Savour traditional mutton delicacies and rawa phirni at a Kashmiri pop-up, this weekend
Jasleen Marwah
Jasleen Marwah gave up her full-time job two years back when she wanted more time for herself and her 10-year-old daughter. It was while she was deciding what to do with her life that conversations with friends guided her towards cooking. "I was told that it was rare to find good Kashmiri food in the city. Besides, people weren't sure whether the fare they were eating at restaurants was authentic. So, I though of filling that void," says 39-year-old Marwah.
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Tabakh Maaz
She curated a menu and tested it out on her friends. It was a success and Marwah knew she wanted to take this further. This weekend, she will host her first pop-up meal, Zaika-e-Jannat, with Authenticook. This is Marwah's first sit-down meal; she has earlier done pop-ups at a dessert bazaar and at a restaurant in Versova. The meal begins with a cooling glass of chaas. The appetiser course will feature what Marwah likes to call her specialty. "Everyone in my family has a signature dish.
Mine is the Tabakh Maaz (slowcooked mutton ribs). I'm the only one who tried making it. It's a dry dish and usually served at festivals or weddings. If we have to eat mutton, it's usually a gravy dish," she laughs. The Tabakh Maaz is served with a mutton shorba and Muji Chetein — a radish chutney made with yoghurt, green chillies and mint. The slow-cooked dish is first cooked in water, then in a milk, saffron and broth mixture and finally, roasted in ghee. "The broth is served as a soup (shorba). The mutton ribs are a particular cut of meat, and they have to be cooked immediately. Since there are equal bits of fat and meat, when frying it, the fatty portion gets a nice crispy touch," she says.
Maaz Yakhni
Muts
Mutton forms a majority of the dishes at Marwah's meal. There's Rogan Josh — mutton stew made with red chillies, Kashmiri spices and yoghurt, and Muts (Matschgand) — mutton kheema balls cooked in a gravy of spices and rounded off with yoghurt. "Both dishes use yoghurt. We aren't too fond of using lots of onions, tomatoes, haldi, coriander seeds and ginger in our gravies. Instead, we focus on the richness of the mutton enhanced by a paste made of red Kashmiri chillies, garlic, ginger powder and saunf," adds Marwah, who sources her fennel seeds and ginger powder from Kashmir but makes the masalas and red chilli paste at home. There's also mutton in the Maaz Yakhni, made by constantly stirring yoghurt till it becomes a gravy and flavouring it with stock, black pepper, fennel seeds powder, cardamom, cinnamon and finally, topping it with dry mint leaves.
There is just one vegetarian dish on the menu — rajma. Marwah's rajma is a simple dish made with whole spices and onions; there's no coriander, haldi or ginger, and it isn't sautéed.
Kong Phirni
Marwah will be serving the traditional Kong Phirni for dessert. Instead of rice, her version is made with sooji (rawa) cooked in milk, saffron and dry fruits and finished off with rose petals and pistachios. The meal ends with Kehwa, Kashmiri green tea made with saffron, cardamom and almonds.
"The recipes have been sourced from my extended family, but I have tweaked them a bit to make them more flavourful and appealing to the Bombay palate," she says.
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