If you have eaten harisa once, you cannot ignore it, goes an old Kashmiri saying.
As the temperature dips in the city, people in Kashmir turn to their traditional dishes that have helped them brave the freezing temperature over the centuries.
One of the choice foods consumed only during winters in Kashmir is harisa. It is eaten with gusto at special places in old and uptown Srinagar city.
While many locals have now started cooking the mutton-based preparation at their homes, the best harisa still comes from traditional cooks known as “harisa garows”.
The high-calorie delicacy requires hours of preparation that includes removing bones from the mutton, mincing it and mixing it with foeniculum seeds, cooked rice, cinnamon, cardamom and salt.
Harisa garows cook the dish in huge vessels on low flame through the night and stir it once in a while to ensure the broth does not stick to the vessel’s bottom.
Zahoor Ahmad, 39, sells harisa in Srinagar’s Ali Kadal area. His father and grandfather were renowned harisa makers of the city and many believe the best preparation is still sold at this small shop and a few others situated in Srinagar’s old city areas.
“It needs a minimum of eight hours to make the best preparation and this is done during the night,” said Ahmad, whose shop is abuzz with activity since early morning.
Customers, who had deposited their tiffin carriers and nickel-coated copper vessels a day earlier, arrive in vehicles from different parts of the city to carry the preparation back home.
Many locals also come to eat harisa at the shop, where Ahmad adds hot edible oil to their plates. The same practice is followed at another well-known harisa shop at Jamalatta in Nawa Kadal. As the hot oil sizzles, the aroma of harisa fills the shop.
“Normally, one cannot eat more than half a kilogram of harisa at one time. If you have eaten it in the morning, it makes for a full meal for the entire day. It keeps you warm and gives energy to sustain cold,” said a customer, who comes once a week to Srinagar from north Kashmir’s Ganderbal district to eat harisa at one of the shops and also carries some for his family.
With the rise in the price of mutton, harisa has also become costlier. Ahmad said it was sold for Rs 450 (Dh27) per kg last year. “Because of the increase in mutton prices we are selling harisa at Rs 550 per kilogram this year,” other shopkeepers said.
Those who don’t compromise on quality, don’t mind the increase in price.
“Every harisa seller is charging the same rate these days,” said one of the customers.
The delicacy is also popular as a gift. For the past few years, affluent Kashmiri families have started the practice of sending large quantities of harisa to the families of their newly-married daughters.
“Normally, a father sends five to seven kilograms of harisa to his daughter’s home. We dress such gifts with kebabs to make the dish look more attractive,” said the owner of the shop at Jamalatta.
A popular story about harisa that parents tell their children in Kashmir is about an Afghan governor of Kashmir who liked the dish so much that he did not know where to stop. He died of overeating.
