Beyond roganjosh: Expats talk about what makes Kashmiri cuisine unique

Uncle Ghulam a Kashmiri shawl seller who had a long relationship with our family used to give me unshelled walnuts and taught me how to crack them open. To a four-year-old that was pure wonderment. More so because he would tell me stories about how these beautiful looking nuts grew in their backyard. How they could simply pluck these off the trees to snack on. These are some of the earliest stories that I heard about a beautiful place called Kashmir that I got the chance to visit in the summer of 2008. Obviously, I went there with a firm belief that you can pluck walnuts off the trees that everyone had in their backyard. I wasn’t disappointed because I found not only walnuts but also apples.

Since I was there to attend the wedding of my university friends, I was exposed to rituals, traditions, culture of Kashmir with food taking the centrestage. Until this trip, mutton roganjosh was all I knew about Kashmiri food. The trip introduced me to authentic Kashmiri cuisine. The five days that I spent in Kashmir was nothing short of a culinary marathon. Mornings would typically start with a cup of traditional Kashmiri noon chai and girda or freshly baked flatbread [smeared with butter] bought from the neighbouring baker. I’d enjoy this simple yet filling breakfast over endless yesteryear stories of the valley narrated by my friend’s then octogenarian grandfather as he smoked the hookah. First day into my trip I started seeing my friend’s backyard filling up with a team of cooks called wazas and their ornate utensils. In between pounding spices and meat they merrily tapped their feet to Kashmiri folk songs. On the wedding day the grandeur of wazwan, the elaborate feast was a sight to behold. One thing that I found funny was how each guest at the wedding walked away with packed food bags without any hesitance. “It’s our way of curbing food wastage,” my friend explained.

Years later, as I write this piece, memories came flooding back. This time I also learnt about many deeper cultural nuances that define the Kashmiri cuisine.

Different cooking styles yet many commonalities

Besides the use of seasonal produces, fresh ingredients and spices and the process of slow cooking, it’s the cultural influences that add richness to the Kashmiri cuisine. A cuisine that has evolved over hundreds of years with influences from Central Asia, Iran and even North Indian plains. Today the Kashmiri cuisine is marked by two different cooking styles; of the Pandits and the Muslims. The main difference between the two styles is the use of onion and garlic by Kashmiri Muslims. While Kashmiri Pandits do not use onion and garlic in their dishes.

“I didn’t even know the taste of garlic until I turned 22,” said Aditi Shishoo, India-based fourth generation Kashmiri Pandit living outside the valley.

On the other hand, rice is the staple food for both the communities. “We have rice twice a day,” confirmed Syed Faiq a UAE-based Kashmiri Muslim. “While I was growing up in Kashmir, one of my favourite dishes was saffron rice with aab gosht or meat in white gravy slow cooked with milk, spices and ghee.

“In our home too, we hardly eat flatbreads or chapatis for meals. Although we can cook an elaborate Kashmiri meal, we are not great at making chapatis. At the age of 85, now when my grandmother rolls flatbread, it’s a sense of achievement for her,” Shishoo joked.

Haak is another common dish made by both communities. It is a spinach variant made as a vegetarian dish or with meat called haak maaz. While the yakhni style food preparation in milk, yogurt-based white gravy is also common between the communities.

A unique element of the Kashmiri cuisine is the use of fennel and ginger powder. “These two spices keep the body warm,” Shishoo explained. “That’s why we add these two spices in almost all dishes including lentils. Ground black cumin (kala jeera) is also widely used in our home. We also add saffron in almost everything from tea, rice, meat-based dishes as well as sweets.”

Any reference to Kashmir is hardly ever complete without the mention of kehwa, traditionally prepared green tea with saffron, cinnamon, cardamon and served with pieces of almonds. “Unlike any other part of India where tea is usually consumed before meals, we drink kehwa after meals. The natural oil from almonds adds a buttery flavour to kehwa and the crunchy aftertaste is quite filling. These days rose petals and walnuts are added to kehwa to give it a modern twist that mainly appeal to non-Kashmiris.”

Faiq said: “Like a true Kashmiri, I’m very fond of kehwa, but the milk version or doodh kehwa which tends to be a festive drink on Eid. And it tastes heavenly when drunk out of the samovars, the copper vessels that keep the tea almost boiling. Yet another favourite dish among Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits is kanti or meat cooked in spicy red curry. We make it with a lot of onion, tomato and vinegar.”

Preparation is an integral part of Kashmiri cooking

Harsh winter in Kashmir makes availability of fresh produce difficult, so people residing in the valley start drying locally grown fruits, vegetables and even fish from September onwards to be consumed during the colder months. “The preserved vegetables are used to cook various dishes with or without meat. In that sense this kind of rigorous preparation also makes the cuisine unique. For example, an all-time favourite winter delicacy for us is harissa or slow cooked meat for almost 12 hours until it takes on a smooth paste-like consistency,” Faiq elaborated.

While authentic Kashmiri Pandit home-cooked meal typically includes rice, a paneer preparation mostly chaman kaliya or paneer in yellow gravy, dum aloo, rajma, yakhni, walnut/radish chutney and curd.

Sharing her love for authentic Kashmiri food Shishoo added, “Like most children love fries, we Kashmiris love nadru chips made from lotus stems. It’s hard to find delicious lotus stems outside of Kashmir, which must be painstakingly cleaned before cooking. One of my favourite dishes is nadru yakhni . Over the years I’ve realised that more than the recipes it’s the way the dishes are prepared, slow cooked with spices from Kashmir that make them deliciously unique.”

Rituals and emotions surrounding food

The Kashmiri cuisine is also marked by various rituals and associated emotions. To the world, wazwan is popular for the 30-plus authentic vegetarian and non-vegetarian Kashmiri dishes that are served. “But the beauty of wazwan goes beyond the dishes,” Faiq emphasised. “It is more about nurturing the sense of community by sharing food. Even the way wazwan is served highlights the community element where four people eat from a trami or a large plate. Alongside happy occasions like wedding and festivals, the waza also comes when there is a death in the family to prepare a much simpler fare so that family, relatives and friends can still share a meal together from the trami. It symbolises the strength of being together during good and bad times.”

The cuisine is also characterised by festive food. “During Ramzaan (Ramadan) my mother would make phirni or a creamy dessert made of semolina and flavoured with saffron for iftar. Sheermaal or saffron-flavoured sweet flatbread is another favourite festive snack that’s usually had with noon chai. On Eid sewaiyaan or vermicelli cooked in milk and sugar with saffron and dry fruits is a must. Since the 1920s doodh kehwa has also been a festive drink,” he added.

Meanwhile, Shivratri that honours the deity Shiva, is the main festival for Kashmiri Pandits. “We offer unshelled walnuts soaked in water as offering (or prasad) to mark the festival. We also cook the auspicious tahaer or yellow rice on Shivratri and in fact on all special occasions especially on birthdays. Our festive celebrations are incomplete without a big fat Kashmiri feast although we don’t call it wazwan,” Shishoo said.

“Kashmiriyat is an emotion for us. It is defined by our spices, ingredients and even utensils. Most of all it’s our identity and an emotion that we hold on to and pass on to the future generations,” both Faiq and Shishoo concluded.

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