Rogan Josh – straight from the valley!

roganjosh

Ingredients

1 kg Mutton, cut into large pieces
1 tbsp Garlic, ground
2-3 large Onions ground into paste
5 tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)
8 Green cardamoms (Chhoti Elaichi)
8 Cloves (Laung)
5 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder, mixed with 1 cup water
¾ cup Ghee
2.5 litres Water
a few strands of saffron, mixed in warm water
½ tsp Black Pepper powder (Kali Mirchi Powder)

Procedure

  1. Fry the onion paste in 3 tbsp Ghee/Oil until golden brown. Keep aside
  2. Boil the mutton in water. Keep removing all the scum with a ladle.
  3. Once the water is clean, add salt and ground garlic. Boil until mutton is half cooked.
  4. Remove the mutton pieces from the water and wash in running cold water. Keep aside.
  5. Strain the water through a fine sieve and pour into a fresh pan.
  6. Bring this water to a boil and add meat to it.
  7. Heat the ghee in another pan. Add cloves (laung) to the hot ghee.
  8. When the cloves begin to crackle, sprinkle around 1 tbsp water and immediately cover the pan. (This has to be done very carefully and quickly) . Keep the pan covered.
  9. Now add green cardamoms, clove flavored ghee, turmeric powder and fried onion paste (prepared in step 1) to the mutton.
  10. Mix and bring to a boil. Boil for approx 10-12 mins on high flame.
  11. Now add the kashmiri red chilli mixed in water to this. Mix well. Bring to a boil.
  12. Cover and cook on simmer until the mutton is totally cooked.
  13. Add the saffron and black pepper powder. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 10 mins.
  14. Keep the pan covered and let the mutton rest for approximately 20-30 minutes before serving.

The totally authentic Kashmiri preparation includes the very Kashmiri ingredient mawal (dried cockscomb flower) heated with around 1 cup water. I was unable to find this in the market and hence omitted this. The recipe was a huge success last night. We had our friends Mukul and Shalini over from Delhi. Lots of the excellent Sula Dindori Shiraz and then sumptuous Rogan Josh with simple steamed rice. Wonderful meal that was completed by some amazing gazak that my father-in-law had ‘procured’ from Lucknow. Mazaa aa gaya – kasam se!

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