In today's weekly episode Anubhav joins home chef Yojna Khanduri Chaudhary to explore some rustic Gharwali non veg delicacies. Through her Instagram handle @the_himalayan_rasoiya, she has been introducing people to Uttarakhand's vibrant food culture.
We met Yojna ji and her family at the beautiful Juniyali Resort situated in Dwara village in Dehradun. Over a cup of hot chai and a traditional sweet snack called Roat, we got to know about popular some pahadi non veg delicacies.
Soon after we headed to the kitchen set up in the open to start the cooking process. We were going to witness the making of three dishes, one of which was a dessert. First was the turn of Bhuni Bhutwa which is a spicy rich curry made of goat's offal. For this Yojna's younger brother Paritosh first cleansed the offal thoroughly with lots of turmeric powder and water and set it aside. Then she prepared a masala paste on a grinding stone with a whole lot of ingredients like onion, ginger, garlic, chillies, aromatic spices, bhang seeds etc.
Next she put the offal into a pressure cooker, fried it thoroughly and followed it with tomato puree. In nearly 40 mins the dish was ready. Paritosh then started with the mutton jhol preparation. For this he marinated mutton in curd and turmeric powder and left it to rest for a few mins. Then Yojna ji heated some mustard oil in a pressure cooker and tempered it with jakhiya and faran. She added the mutton and followed it up with masala paste and tomato puree. After 5 to 6 whistles the mutton was ready.
It was time to make the dessert, jhangore ki kheer. It is a thick and creamy dessert made of barnyard millet, milk and sugar.
Soon we all sat down to enjoy this inviting meal that consisted of rice, roti, mutton jhol bhuni bhutwa and jhangore ki kheer. Everything was quite unique but the offal based dish was definitely an acquired taste. The eating experience was heightened by the stories and anecdotes shared by our hosts.
At the end of it we were glad to learn about various aspects of the pahadi cuisine that is all about local ingredients