Roghan Josh

Roghan Josh, also spelled Rogan josh, is a well known Kashmiri dish.  From Persian, "roghan" means ghee/oil/butter/fat and "josh" means like bubbling hot with excitement...so it is like "hot bubbling fat." What a fatilicious name!


There are a lot of roghan josh recipes on the internet. Most are faux Mughlai/Punjabi restaurant style recipes and contain cream and tomatoes, neither of which are found in Kashmiri Pandit or Waza Roghan Josh recipes. It is actually pretty hard to google up an authentic recipe without some digging and research. For some basic info on Kashmiri Pandit and Wazwan cuisines, see here.


I wanted to share two recipes for Roghan Josh that I acquired after a lot of hunting online. I have tried them both multiple times, and they are both good. One is a Pandit recipe, and the other a Muslim recipe.


The Pandit style recipe I found at the another subcontinent forums from poster Suman. (post #1) (The Another Subcontinent forums has a wealth of anecdotal South Asia food information, tips and recipes. Every once in a while I just sit there and read food threads for a hour.) 


Rogan Josh.


(somehow blogger is not letting me link above anymore so I linked the source here)

1 llb lamb, cut into small pieces
couple tblsp mustard oil or substitute.

4 cloves/laung
1" dalchini/cinnamon
2 black cardamom
couple small bay leaves

1/4 tsp hing
2 tsp saunf/fennel
1/2 tsp sonth/dry ginger powder
salt, chilly powder

4 powdered green cardamon
1/4 cup yogurt, beaten till smooth.

Saffron optional.

In the hot oil put in the whole spices(cloves, cinammon, cardamom, bay leaves) and stir for a few seconds till fragrant. Add the lamb and the hing and fry on fairly high heat until speckled with brown. This should take between 5 to eight minutes. Add the saunf, saunth, chilly powder, and salt and fry for a minute or so. It should be pretty fragrant by now.

Reduce the heat, add the beaten yogurt and powdered green cardamom and keep stirring till it comes to a boil. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover and cook till done. In LA the lamb takes about 30 minutes to cook, so adjust cooking time and the quantity of water.

Saffron can be added when done and simmered for a couple minutes more.

The resulting gravy should have body, should not be watery and is served with rice.

A green vege, stir fried with a tadka of a pinch each of hing and clove powder plus a whack of chilly goes very well with this.


I pretty much followed Suman's recipe to a T, but I used bone-in mutton and cooked for 1 and a half hours till tender, not 30 mins, I used sunflower oil (I don't like the taste of mustard oil), I powdered the saunf/fennel seeds and beat it in with the powdered cardamom, and I did not use saffron. It came out very nicely.


The second recipe was posted here by a Ms Princess W in the India Mike food section (post #55) by a US origin lady married to a Kashmiri Muslim and living in Indian Kashmir. At the time she posted, she was learning Kashmiri Muslim style cooking from her in-laws. I also recommend that you read through that entire thread as she and other posters share more information on Roghan Josh and Kashmiri cuisine.


Roghan Josh


(once again fickle blogger is ignoring my instructions to hyperlink above, so source is linked here)


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.


Here is my picture of the rendition of Ms Princess W's recipe.

 I used chaampen or mutton chops rather than botees as that is what I had on hand that day. Nice hot fat floating on the top, eh? And check out the red color! I did not pressure cook the lamb but cooked it stove top. Ms Princess W doesn't mention cockscomb here, but I also added paprika instead of more red chile powder to imitate the color of Kashmiri cockscomb flower, which obviously is hard to procure outside of Kashmir. Paprika is a good option instead of extra red chile powder since obviously the heat factor would be uncharacteristically amplified by extra chile. I also omitted the dried mint because I didn't have any. And just like with Suman's recipe, I forwent the traditional mustard oil simply because I am not a huge fan of the taste. It was a nice dish, and with the Kashmiri waza method of adding seasonings to a yakhni/broth and perfuming a dish with fennel, this dish was very distinct from my typical daily tamaatar-pyaaz Pakistani saalans.


I often create my own recipes by adapting and combining recipes from friends, in-laws, books and online, and altering methods and ingredients slightly to suit my taste and cooking style. Here you have two simple and authentic recipes that you can do the same with.

Where Do You Store Your Masalas?

