Flavours of Kashmir at Latest Recipe, Le Meridien, Gurgaon

We get very few opportunities to learn from maestros. Learning about a cuisine considered as awe inspiring as Kashmiri is an opportunity I can't miss. 

Kashmiri cuisine has been awe inspiring for me always. I love the Khatte Baingan, Haakh, Gogji Nadur, Chaman Kaliya and the likes, have been cooking these home style Kashmiri recipes for long but had never experienced a Wazawan.

Wazawan is the Kashmiri wedding feast that is supposed to be the ultimate gluttony of the highest order. The Kashmiri Waza is the professional chef who cooks for such Wazawan and he is considered an artist in his own right. The fine art of choosing the meat cuts, giving it the right treatment before cooking and shaping the perfect Moche, Rista and Goshtaba, slow cooking the Tabak maaz perfectly after poaching them in stock is the art that brings accolades to a professional Waza in Kashmir or even outside Kashmir. 

So when the much acclaimed food critique Marryam Reshii hosted us for a Kashmiri dinner at Le Meridien Gurgaon, it was a blissful experience to taste and learn from her and Waza Rashid who had been flown in from Srinagar to prepare the feast. It is worth mentioning that Marryam is married to a Kashmiri Muslim and Kashmir is her second home for the last 25 years, possibly more than that as she had been working on Kashmir issues much before that. 

This hand crafted authentic Kashmiri dinner at Latest Recipe, the all day dining restaurant at Le Meridien Gurgaon, was indeed a great learning experience when Waza Rashid cooked food and Marryam Reshii gave her inputs in every possible way. Both of them answered our queries patiently and I found myself getting educated about the finer nuances. Imagine someone who couldn’t differentiate between a Rista and Goshtaba till recently, learning about Butt Haaq and Waza Haaq at the Kashmiri cuisine showcase. Butt Haaq by the way is the Kashmiri haaq greens cooked the Hindu way and Waza Haaq is the same greens cooked the Muslim way, often with mutton liver.

The dinner started with a few exquisite chutneys. Pumpkin, Zereshk, Walnut and Radish chutneys were delicious and one could keep on licking them by spoonfuls if the starters did not arrive. The starters were served in quick succession and we found our plates loaded with Tabak Maaz, Seekh Kabab, Nadru ki Tikki, Haaq ki tikki and Waza Chicken. I liked Haaq ki Tikki more than Nadru Tikki, Waza Chicken was good too but the show stopper for me was the Tabak Maaz.

The slow cooked Tabak maaz was crisp like a cracker on the outside and glutinous soft inside, subtly flavored and perfectly meaty. Waza Rashid informed later when I asked that the Tabak Maaz is made with larger chunks of side ribs when made for traditional Tarami platters and stays moister inside.

Tarami is a huge copper platter that serves four people together during Wazawan. To make the experience more realistic we were served the Tarami platter, a ceramic platter in this case, to be shared between the two of us and how we loved it. 

The Tarami platter came with plain rice and a pulao served on two sides. The rice was topped with Rista, Gushtaba, Aab Gosht, Alubukhara Korma, Murgh Dhaniya Korma, Kishmish Korma and the Moche kabab. I shall talk about my favorites from this Tarami platter and there were too many of them.

The subtle and light Aab Gosht, that is a meat dish cooked with milk was a fine example of how a dish need not be rich to taste great. The Goshtaba which is a very smooth meatball cooked in a milky gravy was perfectly done and oh so juicy and flavourful. Aromatic Kashmiri spice mixes exude a very subtle but potent aroma of fennel, green cardamom, Cloves, Caraway and saffron in such curries. 

The Alu Bukhara korma was pleasantly tart and delicious. Kishmish Korma made me crave for it but I had to stop myself from taking second helpings else I wouldn’t have been able to taste the other delicious offerings on this menu. Moche Kabab was a fist shaped kabab sprinkled with almond flakes, very flavourful, moist and slightly spongy. 

The way the meat is pounded for these kababs and meatballs, the way the fat is added while pounding and the portions of the animal used makes a difference in taste and texture in these fine specimens of different cooking techniques. This is where a Waza proves his skills. 

The dessert was a Phirni with nuts and saffron, with generous lashings of coconut to my surprise. Nicely made and delicious but Kashmir is not known for the desserts as much I know. The Qahva arrived to sum up the wonderful meal and wrapped us with its warmth and the aroma of saffron. 

Waza Rashid kept telling us how he has introduced some vegetarian kababs and some innovative vegetarian dishes to suit the taste buds of people outside Kashmir but there used to be a fixed menu for the traditional Wazawan earlier. He told us about the different types of Dum Alu that is made during Wazawan and how interesting pickles are made with almost everything in Kashmir. 

I reserved my stupid questions about the Ver masala, sun dried vegetables and how they are cooked for Marryam as she is a patient listener and a sweet soul who never gets tired of talking about food, that too her favorite cuisine that is cooked everyday at her home. I told you I came back with some value addition to my food knowledge.

This special hand crafted authentic Kashmiri cuisine prepared by Waza Rashid is available at latest Recipe, the all day dining restaurant at Le Meridien Gurgaon till February 29th. Please go if you want great tasting food and some enlightenment on Kashmiri cuisine.

