Kashmiri Cooking

PeakXV

They look exactly like them, the taste description & consistency described in the wiki article, to my recollection & as per the ingredients mentioned - seems right. If after glazing, the ones pictures in the link provided, were to be rolled in a spicy, nutty layering - they might be 100% alike.

Thank you Fatima, I do believe you've solved the mystery - your prize is to source the best bakery for these treats & then overnight courier 10 dozen to my address in Canada.

...just kidding.

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capt_mahajan

balushahi? like doughnut?

Never thought of it that way. Still don't

but well done, luckyfatima.

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PeakXV

That's them for sure, some shaped like a conventional doughnut with pronounced hole, others more rounder with a smaller, less pronounced indentation ..... found the following examples - served with nuts:


http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issue...-BALUSHAHI.jpg

http://blog.wacky5.com/wp-content/up...lu-shahi-1.jpg



from: http://indiantikka.blogspot.com/2008/03/balushahi.html


Googling a bit, it looks like it has origins in Bihar. They also mention it in the same breath as Jalabi. Jalabi are much too sweet & not in the same class as the sweets I sampled once upon a time. Homemade & store bought makes a huge first impression difference too though .....

sunnykashmir

princess do you have recipe of chicken hareesa?

capt_mahajan

a google search for 'balushahi indian donut' throws up 2000 odd hits with balushahi right on top

Also, a little lower, the 'vada'
(well, it looks like one)

PeakXV

I think the Kashmiri angle threw everybody. Here's what happened, the Kashmiri family must have had hired a Bihari pastry chef who specialized in these treats. When does the next train to Patna leave?

Ms Princess W

Ooh, those balushahi look yummy. Must find/make some. Very glad that Peak's mystery is solved at last!!!

My in-laws make pink (salt) tea a lot. I don't have a clue...I don't like it much, unless it's very cold out. I can't even make decent kahva

I think of all dishes in Kashmir, Roghan Josh confounds me the most. In searching for recipes way back when, I found so many very VERY different ones that I was left wondering which is the real Roghan Josh? So my hubby made some and it was nothing like what I'd found in my recipe searches. When I came to Kashmir and had the dish at family members' homes, it tasted like my hubby's version. No tomatoes go in it, it's got a distinct fennel/mint flavour with a medium amount of spice in a curd based sauce.

There's the red tinge to the sauce in some I've had, no red in others. I believe that would depend on the type of chili used - my husband and his sisters use green (simla?) chilis while my sister-in-law goes with the lal mirch plus cockscomb, giving it a very firey red colour. In any event, I've gotten the technique down pat (I think) for my hubby's family's version of Roghan Josh. I don't know if it's authentic or not, honestly (depends on who you ask!) but it's sure delicious!

Sunny, I haven't yet asked anyone for a good Chicken Hareesa recipe, but I should. Do you have one? I tried making it from a recipe I found online and it was ok, nothing spectacular

My husband is coming home today after a month in the US. He's missed the tastes of home dreadfully, so I said I'd fix his favorites for dinner tonight. On the menu is:

Roghan Josh
Daniwal Korma <--- PLEASE, does someone know how to make this GOOD?
Chicken something or other??? He said RED spicy chicken curry
Mattar Paneer

I'm going to be busy today....

luckyfatima

Ms Princess if you can get your hands on a copy of Madhur Jaffrey's A Taste of India, it is a regional cookbook and has a good Kashmir section. It has dhaniwal qorma as well as marzwangan qorma (red chile qorma) and a few other good ones. I know the book is available in India.


Peak: Glad the mystery is solved for you. I don't think this is particularly a Bihari origin sweet, though.

Princess: I cannot get cockscomb but, can you please post your in-law's family recipe anyway?

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Ms Princess W

My niece makes awesome Dhaniwal korma but I cannot reach her on the phone right now. I did look around and found Madhur's recipe using chicken. I can adapt this recipe to mutton, though. I'll give it a try

I can post my roghan josh recipe here. It's hard, because I never measure anything when I cook so adapting it to an actual written recipe is a challenge, but I'll give it my best effort

Ms Princess W

1 kg lamb, bone in

1/2 to 1 cup Mustard Oil

3 Onions, sliced thin

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 1/2 cup plain curd, beaten to a liquid consistency

3 black cardamom pods

4 whole cloves

1" stick cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp red chili powder (if you want the red colour & more spice)

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

2 green chilis, minced

1 Tablespoon dried mint leaves

2 teaspoons fennel, ground (can use whole seeds if you prefer)

fresh coriander leaves, chopped


First, boil the lamb in a kettle of water seasoned with salt and one of the black cardamoms. Boil about 10 minutes and remove. Reserve water.

In pressure cooker, fry onions in oil until golden brown and somewhat crisp. Remove and grind the onions with the garlic and ginger to form a paste. Add cloves and minced chilis to the hot oil and fry about 30 seconds. Add lamb to the oil and brown just a little, then add the rest of the seasonings and about 2 cups of the reserved lamb broth. Place the cover on the pressure cooker and let it come to full pressure. After 3 or 4 "whistles", reduce heat and continue to cook for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cooker cool naturally before opening.

Check the tenderess of the meat. If it comes off the bone easily, it is ready. Add the beaten curd to the pot and stir well. Let the Roghan Josh simmer on very low about 1/2 hour to blend the flavors, then let stand about 1 to 2 hours, or better yet, refrigerate, then heat n serve the next day, topped with the coriander leaves.

jyotirmoy

The Kashmiri red chily powder also known as Degi Mirch has more colour than heat, more like Paprika. Your Rogan Josh will look bright coloured if you use this.
After all the name of this preparation a Persian name glorifies its colour.

luckyfatima

"Roghan" means ghee/oil/butter/fat and "josh" means like bubbling hot with excitement...so it is like "hot bubbling fat."

Here we get "Kashmiri mirch" both whole and powdered, but it has a wrinkled skin and I read before that the one with wrinkled skin is not true Kashmiri mirch, the true Kashmiri chile has a smooth skin. I use what is labeled as Kashmiri mirch in my daily cooking anyway, but was thinking to add in paprika to get good red color without amplifying the mirch factor too much.

Princess, actually your roghan josh recipe looks just like Madhur Jaffrey's Dhaniwal Qorma recipe, except there is no mint and no fennel, and a large amount of chopped fresh coriander is added at about the same stage you add in the yoghurt to cook it through.

I will give your recipe a try hopefully sometime later this week. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Ms Princess W

I thought the same thing - very similar recipes. I never knew what "Roghan Josh" meant, so thanks for that bit of trivia

The mint/fennel flavour is very distinctive in the dish, with sort of an undertone of spice, nothing overpowering. I cooked both Dhaniwal Korma and Roghan Josh today. Might be a little bit of overkill but that's what the man wanted!

I like the red colour when my SIL makes hers; very vivid. I made mine without it this time.

PeakXV

A quick Google points to 'it' being Mughal/North Indian in origin with the more 'famous' quality emerging from Harnaut, Bihar. Nalanda district having had a rich cultural history with lots of foreign influence. That's all I could find. Do you have specific information otherwise?

sunnykashmir

though being a kashmiri i havent tried all the wazwan so would ask wife to learn something from you as we dont eat halal meat,
will ask my wife to try this recipe.