I have been eyeballing this pricy Tablefare SpiceCare Interlocking spice storage system for a while, but haven't found any in depth unaffiliated reviews of the product. I asked about it on my favorite foodie website, Chowhound, but no one responded to my query. It looks great, though. I am afraid it will cause fumbling and I will have to unlock a lot of stuff all at once to get out a few spices. The SpiceCare thingy was recommended by Chef Bosco Pereira on twitter (@Chef_Bosco), so that's how I found out about it, and I trust what Chef Bosco says a lot. (His tweet soliloquies on South and South East Asian food are awesome. His food-knowledge is as vast as the Seven Seas!) But I'd still like to read some feedback on the product before investing in it.

In my daily cooking, I usually cook the typical dishes of my husband's particular community. For those dishes, I keep the fast moving standard every-dish spices in a masala dabba.  Spices I use less frequently are in clear plastic jars with lids (the little jars are about 16 oz in size, I'd say). They are just all stuffed in the cupboard. There are some I keep at the front of the cupboard, but I step up on a step-stool to dig around for others. I have a friend who keeps all of her spices in a clear plastic jars but keeps the jars in clear plastic stackable storage drawers so the spices are easy to see and take out. Awesome idea! But never got around to doing that. I should really do that, I suppose.

The spices I purchase usually come in large plastic baggies. Here is what I do with the plastic spice baggies: If it is a fast moving spice for me like red chile powder or cumin, I pour some in a plastic jar, some in the masala dabba cup, and then use the tiny bit left over in the baggie first. If it is a very slow moving spice, I pour it into the plastic container, and I toss out the few tablespoons which are left over at the bottom because I know it will go stale before I use it all. It is a waste, I know, but I buy the spices cheaply at the Indian market, so no worries. Before I started tossing them out, I kept the left over amount in its baggie closed with a rubber band, but it would just sit in my cupboard for ages and I would end up throwing it away anyway. For Shan masalas, I mostly use only a couple of teaspoons at a time, so I keep them in the boxes in which they come. For rice and chapati ata, I have them in giant clear plastic locking storage boxes, and for daals, I have them in one drawer in medium sized lockable clear plastic bins.

What about you? If you are a spicy home cook, how do you store your masalas? Any recommendations?

Fried Cassava Wedges or Yuca Frita Desi Style

Cassava goes by many names. In the US, it is widely known in English by its Spanish name, yuca.  (Sometimes spelled yucca, but not to be confused with the spiky perennial decorative plant yucca, so I will spell it yuca here.) Yuca is a delicious, starchy, potato-like tuber with its own distinct taste. In terms of subcontinental cooking, yuca is more of a South Indian ingredient. In the North, it is only widely known through its by-product, sabudana, or tapioca pearls, which are used in a variety of preparations.  Note that sabudana and sago/sagudana are not the same thing, though many people mistakenly think that they are. They are actually made from different sources. Barring a few Gujarati origin East African friends who I have observed grew up eating cassava as mogo (from Kiswahili mhogo), I am not familiar with it being used much in the North of the subcontinent. Please let me know if I am mistaken about this, because I am always interested in new regional culinary information and recipes. Yuca is eaten in South India in a variety of forms. In some parts of South India, yuca is cut into wedges and cooked in wet gravy preparations (aka 'curry'). Cassava pops up in many cuisines from the Americas to Africa to Asia, but in terms of subcontinental flavor, there are also a lot of diasporic desi recipes for cassava, from Trinidad to Fiji. It is well worth looking into recipes to expand your repertoire with this simple yet delicious tuber. Cassava leaves are also delectable, and can be cooked like any saag.

I enjoy fried yuca, and I wanted to share with you how I make it at home.

Ingredients: yuca, chaat masala (I use Shan brand), roasted red chile powder, roasted cumin powder, and salt. I am not specifying the quantity of powdered spice, but I'd say it is a pinch of each spice per yuca that you use. (I seem to love to deep fry things and sprinkle them with chaat masala. I love chaat masala!)

Put some water in a deep pot and bring it to a boil. Take your yuca and cut off both ends of it. Cut it in half latitudinally. Then use your knife to peel off the skin. (The skin contains toxins that you don't want to eat.) Once the two halves of yuca are peeled, cut them down the middle length wise, and remove the long inner fiber if there is one. Don't worry if your yuca has any purple coloring. That is normal. Submerge your yuca in water and strain it a few times, rinsing away the excess starch.

