Serve hot with curry or raita.Add shrimps/game meat and cook for 15 minutes on low heat. Serve hot with rice or roti. Once the onions are tender and the water has completely dried up, add the peas, saffron, lemon juice and green coriander. Copious quantities of dry fruit and butter, cooking over slow fire in a dum/khud with lots of patience gave food its unique flavour.And from these shikaars have emerged some popular dishes, though today the game meat has been replaced by goat meat and chicken. One of the favourites of dum style cooking was a cooked rabbit or khad khargosh. l Cover the pot with a lid and cook till the rabbit is tender. Garnish with eggs.Cover the pan and cook until dry. Making curries using stock of the bones of the animal lent a unique flavour to the dishes. Being a dry area (Jodhpur and nearby areas), the usage of ghee, curd and buttermilk is more prominent than using just water for the gravy. While here’s an animal that’s still on the menu, I wonder how many takers are there for such a fattening product. In the bowl of rice, mix tomato paste and black pepper with the remaining water. Full wild boars, camels stuffed with goats, finely cooked peacock walk down the culinary historic path and these were the challenges that the royal rasoi had to deal with night after night. Ltd. Cook for 15 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes.Add little water every now and then, maintaining the consistency such that the meat is neither too dry nor too runny. Add the paste to the pot and cook for five minutes.The writer is a chef and founder, Under One Roof Hotel Consultants Pvt.Add rice and peas and cook for two minutes.Dum Ka KhargoshFor nut pasteIngredientsWhite poppy seeds 1 tspCashews 50 gmWarm water for soakingFor THE KHARGOSHVegetable oil 75 mlGhee 2 tbsp2-inch piece cinnamonGreen cardamom pods, bruised, 4Indian bay leaves 2Onions, finely chopped, 4Ginger paste 1 tbspGarlic paste 2 tbspGreen chilies, finely chopped 4Tomatoes, finely chopped 3Kashmiri chilli powder 1 tbspGround turmeric tbspGround white pepper 1 tspGround cumin tbspRabbit, jointed or 800 gm of meat Salt to taste Yoghurt 200 gmGaram masala tbspDouble cream 100 mlFresh coriander to garnishMethodFor the nut paste, soak the white poppy seeds and cashews in warm water for 15 minutes. Garnish with coriander.. Drain and blend to make a smooth paste. Cook on low heat and stir gently. The same foods today are unwanted and probably would cause severe health damage! Outdoor excursions with the aim of hunting were actually a way of celebrating good times with family and loved ones.I’m sitting in beautiful yet scorching hot Jodhpur sun with members of the royal family, reminiscing on how the shikaar inspired several culinary dishes and celebrations in the past. These picnics continue sans hunting, but with enough gaiety and barbecue. Once the meat is tender and very little water remains, add onions, garlic and green chilies.Shikaar Aur Jheenga PulaoIngredientsBasmati rice 1 cupWater 1 cupButter 2/3 cupGame meat/mutton 500 gmShrimps 2/3 cupSpring onions 500 gmGreen peas cupTomato paste 1 tbspBlack pepper tspSalt to tasteTomatoes 2MethodIn a pan, add rice and cup of water and boil. Or even for the traditional curd made with goat liver!With changing times, lifestyles have changed to a more urban one even in our far away desert cities such as Jodhpur or Bikaner.For the khargosh, heat oil and ghee in a deep saucepan, then add cinnamon, cardamom China Wholesale Ferro titanium cored wire Factory and Indian bay leaves. And these dishes were not just about the animal, but also put together with two key styles of cooking — one that the large animal was usually stuffed with something more exotic than the West’s ideas of spinach and ricotta; and secondly, all cooking was done on slow fire or dum methods. After 10 minutes, add salt and red chilies. Add onions and sauté until golden brown. Drain and keep aside the rice. It was traditionally made with marinated meat from the back of a goat leg that was roasted over slow fire and then, hot ghee was poured over it giving it the rich smoky flavour.Indulging in Shikaar