Kashmiri Pandit Rogan Josh

Lamb braised in mustard oil and yoghurt and coloured deep red with Kashmiri chilli, seasoned in the Pandit way with asafoetida, fennel, and dried ginger in place of onion and garlic

Origin: Srinagar & the Vale of Kashmir

From the journey of Asafoetida.

Rogan josh is cooked by both of Kashmir's communities, and they cook it differently. The Muslim version, part of the wazwan, builds its gravy on onion, shallot, and garlic. The Kashmiri Pandits, the valley's Hindu Brahmins, eat meat but traditionally avoid the alliums, and their rogan josh uses asafoetida instead, with large quantities of ground fennel and dried ginger, yoghurt, and Kashmiri chilli. A Pandit cookbook puts the rule in a sentence: 'Pandits use Asafoetida (Hing) instead of Onions, Garlic or Shallots.' The avoidance struck outsiders long ago. Walter Lawrence, who surveyed the valley for the government of Kashmir and published The Valley of Kashmir in 1895, noted that the Hindus avoided tomatoes, carrots, and red beans for their colour, and that 'onions and leeks are avoided on other grounds. It is the more odd when it is remembered that they are flesh-eaters.' Lawrence does not mention the asafoetida that does the work of the onion; the Pandits' own cooking does. The red of the dish comes from Kashmiri chilli, which colours more than it burns, and in some households from ratanjot, the root of alkanet, which dyes the oil. The fat is mustard oil, heated until it smokes to tame its pungency. Many Pandit families now cook with onion and garlic as well, but this is the older way, and it shows how much asafoetida can do in a meat dish when nothing else is there to do it.

Ingredients

Meat

  • 1 kg bone-in lamb or mutton shoulder or neck, cut into 5 cm pieces
  • 100 ml mustard oil

Whole spices

  • 0.5 tsp compounded asafoetida, dissolved in 3 tbsp water
  • 4 cloves
  • 4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
  • 2 black cardamom pods
  • 1 cinnamon stick, 5 cm
  • 2 bay leaves

Gravy

  • 2 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder, mixed to a paste with 4 tbsp water
  • 250 g full-fat yoghurt, whisked smooth
  • 2 tsp ground fennel
  • 1 tsp ground dried ginger (sonth)
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 500 ml hot water

To finish

  • 0.5 tsp green cardamom seeds, finely ground, to finish

Method

  1. Heat the mustard oil in a heavy casserole until it just begins to smoke, then take it off the heat for a minute to cool a little.
  2. Return the pan to a medium heat, add the cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon, and bay leaves, and stir for 20 seconds.
  3. Add the meat, the salt, and the asafoetida water and fry, turning the pieces, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated and the meat is lightly browned.
  4. Lower the heat, add the chilli paste, and fry for 2 minutes until the oil turns red.
  5. Add the yoghurt a spoonful at a time, stirring constantly and letting each addition be absorbed before the next, so that it does not split. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the oil begins to separate.
  6. Stir in the ground fennel and dried ginger, pour in the hot water, and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over a low heat for 1 to 1¼ hours, stirring now and then, until the meat is tender and the gravy is thick, with a layer of red oil on top.
  7. Sprinkle over the ground cardamom, cover, and leave for 5 minutes before serving with plain rice.

Notes

For a deeper red, heat a few pieces of ratanjot (alkanet root) in the mustard oil for a minute and remove them before adding the whole spices. Compounded asafoetida usually contains wheat flour; use a gluten-free brand or pure resin if you need to. The Muslim Kashmiri rogan josh, made with onion and shallot, is a different recipe, and the two should not be confused.

The Gastrographer

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