Once your water is boiling, put the yuca pieces in it. Allow the yuca to boil for about 25 minutes. The yuca should be cooked completely, and you should be able to break it apart into starchy shards if you press it down. There will be visible ridges in your cooked yuca, and these will create a delicious mouth texture when crisp fried, plus the seasoning will sink into the crevices. Yum! I digress.

You have removed your yuca from the boiling water. Set it on a paper towel to dry. Allow it to cool completely and air dry very well. I sometimes allow it to cool, refrigerate it, then bring it to room temperature and fry it the next day. That is also an option if you don't have time to complete the process all at once.

Once your yuca is air dried and at room temperature, cut it into wedges. You can make them larger or smaller depending on your own preference, since the inside of the yuca is already cooking and your goal is simply to crisp fry the exterior rather than to cook through the tuber. Heat some oil in a pan, and fry it till lightly golden in color and crispy. You may shallow fry or deep fry at your discretion. Take care not to over-fry it, as it will dry out and become dense. Ideally, each yuca wedge should have a very crispy exterior and a soft, moist interior.

Set your yuca fries on a paper towel for a few moments to remove some of the oil.

Now here is a trick: Take a brown paper sack. (Do not use a plastic bag as steam will be trapped inside and your yuca will lose crispness.) Pour in a dash each of all of the dried masalas and salt. Use more or less masala depending on how much yuca you have and how spicy you want your fries to be. Put the yuca fries in the paper sack, roll it closed, then shake shake shake your bag to evenly distribute the salt and masala.

Oila, yuca in hot and tangy chaat masala!

Serve alone, with tamarind chutney, or ketchup. This can be a snack, or a side dish with a meal. My kids love spicy yuca fries, too.

Qorma Biryani of Lucknow

My husband's mother's family is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. This city was a seat of North Indian Muslim culture and the Urdu language, and this is a great source of pride to my mother-in-law. Qorma biriani is the preferred type of biriani in their family home. Qorma biriani is not particularly spicy. Its virtue comes from the richness of the ingredients, the warmth of the garam masalas, and the savory red-brown fried onions. The toasted ground white poppy seed, or *khashkhaash (khaskhas in Hindi), and the mace and nutmeg are also characteristic seasonings of Lucknavi cuisine.

The onions give a lot of flavor, but be light handed with them in layering with the biryani rice. You don't want an overpowering fried onion flavor hiding the delicious yet delicate qorma flavor. Traditionally, only the highest quality Dehra Doon basmati rice would be used, so you must use the best basmati rice you can find. I like Tilda as well as India Gate brand.

*If you are not familiar with white poppy seed, here is how to use it. Purchase it at your local Indo-Pak market. Black poppy seed is NOT an acceptable substitute. Heat a pan to medium-high, pour in white poppy seeds and toast until they become a darker color and you can smell their roasted nutty fragrance. Once toasted, set on a plate and allow to cool. When cool, grind to a smooth paste (it will be very slightly gritty) in your spice grinder. Store in the freezer, as it goes rancid like nuts. I grind in small amounts and keep mine in a ziplock baggy in the freezer.

The Qorma

¼ cup oil

1.5 lbs bone-in mutton pieces in 1-2 inch chunks, ribs and shin meat best

2 medium onions finely sliced, brown fried, and crush half of them, keep the other half uncrushed

6 green cardamoms, husk popped open by pressing with knife

2 black cardamoms (bari elaichi)

2 bay leaves (tez patta)

1 piece of cinnamon bark, about 2 inches long

1 tsp garlic paste

1 cup yoghurt with ½ tsp garam masala , 1 tsp red chile powder, and 1 tbs ginger paste whipped in

12 skinless raw almonds  soaking in warm water to just cover

1 tbs toasted ground white poppy seed

1 cup water

¼ tsp mace powder (jaavitri)

¼ tsp nutmeg powder (jaiphal)
1/4 tsp freshly ground green cardamom powder

1/2 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp salt or to taste

The Rice

½ tsp kewra jal (pandanus flower water)

¼ tsp  orange food coloring powder (biriani rangi) soaked in ½ cup milk 

3 cups raw rice parboiled with a few green cardamoms (see here for method)

3 tbs butter or ghee

Garnish: mint leaves, some extra fried onions

Method

Have crushed, fried onions on hand.  Grind soaking almonds with their water to make a paste.

