One of the least explored Nawabi cuisines of India, the royal cuisine of Rampur is an eclectic fare of kababs, salans, biryani, desserts and rotis. A cuisine hardly documented and passed through generations only by word-of-mouth, it is still confined to western Uttar Pradesh. The recipes of this small royal estate are said to have been guarded zealously by its bawarchis.
Rampuri cuisine boasts an array of breads like fitri naan, naan-e-tanak, sheermal, kishmishi parantha, wah wah roti, gilafi kulcha, baqurkhani, taftan and khameeri roti. The taste of Rampur is a mélange of the Kashmiri, Awadhi and Hyderabadi traditions. However, it is the presence of aromatic spices, subtle flavours and slow-cooking which is the hallmark of Rampuri cuisine. Here, the chef brings out a perfect ambassador from the Rampuri kitchen — Taar Korma, lamb tempered by a refreshing bouquet of spices and mellowed by dum cooking.
Taar Korma
Ingredients
1 kg mutton cut into pieces, washed and patted dry
1 cup ghee
8 cardamom
5 cloves
1 tsp cinnamon, broken
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup yogurt, whisked
1/2 cup onion paste, fried
2 tbsp almond paste
1 tbsp sunflower seed paste
1 tbsp cashew nut paste
1 tsp chilli powder
3 cups lamb stock
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 tsp saffron, crushed and soaked in 1 tbsp warm milk
1/4 tsp cardamom, powdered
1/4 tsp cinnamon, powdered
1/4 tsp cloves, powdered
1/8 tsp nutmeg, powdered
A pinch mace powder
Method
Heat oil in a pan; crackle the whole spices. Sauté ginger-garlic paste till almost dry. Add the lamb, red chilli powder, onion paste, yoghurt, tomato puree, salt and stock. Cook till the meat is tender. Remove the lamb and strain the gravy into another pot. Blend dry fruits and sunflower seeds paste with little water; add to the gravy, add more stock and cook for two-three minutes. Pour gravy over the lamb. Mix in saffron, mace, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and cardamom powder. Cover, seal with dough and cook on dum for 25 minutes. Serve hot.
