Easy recipes for elevated Indian bowls
Editor’s note: Chef-restauranteur Megha Kohli, believes that Indian foods are all about pairing. She takes her experience and builds wholesome bowls that are nourishing and easy to whip up. She’ll even tell you the items you can batch cook. We’ve got Aab Gosht, a Kashmiri mutton curry in bowl style with each of its components. Finish the meal off with flair with a bruleed Indian dessert. Excerpted from ‘India in a Bowl’, by Megha Kohli with permission from Roli Books.
Aab Gosht
Kashmiri mutton curry
The ultimate in Kashmiri formal feasts, a wazwan traditionally consists of 36 dishes. Among the seven dishes which are a must at these occasions is Aab Gosht. Made without using chillies, ginger or garlic this fragrant and delicate curry has a watery consistency – aab means water in Persian – with just a hint of sweetness.
Cooking Time
60 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 Tbsp Ghee
2 Medium-sized onions, ground to a paste
1 litre Water
800 gram Mutton chops or curry
cut mutton
Salt, to taste
1 Bay leaf
2 Cloves (divided)
12 Green cardamoms (divided)
2 Two-inch cinnamon sticks (divided)
1 litre Milk
10 Saffron strands
½ cup Cream
1/5 tsp Fennel powder
¼ tsp Cumin powder
¼ tsp Black pepper powder
Method
- Heat 2 Tbsp ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, but not smoking, turn the heat to low and add the onion paste. Fry for 5–6 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Place a large pan on medium-high heat. Add 1 litre water, followed by the mutton, salt, bay leaf, 1 clove, 6 cardamoms, 1 cinnamon stick and the fried onion paste and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and continue to boil for 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Once it is done, strain the meat and save the stock.
- While the meat is cooking, bring the milk to a boil in another pan with the remaining cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon.
- Turn the heat to low and let simmer, stirring till the milk reduces to a third. This will take about 40 minutes. Once the milk is done, add the saffron strands. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Once the milk reaches room temperature, add in the cream and mix well. Now add the meat and 500 ml stock (step 2) to the milk and put back on the stove on low heat.
- In another pan, heat 2 Tbsp ghee on medium heat. Once the ghee is hot, turn the heat to low and add fennel powder and fry briefly for 10 seconds. Add the cumin powder and black pepper powder and cook for 10 seconds. Do this quickly, to ensure that the spice powders don’t burn.
- Pour the spice temper into the curry and cook the curry for another 5 minutes and serve hot. Bowl Assembly I like to serve the Aab Gosht with Manipuri Black Rice (p. 51), Carrot Thoran (p. 35) and Saag (p. 45).
Manipuri Black Rice
Cooking time
40 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 Tbsp Butter
1 cup Black sticky rice
1¾ cups Water
Method
- Rinse and strain the rice.
- Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Once the butter has melted, add the black rice and sauté for 8–10 minutes, until lightly toasted. Take care to stir the rice often, so that it doesn’t catch at the bottom of the pan.
- Add the water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Then lower the heat, cover the saucepan with a lid and cook for 25–30 minutes, until the rice is tender and all the water is absorbed. Serve hot. Refrigerated, this keeps well for 3 days.
Thoran
Cooking Time
20 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 Tbsp Coconut oil
½ tsp Mustard seeds
½ tsp Cumin seeds
6–7 Shallots (sambar onions), halved/¼–⅓ cup chopped onions
3–4 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Green chilli, chopped
10–11 Curry leaves
¼ tsp Turmeric
1½ cup Chopped french beans/grated carrot ½ cup Grated fresh or frozen coconut
Salt, to taste
2 Tbsp Water
Method
- Heat the coconut oil in a heavy, deep bottomed pan on low heat. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds, and fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the onions and sauté for 2 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic, green chilli, curry leaves and sauté on low heat for 1 minute till the garlic softens. Add the turmeric and sauté for 30 seconds.
- Add the beans/carrot and sauté for 1 minute. Add the coconut, salt and sauté for 2 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp water and cook for 1 minute. Now cover the pan with a lid and cook on low heat for 3–4 minutes. If using carrots, remove from heat.
- If using beans, check to see if they are done. If water has dried up and the beans are uncooked, add 1 Tbsp water and stir. Cover and cook till the beans are tender. If there is water left in the pan after the beans are done, then cook uncovered until the water evaporates. Refrigerated, this keeps well for 3 days.
Saag
Cooking Time
35 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 litres Water
⅓ cup Mustard oil
Salt, to taste
½ tsp Baking soda
4 Dried Kashmiri red chillies
1 pinch Asafoetida
500 grams Collard greens/Malabar spinach/Amaranth leaves, kept whole
Method
- Add 2 litres of water to a large saucepan, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and add salt, baking soda, chillies and asafoetida; stir till completely dissolved.
- Add the greens of your choice to the saucepan and press down with a spatula or large spoon. Bring the water back to a boil and continue to press down with a spatula.
- Continue cooking the greens on medium heat, stirring occasionally so that they remain submerged. Cook for 20 minutes, until the greens are tender. Remove from heat.
- Transfer to a serving bowl along with the remaining cooking liquid. Refrigerated, this keeps well for 3 days.
Brûléed Phirni
If you are looking for a dinner party dish with a degree of flair, this brûléed Indian rice pudding dessert ticks the box. All elements can be made ahead and assembled at the last minute. Phirni can be served on its own, but the compote adds a nice tart note to it. And it is quite a multitasking condiment – swirl it into yoghurt, add a dollop to oatmeal or ice-cream, or eat it on toast. If strawberries are not in season, frozen ones work just as well.
Cooking Time
60 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the phirni
50 grams Basmati rice
1 litre full fat milk
150 grams sugar
1 tsp Green cardamom powder
1 tsp Saffron strands
2 tsp Rose water
2 Tbsp Castor sugar, to brûlée
For the strawberry compote
2 cups Strawberries, cut into half
1 Three-inch cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Method
- To make the phirni, wash the rice and soak in water for 30 minutes. Strain the rice using a colander and transfer to a food processor. Grind the rice to a paste. This should take 4–5 short pulses. The rice paste should not be coarse or too fine.
- In a wok over high heat bring the milk to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the ground rice. Stir immediately to stop the rice from clumping. Stir continuously – this will ensure that your pudding doesn’t catch at the bottom – let it reduce for 30 minutes.
- At this stage the rice will be almost done and the milk should have thickened into a pudding-like consistency.
- Add the sugar and cardamom powder, and continue stirring for 2–3 minutes. Then add the saffron strands and keep stirring for another minute. Turn off the heat and add the rose water. Pour the phirni into 4 serving bowls and let it cool for 30 minutes.
- Cover the phirni bowls with cling film to avoid the top of the pudding running dry. To set the phirni, refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. The phirni will keep well in the fridge for 3 days.
- To make the strawberry compote, place the strawberries and cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Once the strawberries start bubbling, reduce the heat to low. Using a wooden spoon, mash the strawberries at regular intervals.
- Add the sugar and vanilla essence and continue cooking over medium-low heat for 10–12 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a clean container to cool. Refrigerate once it reaches room temperature. The compote will keep for 1 week in the fridge.
- Bowl Assembly Just before serving, sprinkle the castor sugar on the phirni and using a culinary torch, melt the sugar to form a crispy, crunchy sugar coating. Allow this to harden for a minute. Top with the compote and serve.