Heat oil and add in whole spices for a minute. Add in meat and brown well, add in garlic paste and allow to turn golden, lower flame add in yoghurt mixture, stir to mix well on low heat (to avoid curdling yoghurt) when oil rises above yoghurt, turn up heat and stir in white poppy seed and, mix well. Stir in one cup water and salt. Bring to boil, lower heat , and cook for 1.5 hours until mutton is tender  and falling off bone. Stir occasionally. Add a tiny bit of water if necessary, but you want a fairly dry clinging gravy at the end, so don’t add too much water. If you have too much liquid at the end of cooking, turn up the heat for a few minutes to boil out any excess water. Finally, stir in the crushed brown fried onions, and all of the additional powdered spices, and ground almond paste. Keep covered on a very low flame for five more minutes. Set aside.

Have the uncrushed fried onions on-hand for layering.

To see a more detailed explanation of how to layer biryani, look here at my Sindhi biryani recipe.

Have your parboiled rice ready. In a deep pot, put in some ghee/butter and then a layer of biriani gravy. Add a layer of parboiled rice, then top with a sprinkle of fried onions and ghee/butter, another layer of qorma, another layer of rice, ghee, and fried onions. On the final layer of rice, pour your orange milk in one small spot on the rice. Sprinkle with kewra jal. Put the pot on a high flame, covered for 3 minutes to get the steam going. Then lower heat and cook 20 minutes until rice is done. Allow to rest, then mix and serve on a platter garnished with mint leaves and a bit more fried onion.

Serve with lime wedges and plain yoghurt, not a raita.

Vietnamese Style Chicken with Rice Vermicelli Bun Ga Nuong

mixed thigh and breast, nuoc mam pha sauce on side

Vietnamese food has been a part of my life since I was very young because I had a lot of Vietnamese American friends growing up. I can actually speak a bit of passable Vietnamese that I learned when I was a girl; enough to hold simple conversations, at least. Like desis, Vietnamese people are often very food savvy,  and are raised to enjoy eating and be analytical about food. It is just part of the culture. Vietnamese also love to eat out. Vietnamese food feels like home to me, and it was one of the things I missed most when I was in the Middle East. We have great Vietnamese restaurants in my home town. Several friends' families owned Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese restaurants, and I spent many many afternoons after school hanging out with them there, or going after hours to karaoke parties held in these restaurants. I have great memories of Saturday morning pots of noodle soups, craw fish boils, and huge dinner parties at friends' homes, but as I was an ignorant kid and teenager, I just ate and didn't ever bother learning how to make anything, something I regret. As an adult, I have taken an interest in learning how to make and not just eat Vietnamese cuisine. I don't cook Vietnamese food very often because it is easier to just get great Vietnamese food from a restaurant for me. But recently for about once per week, I have been making bun ga nuong for my family. This is my childhood best friend's mom's marinade recipe for thit nuong. Bac Men uses pork or chicken, but of course I don't eat pork, so this is for chicken, or thit ga. Don't be shocked by the amount of sugar or black pepper...this recipe has worked well for me many times. And don't be afraid of MSG unless you have a sensitivity. MSG is good stuff :-) I promise you that you will love the results with this recipe.

Ga Nuong marinade:

6-8 chicken breast pieces or boneless skinless thighs

12 garlic pieces
1/2 bunch green onions
chop together in food processor and place in marinade bowl

Stir in:
1 tsp salt
6 tbs sugar
3 tbs finely ground black pepper
6 tbs fish sauce
4 tbs olive oil
pinch of MSG

Mix well with garlic/green onion mixture. Add chicken pieces and marinade 24 hours. The chicken can also be portioned and frozen.

Ga means chicken and nuong means grill. You can grill this chicken. I recommend grilling only if you use thigh meat. Breast turns out too dry. Alternatively, you can pan cook it. Pan sear the chicken in a lightly oiled frying pan. Remove from pan and cut into bite sized strips. Return to pan and finish cooking. This method yields superior browning and flavor.

