities. Gifting red roses and chocolate have become the new custom. Only on 14th Feb 189 million stems of red roses are sold in US in comparison to 1.2 billion throughout the year.
It’s just not only among the teens; the festivities have even sipped into the minds of the older generation. Just as an example, my mom deliberately took off her nose pin this morning to show my father that she urgently requires a new nose pin. So, whats your Valentine’s Day gift this year. Share it with us.
When there are festivities, food cannot be far off. So, here at Cook Like Bong, we are celebrating this V-Day with an authentic Kashmiri style Rogan Josh shared by Debjani, our guest author. The name of the dish comes from rogan or roghan meaning color and josh meaning passion – what better way than to have this dish filled with colour and passion on the day of love.
Rogan Josh is generally made of lamb, but mutton rogan josh is a very popular dish throughout India. It was brought to Kashmir by the Mughals, and outside Kashmir it’s generally prepared in its commercial form.
The authentic Kashmiri rogan josh gets its colour from two things – the Kashmiri red chilli which is mild, yet gives a great colour to the food, and the dried Muawal flower, which grows locally in Kashmir or the Ratanjot, a root hat infuses the color .
Mutton Rogan Josh
- Mutton,cut into 1½ inch pieces 500 grams
- Mustard Oil 4 tablespoons
- 1 1/4 teaspoon Asafoetida/Hing
- 2 one-inch sticks Cinnamon/ Cassia Bark
- 6-8 Cloves
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 medium red onion
- 4-6 inch piece Root ginger
- 8 Garlic cloves
- 5-6 Black peppercorns
- 4 Black cardamoms
- Kashmiri red chilli powder 1 tablespoon ( soak 3 Kashmiri chilies and make a paste along with the fennel seeds)
- 2 teaspoons fennel powder
- 1 tablespoon Dry ginger powder
- 1 tablespoon Coriander powder
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup whisked Yogurt
- Make a paste of onion, garlic and ginger.
- Heat oil in a thick-bottomed pan.
- Add asafoetida, cinnamon, cloves, black peppercorns and black cardamoms.
- Sauté till fragrant.
- Add the onion and ginger-garlic paste. Stir fry.
- Add lamb pieces and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly till lamb pieces turn a nice reddish brown color.
- This may take twelve to fifteen minutes. Make sure to stir constantly and scrape all the sediments from the bottom of the pan, so that the meat doesn\'t get stuck to the bottom of the pan.
- Sprinkle a little water and continue cooking for twelve to fifteen minutes more on low heat.
- Add Kashmiri red chilli powder, fennel powder, dry ginger powder, coriander powder and salt.
- Add whipped yogurt and two cups of water.
- Cook, covered, till lamb is tender, stirring occasionally.
- Slow cook the lamb, checking for the doneness from time to time.
- Garnish with cilantro.
- Serve hot.
Hot Tips – Ideally its served with warm white rice, but you can also serve it with paratha or chapati.As this is a slow cooing preparation, its better not to use a pressure cooker to tenderize the meat. While adding the spices, you can first add the Kashmiri chili and fennel paste, stir it for sometime and then add the other spices.
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Very good recipe . Have tried yesterday . Enjoyed lot.
Thanks Soubhik for your comment
Should the ingredients for 1 kg. meat be doubled in quantity?
Yes, Sanjit when you are preparing 1Kg mutton just double the quantities of the ingredients, but the chili powder you need to adjust according to your taste. 2 tablespoon would be could spicy.
Wow…love it…it’s flavor rich, tasteful, aromatic and yum….
Lovely recipe…will surely try it out soon 🙂
and like the look of your blog very much…
Sohini
Thank you, Sohini for sharing your comments here.