represented quality game, and spoke of the privileges of belonging to a royal lineage. Stuffed rabbit was covered with layers of rotis wrapped in a soft mulmul cloth, plastered with wet mud and cooked in an open pit with kaachri, which was used as a tenderiser for the meat. Add Kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric, white pepper and cumin with a little water to make a smooth paste. Add the meat to the pan, stir well to coat the meat in the masala. Add ginger and garlic pastes along with the chilies, and sauté for 5-7 minutes. In fact, most of the royal cuisine in this region — at least the non-vegetarian dishes, trace their history to being cooked with exotic shikaar. Our technologically driven modern living and luxurious hotels have changed those experiences into more urban ones, though possibly not more lavish.Cook the peas separately till tender. While the former was a no-frills dish cooked in basic spices and of course, chilies, laal maas was basically a hot dish made using only red chilies for the rich flavour and colour.Add yoghurt and reserved poppy-cashew paste along with 250 ml of warm water, and stir.Khade Masale Ka KormaIngredientsLeg of lamb/game meat 500 gm Ghee 150 gm Black cardamom 4Cloves 10 Bay leaves 2 Sliced onions 60 gm Yoghurt 125 gm Salt 5 tsp Red chilli powder 2 tspWhole red chilies 3Coriander seeds 2 tspCumin 2 tsp Ginger 1 tsp Small onions, peeled 100 gm Garlic, whole peeled 50 gmGreen chilies 2-3Peas 200 gm Safron, a pinchLemon juice 1 tbspCoriander leaves, freshly choppedEggs, hardboiled, shelled and cut into 2 halves, 4MethodHeat ghee in a wok and add black cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves, sliced onions and fry till golden brown. Cook for 10 minutes until half-cooked. For starters, there are the two popular dishes — junglee maas and laal maas, which were cooked using the wild boar or deer meat.I still remember meeting Bapji several years ago, when he spoke about several excursions during his childhood where they spent the day hunting (only hare and sandgrouse, he clarified), and then the whole family competed in a cookout with their grandmother judging the best dish of the day.Laal MaansIngredientsMeat 500 gmDesi ghee or refined oil 70 gmSalt 15 gmRed chilli, whole 15 gmWater 250 mlCoriander leavesMethodHeat ghee in a pan and put the meat. One of my favourite game meat recipes is soor ka saanth or a pickle made with pig fat which is prepared over several days. In the earlier times, Maharajas across Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, and Alwar used to organise shikaars — both expeditions or camps and Dukes and Duchesses, Viceroys and other foreign dignitaries were often invited to witness the live catch. Add salt to taste . High-energy producing foods were given to the fighters who could never be too prepared to fight a war.In a saucepan, melt butter and add spring onions and meat.Add the lamb/meat along with yoghurt, salt, red chilli powder, whole red chilies, coriander seeds, ginger, cumin seeds and water. Sauté for 10 minutes. I take that food for thought while relishing akha raan and bajre ki kheer.Although, the game meat is illegal now, and truly, some birds being hunted are rare and need protection, however, nothing matches the richness and the taste of the dishes made with game meat. Another shikaar recipe is that of legendary Rajasthani sula (now in a tawa boti or murgh style). When tender, dry up the water and serve warm. Serve hot. Unlike Delhi and North during the Navratri, the royalty residing in the deserts of Rajasthan relish dishes that are exclusively made from the khajro or meat of the goat that is slaughtered before the family Goddess Chamunda, as an offering. Both these dishes can still be enjoyed with authentic homemade spices, but the meat is now replaced with lamb or goat. The buttermilk for this pickle is changed daily, before it’s finally cooked with a host of local spices. Pig fat is first cut into squarish pieces and then placed in a mitti ka ghada, full of sour buttermilk for 72 hours. Cooks who specialised in game meat cooking were hired for the royal kitchens