Squeeze 2 tbs fresh lime juice on top of finished chicken


To serve:
Bun (rice vermicelli) one packet, follow cooking instructions on package
1 bag mixed salad greens
2 tbs carrots julienned, 1/2 cup bean sprouts, 1 cucumber thinly sliced, 2 tbs cilantro, few jalapeno slices (optional)

To serve oneself: In a large deep soup bowl, add some of the fresh salad ingredients. Top with about 1 cup cooked bun. Add cooked chicken pieces. Season with nuoc mam (see below).

As an option you may make bun ga nuong cha gio, or grilled style chicken with Vietnamese style eggrolls. Cha gio are made with rice paper skins (though some restos cheat and use thin wheat flour skins) and contain hair fine cellophane vermicelli, carrots, jicama, Chinese mushroom, and usually a mix of pork and shrimp. However, there are vegetarian versions available. It is time consuming to make them at home. I buy vegetarian cha gio from a local Vietnamese restaurant when I make bun to embellish my ga nuong. Use scissors to slice cha gio into bite size pieces, then just add a top the bun with the chicken.

Each diner adds about 1/4 cup or more of mixed fish sauce (nuoc mam pha or nuoc cham) to her bowl.  I make my fish sauce mix without a recipe, it is about 1 part fish sauce, 1 part lime juice, 1 part water, a few spoons of sugar, and a spoonful of sambal oelek, I often add vinegar...I just mix stuff until it tastes right...but I have linked a recipe for you. One may also choose to add Rooster Brand Huy Fong Sriracha sauce or Huy Fong sambal Oelek for extra red-hot chile heat. Limes can also be added as a garnish so diners can add fresh lime juice to their individual bowls. Crushed peanuts are also a nice addition.

I serve myself only a small portion of bun noodles since I low-carb. I have eaten this dish at friends' homes as a child. Bun isn't traditionally set out in the same way I depict here. The ingredients are kept separately and assembled on the table, or individual bowls are filled with salad and bun, and diners add their own meat and fish sauce. I serve it my own way to my family because it just works out easier for us this way, and I like the way they meat juices soak into the bun.

For the table,  the ga nuong and cha gio a top the bun, diners serve themselves

For this meal I added some shrimp into the final chicken stir fry.

single serving, less vermicelli for low carbing

Turkey Chili

Cooking desi has affected the way I cook many other cuisines. Particularly the desi concept of bhunofying---that is Hinglish or Urdu-lish for cooking down ingredients until all of the moisture has evaporated out of them and the cooking oil floats to the top of the contents of the pan---has influenced me. Take the American dish, chili. Chili is an appropriation of the Northern Mexican and South Western US chile con carne (or carne con chile :p). Traditional chile con carne is a sauce of ground rehydrated dried red chiles and cubed beef, slow cooked. It actually looks vaguely like a Pakistani saalan ("curry"). No ground beef. No beans. Certainly no turkey or tofu granules. Chile con carne is very much and American dish, as it belongs to the land of the South Western US states which were erstwhile a part of Mexico. But the dish has taken on a life of its own in the hands of the gringos and gabachos in those states and in the the rest of the US, with regional variations all across the country. And it has gone from chile con carne to chili con carne...you have to say chile as chili and carne as carni in true estilo gabacho. We have divergent chilis from New Mexico to Texas and even Wisconsin, bean-less ground beef chiles, bean only chilis, black bean chili, and tofu chili. Among die-hard connoisseurs, there are great debates on whether or not good chili contains tomatoes. There are artisanal chilis and chili cook offs. Then we have chili in a can, chili dogs, and chili cheese fries, and so on. Tried and true American appropriation and adaptation (I dare not say bastardization) is seen in so many foods from around the world, and the treatment of chile con carne is the same, making it uniquely estadounidense and regionalized. Here, I share with you my personal recipe for spicy hot low fat turkey chili. Preparation involves a few steps, but the results are excellent. I credit the delicious taste to the desi technique of bhunofying the base of the chili gravy. This recipe is non-traditional and there are a few surprise seasonings in it.

1 pound lean ground turkey
1/4 cup oil

Brown turkey well in the oil, mashing and breaking it into little granules as you fry it golden brown. When it is well browned, throw it in a colander. Strain the oil and wash the excess fat off with water. Don't worry, the browning will leave it flavorful and you won't miss the fat. Set this aside. I brown the turkey separately for a couple of reasons. Firstly, so that I may rinse off the fat. Second, I find that ground turkey throws off a lot of water and simply boils in its own juices and ruins the other ingredients if I cook it with the onions and other ingredients.

