Mutton Rogan Josh ~ A Kashmiri Delicacy

#Mutton Rogan Josh #Kashmiri mutton curry recipe #Popular Indian Curry Recipe

This dish needs no introduction. Rogan Josh is a signature and the most popular dish from the land of ethereal beauty and fabulous cuisine, Kashmir. Though most of you know about the origin of this dish I would like to resonate the same lines for those who don’t know. Rogan or roughan means ‘fat’ in Persian and Josh means ‘cooked at a very high heat’.  So its presumed that the dish was brought to Kashmir by the Mughals whose cuisine was again influenced by the Persians. Another interpretation of the word Rogan is ‘red color’ and Rogan Josh is meat with a red color. But Rogan Josh got a different dimension altogether later from the Kashmiri Bramhins who cooked this meat without onions and garlic. So if you come across a recipe of Rogan Josh with onion and garlic or tomatoes that’s not Rogan Josh though many eateries you come across nowadays rarely serve the authentic one. It’s best made at home.

Mutton Rogan Josh

This dish essentially is accentuated with the flavours of soonth (dry ginger powder), saunf (fennel seeds) powder, hing (asafoetida) and mustard oil. Another important spice for this dish which lends to the striking red color of the mutton is ratanjot. It’s very difficult to get hold of ratanjot in the regular grocery stores. So you can use Kashmiri red chilli powder in generous amount in lieu of ratanjot to bring the same color. But no tomatoes please. This dish is not cooked with tomatoes and neither has the red color anything to do with it.

For making this dish I have followed Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe which seemed to me the authentic one, with a few variations here and there. While buying mutton for this dish choose the portions with more fat and preferably meat from a baby goat. I have marinated the mutton with yogurt for over two hours for that soft, juicy and succulent meat. Rogan josh is best when accompanied with plain hot steamed rice but you can also serve it with naans or pulao.

Here comes the recipe of this amazingly aromatic and delectable dish….

Mutton Rogan Josh

Mutton Rogan Josh

Mutton Rogan Josh

Ingredients:

• 800 gms mutton
• 200 gms yogurt whisked to a creamy texture
• 8 black peppercorns
• 6 green cardamoms
• 2 sticks 1 inch each cinnamon
• 5-6 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 black cardamoms
• 4-5 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 2 tsp saunf powder
• 2 tsp soonth powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp asafoetida
• Salt n sugar to taste
• Mustard oil as per requirement

 

Mutton Rogan Josh

Process:

Step:1

Marinate the mutton pieces with yogurt for 2-3 hours

Step:2
 

Heat oil in a thick bottomed skillet and throw in the whole spices cardamoms, cinnamon peppercorns, bay leaves and asafoetida. Wait for the crackle.

Step:3

Add the marinated mutton and stir on high flame for quite sometime. Add the powdered masalas, salt and keep stirring for a few minutes more.

Step:4
 

Add water about 2 large cups and let the mutton get cooked covered until it gets tender. The dish should ideally have a thin gravy with a layer of fat/oil on the top.