The most interesting aspect of Bohri cuisine -- which is uniquely different from other Muslim styles of cooking for, its special Gujarati and other accents -- is the way it is eaten.
A Bohri meal is served on an oversized thaal, placed at least a foot above the ground, on a platform or stool.
It usually begins with a pinch of salt, which stimulates the appetite.
The first course is mithaas or a dessert and it is followed by a savoury or khaaras. As the meal progresses it alternates between sweet and savoury dishes, several times.
A simple home meal typically contains only two mithaas and one khaaras. The main course, called jamaan, includes assorted bread, rice dishes, mostly served with a soup and meat dishes.
Bohri cuisine is a fascinating blend of different regional and religious influences as the community, who comprised traders, travelled widely and thus their styles of cooking evolved.
Bohri white mutton curry -- rich and creamy, and mildly spiced -- is a traditional dish.
It typically uses a paste, made from almonds, cashews, pistachios, poppy seeds (khuskhus), chironji (charoli or Cuddapah almonds), to achieve its characteristic white colour and thick gravy and is finished with cream or milk.
Adrika Anand sources a recipe for this mutton delicacy from Hyderabad-based Khadija Mustansir Kaukawala, who calls herself a 'dedicated home maker turned entrepreneurial home chef'. She runs The Bohra Cuisine.
With over 20 years of experience in Bohri food catering, Kaukawala might play host to three Bohri thaals per month at her Secunderabad home.
From Fazela Murtuza Chunawala, Adrika accesses the ingredients and method of preparation for Khichada or Haleem, the meat-in-porridge Bohri special. Chunawala, who fulfils party orders, is behind the Dahod-located The Bohra Cuisine kitchen in eastern Gujarat, close to the Madhya Pradesh border.
Photograph: Khadija Mustansir Kaukawala for Rediff
White Mutton Curry
Recipe by Khadija Mustansir Kaukawala
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
For the mutton
- ½ kg bone-in mutton pieces,
- 4-5 green chillies
- 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
- Salt to taste, about 1½ tsp
- Water
For the nut paste
- 7 almonds, blanched and peeled
- 50 gm cashews, blanched
- 20 gm chironji or charoli or Cuddapah almonds, soaked, optional
- 1 tsp khuskhus or poppy seeds, soaked
- 1-2 tbsp milk, for blending
For the curry base
- 2 tbsp oil
- Few black peppercorns,
- 5-6 laung or cloves
- 5-6 sticks dalcheeni or cinnamon
- 1 tbsp whisked yogurt,
- 2 tbsp water for the gravy
For the tempering or tadka
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 2 tbsp jeera or cumin seeds,
- Few curry leaves
- 10 dried red chillies
Method
- In a pressure cooker, over medium heat, cook the mutton with the ginger-garlic paste, salt, green chillies, water until tender, about 4-6 whistles.
Take off heat, keep aside to cool and allow the pressure to release naturally.
- Blend the nuts and the seeds with the milk in a mixer to make a smooth paste.
Keep aside
- In a large saucepan, sauté the whole spices for the curry in the oil over medium heat, then add the cooked mutton and sauté briefly.
Stir in the nut paste, add the water, salt, and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat down and simmer over low heat after adding yoghurt.
- Meanwhile, heat the ghee for the tempering in a small frying pan/tadka pan over medium heat and add the cumin seeds, curry leaves, chillies.
Let crackle and pour over the mutton curry.
- Serve hot with naans, rotis, or steamed rice.
Photograph: Fazela Murtuza Chunawala for Rediff
Haleem or Khichada
Recipe by Fazela Murtuza Chunawala
Serves: 5-6
Ingredients
- 500 gm khandela gehu or dalia or broken wheat
- 2 cups water, boiling hot
- 1 kg mutton, curry pieces
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- Few fresh mint leaves, chopped
- Large handful fresh green dhania or coriander leaves or cilantro, chopped
- 4-5 limes, sliced, for garnish
- 30 gm dark green chillies
- 150 gm ginger paste
- 100 gm garlic paste
- 2 tsp jeera or cumin seed
- 1 cup oil
- ½ cup ghee
- 1 tsp garam masala
- Salt to taste, about 3-4 tsp
- 3-4 onions, sliced and fried into birasta
Method
- Soak the broken wheat in hot boiling water overnight.
The following day, drain the water from the wheat and transfer the soaked broken wheat into a pressure cooker with 2 cups hot boiling water.
Add in the roughly chopped onions, ½ of the oil and cook over medium heat for 10-15 whistles.
Open the pressure cooker and let the wheat completely cool down.
Using a hand blender, blend the wheat completely.
Keep aside.
- In another pressure cooker, add the mutton, green chillies, ginger paste, about 2 tsp salt and cook over medium heat for 10-12 whistles.
Open the pressure cooker and let the meat cool.
Shred the mutton and remove the bones and keep the water ie mutton stock aside.
In a large saucepan add the blended wheat, shredded mutton, mutton stock and warm over low heat.
- Meanwhile, heat the ghee and the remaining ½ cup oil for the tempering in a frying pan/tadka pan over medium heat.
Add in the cumin seeds, the garlic paste, about 1 tsp salt and sauté.
Add the tadka to the mutton-blended wheat mixture and mix it well.
Now add in the garam masala, birasta, chopped coriander, chopped mint leaves and cook it for 10 minutes more on low heat.
- Serve with lemon/lime wedges for garnish.