Just won’t know where to stop with this Kashmir delicacy

Sheikh Qayoom

Srinagar

If you have eaten harisa once, you simply cannot ignore it, goes the old saying in Kashmir.

As the winter chill becomes more biting, Kashmiris are using traditional foods that have sustained them over the centuries to brave the fury of the freezing temperatures. One of the choice foods prepared only during the winter months and eaten with gusto at special places in old and uptown Srinagar city is ‘harisa’.

While many locals have now started making the mutton-based preparation in their homes, the best harisa still comes from traditional cooks known as ‘harisagarows’.

The high-calorie delicacy requires long hours of preparation, which includes removing bones from the mutton, mincing it vigorously and mixing it with foeniculum seeds, cooked rice, cinnamon, cardamom and salt to taste.

Harisa is cooked for the entire night by traditional cooks in huge vessels over simmering fires, with the alert cooks stirring with a long wooden staff to ensure that the broth does not stick to the vessel’s bottom.

Zahoor Ahmad, 39, has his harisa shop in Srinagar’s Ali Kadal area. Zahoor’s father and grandfather have been renowned Harisa makers of the city and many buyers believe the best stuff 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,” told Zahoor.

At first light, Zahoor leaves his shop for morning prayers at a nearby mosque. When he returns, the shop is abuzz with activity.

Buyers who had deposited their tiffin carriers and nickel-coated copper vessels arrive in vehicles from different parts of the city to carry the preparation home.

Many locals of the area come to eat inside the shop, where Zahoor adds boiling edible oil to the plates of Harisa laid for his customers.

The same practice is followed at another well-known harisa shop at Jamalatta in NawaKadal. 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 brave the winter cold,” said a customer who comes once a week from north Kashmir’s Ganderbal district to eat at the one of the harisa shops in the old city and also carry home some in a tiffin carrier for his family.

As mutton prices rise, so does the price of harisa. Zahoor said it was sold for Rs.450 per kg last year.

“Because of the increase in mutton prices we are selling harisa at Rs.550 per kilogram this year,” other sellers said.

Those who wouldn’t compromise on quality don’t mind the price increase.

“Every harisa seller is charging the same rate these days,” said one of the buyers.

The more affluent Kashmiri families have since some years started the practice of sending large quantities of Harisa to the families of their newly-married daughters. Zahoor says this has become a practice that many affluent families have now taken to.

“Normally, a well-to-do father sends anything between five to seven kilograms of harisa to his daughter’s new home. We dress such gifts with kebabs to make the dish more attractive”, said the owner of the shop at Jamalatta.

A story still told to children by parents is about an Afghan governor of Kashmir in the past who liked the dish so much that he did not know where to stop. He simply over-ate himself to death.

Ingredients:

Meat- 1 kg (chopped into very small pieces)
Garlic cloves- 4
Onions- 1/2 kg (chopped in chunks)
Peppercorn (kali mirch whole)- 8 no’s

Fennel seeds(saunf, not powdered fennel)-1/2 cup
Cloves(laung)- 4
Cinnamon stick (daalchini)- 2 no’s
Big brown cardamom(badielaichi)- 4 no’s
Green cardamoms(chotielaichi)- 8 no’s
Salt to taste
Dried ginger powder(shounth)- 1 tbsp
Oil- 1 and 1/2 cup
Rice flour- 1/2 cup
Milk- 250 ml
Water- 1 litre
Crispy fried Onion- 1 cup (for garnish immediately before serving)

Method:
1. In a pressure cooker add chopped meat, water and all the ingredients except oil, milk and rice flour.
2. Cook on Medium high heat, and turn down the heat to simmer after 2 whistles. Let it simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Turn off the heat and leave it like that till all the pressure is released.
3. Open the lid of pressure cooker and stir with a wooden spoon (choncha) till all the ingredients mix up.
4. Remove the bones, if any and the cardamom covers, cloves and cinnamonsticks, if visible.
5. Put the rice flour in 1-cup cold water and make a paste.

6. Put the pressure cooker back on flame and add the rice flour paste and keep stirring the mixture.
7. Now add milk and then add about 1 cup oil.
8. Cook it on medium high heat, stirring every 2 minutes until you get the desired consistency, may be for about 45 minutes till oil starts leaving the sides of the cooker.
9. Serve hot with crispy fried onions and oil on top, preferably with kashmiri bread.
{Chop the meat into very small pieces so that you wont require much more stirring }