Oudh/ Avadh Cuisine
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Dum Pukht
Three recipes from noble households
3 Dum Pukht nawabi recipes
The effervescent flavours and aroma of dum pukthfood can leave even the most stiff-nosed, drooling. If elaborate affairs are your thing, dine like royaltywith this traditional nawabi fare. Known as the food of the nawabs, dum pukth or cooking with steam, has been a favourite of the royals since it made its way into India from theMiddle East with the Mughals. While it made home in Awadh, it spread to the courts of Hyderabad, Kashmir and central India, with each region giving it a twist.
Using less spices than traditional Indian food, it's generous with ghee and is known for its typical purdah (veil) style of cooking. Meat, rice or vegetables are covered in a copper or earthen pot with a flavoured dough of flour, ghee and sugar (a sort of puff pastry). It's then sealed and cooked on a very slow flame. The essence of dum pukth lies in its aroma.
Ingredients
1 kg Mutton
500 gm Basmati rice
50 gm Brown onions
200 gm Desi ghee
10 gm Cloves
10 gm Cinnamon sticks
10 gm Bayleaf
10 gm Green cardamom
100 ml Cream
250 gm Beaten curd to taste
Salt
10 gm Yellow chilli powder
15 gm Mace cardamom pwd
50 gm Ginger garlic paste
5 ml Rose water
5 ml Kevda water ( screwpine)
2 drops Sweet ittar
25 gm Slit green chillies
50 gm Mint leaves
50 gm Ginger julienne
5 gm Royal cumin seeds
25 ml Lemon juice ½ ltr Water 100 gm Whole wheat flour dough (for lining the lid)
Method
Cooking its mutton
- Heat ghee in a copper vessel and add the whole spices. When they crackle add mutton pieces which have been salted and saute.
- Add ginger garlic paste and brown onions and saute again for a while.
- Add beaten curd and bhunao (saute) till the oil separates. Now put yellow chilli powder, mace and cardamom powder.
- Add water and cook the mutton.