Please forgive me for the lack of pictures, the ones shared here are the cellphone pictures I clicked that day. There are a few technical issues with my desktop and I can’t edit and upload pictures for a while. I will rectify it as soon as possible and will update this post with all the pictures I have clicked with my camera. Stay tuned. 

Kali gajar ka halwa | black carrot halwa

There are very few places in Uttar Pradesh where you still get kali gajar ka halwa. One of those places is the Moti Mahal (restaurant and chaat place) in Hazrat Ganj Lucknow where you get kali gajar ka halwa during winters along with decent malaiyyo, kesar pista doodh and an assortment of other halwas. You can get about a dozen variants of halwa at Moti Mahal, made of lentils, nuts, seeds and carrots of different types. Unfortunately I haven't come across kali gajar ka halwa in Banaras yet.

But I will tell you about Ghazipur, a small town some 75 Km from Banaras which is my maternal grandparents home town. It has been about 2 decades since I went there but we used to go to Ghazipur every summer vacation for at least 2 weeks (back in late 70s and 80s) and I have some great food memories from those days. We visited Ghazipur a few times in winters too when my maternal grandfather was terminally ill and that is the time my memory of kali gajar ka halwa dates back to.

There was this halwai family who used to make all types of murabbas and halwas apart from the regular dry mithais which used to be sent to other parts of the state as much I remember. This was a wealthy halwai family who was in this trade for a few generations, we knew in detail because one of the daughters was my mother's classmate.

So someone was sent to buy kali gajar ka halwa to their workshop and the person came back empty handed saying they haven't made kali gajar ka halwa this season. Everyone in the family was crestfallen and unanimously blamed the family for this act of 'cheating' their customers. The disappointment was grave.

The imminent expectation of the kali gajar ka halwa treat and then the disappointment somehow got imprinted in my mind and every time I would taste a well made kali gajar ka halwa later this incident will replay in my head.

Note that black carrots are quite distinct in their flavour and the halwa recipe needs a little fine tuning if you have been making red carrot halwa all your life.

I tried making it myself a few times, failed a few times and finally learnt how to keep this halwa sweet and pleasant, not causing the milk to get the flavour of the black carrots that makes the halwa weird tasting in my opinion.

While I like the milk to be cooked slowly along with grated red carrots to make my kind of great gajar ka halwa, where the milk gets all the colour and flavours of the red carrots making it sweeter and pleasant. Red carrots are sweet in taste while black carrots, owing to the rich flavonoids and dark coloured pigments, are a little astringent in taste.

So when grated black carrot is cooked with milk slowly for long duration it (the pigments) masks the sweetness of reduced milk and also make it a wee bit astringent which is not a pleasant attribute of a halwa.

So what to do when making kali gajar ka halwa?

Not to worry much, the recipe is still simple you just change the timings of the addition of different ingredients. Also, note that keeping the kali gajar ka halwa a bit rich on ghee helps in absorption of all the pigment goodness (read fat soluble vitamins) so go make this halwa rich and delicious.

ingredients

1 kilo cleaned peeled and grated black carrots
1 Liter whole milk reduced to make about 200 gm thick evaporated milk (almost like thick rabdi)
300 gm sugar (I use 200 gm)
50-60 gm (2 tbsp) ghee or a little more
chopped nuts for garnish as per choice

almond meal about 100 gm per kilo carrots if you want to make it a tonic breakfast dish

procedure 

Take a thick base kadhai or pan wide enough to accommodate all the grated carrots and still be convenient enough to stir easily. Heat it over gas stove and smear it generously with the ghee.

Now add all the grated black carrots, keeping the heat high and stir vigorousely for 5 minutes or till the grated carrots wilt a little. Now switch the heat to be medium low and start stirring it every couple of minutes. This will enable the carrots to get a little seared and that somehow locks the flavours in.

You can reduce the milk on the other side simultaneously.

Once the grated black carrot reduces in volume and becomes soft enough to get mashed easily it is time to add the sugar. You can mash the carrots if you want a smooth halwa before adding the sugar or keep the shreds undisturbed like I do. The mixture gets a little watery after adding sugar so cook some more while stirring almost continuously till it becomes glazed and shiny.

Now add the reduced milk, mix well and cook some more to let everything mix together. The reduced milk will get the colour of the cooked black carrots but wont become astringent.

If you intend to add almond meal you can add it along with the reduced milk and cook for 5 more minutes.

All well cooked gajar ka halwa variants stay well for 3-4 days at room temperature (in winter months, north India) and the halwa was always spread in a parat or large thali in my home, nuts were sprinkled over it and the thali was covered and kept either on the dining table or on kitchen platform or in the milk cupboard. Well, it was hidden from our sight most of the times.  No one can resist stealing some halwa if it is kept in a visible place.

Now I refrigerate. Now we have lost that habit of stealing such foods and I miss that.

Kali gajar ka halwa is definitely tastier than red carrot halwa if made well. And now you know how to make the kali gajar ka halwa in the right way. It is indeed a tonic food and can be supplemented with a little warming spices if one wants some warmth in harsh winter months.

Kali gajar ka halwa was considered an aphrodisiac too but I am sure the recipe would include some cardamom and nutmeg too for that effect.

Now I know the reason my family felt cheated when kali gajar ka halwa was denied to them one season about 4 decades ago. Food memories are best preserved in our minds I feel, the reason being that food is perceived by our senses so well. More reasons to make the food better for all of us, enjoy food with loved ones and create memories of togetherness.