1/4 cup oil
1 yellow onion finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, crushed
(I put my onion and garlic together in a food chopper and blitz them together)
3 tablespoons Goya Sofrito
1 7 oz can of chipotle in adobo sauce, (puree full can in food chopper)
2 12 oz cans Rotel Tomato and Green Chiles, pour into a strainer and strain off liquid
3 tbs chili powder (Tex-Mex style, do not use Indian red chile powder)
1 tbs chipotle chile powder
1 tbs Mexican oregano
1 tbs roasted cumin powder
1 tbs salt
1 12 oz bottle of non-alcoholic beer
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke
1.5 cups water
3 tbs masa harina or finely ground cornmeal

Heat oil in a deep pot. Add in garlic and onions and fry until golden. Add in Goya sofrito. Stir for a few moments to cook through. Sofrito is associated with Latin-Caribbean cuisines (originally it is Spanish), not Tex-Mex, but I like the savory flavor that it adds to many dishes and I use it in many other non-traditional ways. Add in chipotles in adobo sauce and stir for a few moments. Add in strained Rotel tomatoes and chiles. Stir on high heat until all the water has evaporated from the tomatoes and you have a thick paste. This is the desi style bhunofying step. I said this was a low fat recipe. Now you will turn off the heat. Cover the pot for a few minutes to allow all of the oil to come out of the paste. Now pour off all of the excess oil. You have defatted your chile base! You will have low fat, high flavor chili.

Return pan to stove, turn on medium heat and the salt, the roasted cumin, chili powder, and chipotle powder, and the Mexican oregano. Fry this for a few moments to release the flavor of the dried spices a bit.

At this point, add your browned turkey. Mix well, and add in the non-alcoholic beer. Next, add in your two cans of beans. I use pinto and kidney but you may use any beans you like. Stir in the liquid smoke, the masa harina, and the water. You may add more or less water depending on how you like the consistency of your chili, liquid or dry or in between. Adjust salt if necessary. Allow to boil, then lower heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes.

You may serve this as you like, but I like to have it with corn chips, garnished with pico de gallo, or  instead chopped raw onions, cilantro, chopped tomatoes, and some shredded cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese. You can also add a spoon of guacamole, chopped avocado, or a dash of sour cream. Very Tex-Mex, spicy, and yummy. This dish also goes great with corn bread.

All about South Asian Qorma (or Korma, or Qormah)

Qorma is one of those dishes that I love to learn and read about and compare recipes. Qorma is also one of those dishes that was traditionally cooked by South Asian Muslims for special occasions and only several times per year, but like biryani, it is now made much more frequently in the homes of the affluent and also in the homes of diasporic desis. Since desi Muslims are the direct culinary inheritors of the Mughlai tradition, the dish is theirs, but it is also widely loved in many interpretations by people of all backgrounds and faiths, and many vegetarian friendly and widely divergent recipes have evolved. (I have seen jackfruit korma!) But traditional versions of qorma are prepared in all of the main former centers of Muslim rule in India and Pakistan.

The word qorma came to South Asia from Central Asia and means "roasted, baked, browned" in reference to meat in Turkic dialects (kavurma). The Persians have their gormeh, prudent Nafees Urdu speakers of duroost shin-qaaf must say it Qormah. In both India and Pakistan it is widely pronounced as korma with no attention given to the Urdu original gutteral /q/ sound, which is approximated as /k/. But in the best Urdu diction it is Qormah/ قورمہ. It is an indeed a dish of Mughal legacy in S. Asia.

At least in South Asia it is traditionally made with mutton although these days chicken, fish, and pure veg. qormas are made to suit different preferences. I make chicken qorma much more often than mutton qorma, just because it is easy and fast cooking. My husband loves mutton qorma, though.

If I happen to be talking to a foodie, I always ask her how she makes her qorma, or how it is made in her community. A Pashto speaking acquaintance (Northern Pakistani) makes a liquidy stew with mutton and vegetables as her qorma. I think for Pashtoons qorma is any stew type dish and this is more in line with the original Central Asian qorma. I had a housekeeper who was a Bangalorean (South Indian) Muslim from a pure Urdu speaking family and she told me that they make their qorma with coconut milk, not yoghurt, and that it is mostly served on holidays and at weddings. My in-laws family (Urdu speaking North Indian origin Pakistani) qorma recipe is more of a typical North Indian Muslim-Pakistani qorma recipe: meat must be browned or well braised, lots of crispy brown fried onions are used (often ground to a paste), yoghurt is the liquid, the seasonings are garam masalas (whole and ground), ginger and garlic paste (heavier ginger to garlic ratio) ground coriander, a pinch of red chile, and at the very end of cooking, a second pinch of garam masala and ground green cardamom, and a tiny dash of keora jal (pandanus flower extract water which you may know as biryani perfume) are added at the very end of cooking...without the dash of pandanus water it doesn't have that qorma perfume taste by their family standards. A layer of oil is floating on the top of the semi-liquidy gravy. It is eaten with naan and basmati rice, never chapati. There is also "white qorma" which doesn't contain browned onions, only onions which are cooked until the rawness is fully gone. Ground almond or ground cashew pastes can be added to make the qorma "shahi" or royal, and also to serve the function of thickening it. Hyderabadis (of India) are known for white qorma. In Kashmir greens and vegetables can be added to the qorma, so it is more like the Central Asian-Persian type concept of qorma.

In my laziness I often use Shan Masala Korma spice mix, just 2 teaspoons, plus homemade garam masala and ground coriander powder, and a dash of roasted ground poppy seeds, but otherwise prepare it as described on the back of the box. I only use very fresh yoghurt (so it won’t have any hint of sourness) and rarely add cream as is prescribed on the Shan box, but if I do, I will add 1 tbs at the very end of cooking just to thicken the gravy. I also make a qorma biryani by using the same qorma recipe, making a slightly thicker gravy (by boiling to dry up the liquid) and then using qorma gravy to layer between parboiled rice then, then close the pot and finish off the rice.

When I am not feeling lazy, I make a more classic Lucknowi qorma based on my mother in law's recipe.

In Indian restos you will get a lot of interpretations of korma. Based on being a dish associated with Muslims, it gets classified in the restaurant 'Mughlai' genre of foods and therefore you will find, in line with the restaurant interpretation of what Mughlai means, lots of cream, nuts and even raisins/sultanas since that is what is taken as 'Mughlai.' This can be a tasty dish, though it doesn't look much like a qorma made in North Indian Muslims-Pakistani homes. I wouldn’t say that's “the wrong way” to make qorma (or perhaps I should write korma here), because it IS made in India by Indians that way, and this type of korma is also what we know at UK and US faux-Mughlai/Punjabi restaurants. Who has the copyright on qorma, anyway? What I see as the “authentic” North Indian Muslim-Pakistani qorma isn't much like the original Central Asian qorma, either. I do have creamy qorma like that at restaurants sometimes, and it is yummy, too.

Here are links to three non-restaurantish, Muslim home style chicken qormas, including one Lucknawi and one from Indian Hyderabad from two good websites, just in case anyone wanted to see a sort of tradional Muslim desi non-resto/no-cream type recipe example. Boneless chicken breast can be used but as far as I know, whether it is chicken or mutton it is traditionally bone-in, and with chicken it would be whole skinless bone-in cut in 12 pieces (not specified in recipes).


http://zaiqa.net/?p=260

The Zaiqa blog (a fave I learned about through Ambhi) is an excellent resource for Hyderabadi recipes...What to me stands out as Hyderabadi about this chicken qorma is that it includes coconut (Southern touch)and roasted peanuts (she used the term "ground nut"). It also has green chile in addition to powdered red chile, plus mint leaves. I don't think those would be in North Indian qormas.
And:


http://www.khanakhazana.com/recipes/view.aspx?id=5311

and

http://www.khanakhazana.com/recipes/view.aspx?id=1405


Khana Khazana is a user-added recipe site, has loads of good Pakistani and Indian stuff. The first qorma is very tradional and Lucknawi with its white poppy seeds (khashkhaash) and extra nutmeg and mace in addition to the garam masalas. The picture doesn't look too yummy but the recipe looks very good IMHO. The other recipe is very similar but without the white poppy seeds. Both users' recipes calls for the kewra water I mentioned above---very traditional.


Note that in all recipes the onions are brown fried seperately and ground to be added to the gravy.


I was happy to see the qorma with -q-, too on the recipes :-) as an Urduphile.


Anyway, just fun to see some regional variation.