Make It To Eat It: Rogan Josh
This post is a contributor post by Suki Lotti, blogger at one sneaky moose. Aside from blogging, she assists Colleen as Giveaway Manage, occasionally chimes in on Facebook, and any other role as requested.
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Before I begin, let me add a disclaimer that I am not an expert in anything. I'm a decent cook but I lack many skills still. Especially presentation so forgive the photos for not looking fantastic. :-)
Most of my exposure to Indian food has occurred in the past six years after being married. My husband loves ethnic foods. So do I. But one that I hadn't had much of was Indian food. I'm sure my parents fed me some at one point during my young years because they fed us a wide variety of foods. And whenever we learned about a country, we cooked at least one meal from that country. However, my first memory of Indian food was at my sister-in-law's house (Linda--you've met her right here on Colleen's blog). There was this one Indian restaurant that my husband and Linda's husband loved. They ordered take out one time and I only remember naan and lamb saag. But I tried a little bit of everything. My mouth was on fire within two bites. Maybe three. I'm sure I made it past one bite!
Since then I've been to other Indian restaurants and tasted a wide variety of Indian food. There was one restaurant where you could ask them to adjust the heat but we found that that also made the dish a little bland. At least at that restaurant. One thing was very clear to me. Indian food is full of flavor. And heat. But the flavor is amazing! If I could stand the heat.....
Rogan Josh is a curry dish from the Kashmir region. It is a popular dish in India and Pakistan (and I'm sure some other places around there). Rogan Josh means heated in oil. Again, something like that.... (reminder: Suki is not an expert.) You braise the meat in a sauce of yogurt and garlic and tons of spices that make your mouth water when the scent fills the air. Braising meat is just cooking the meat for a while in a sauce. So plan a few hours for this dish. I believe the dish is traditionally made with whole dried chilies that are de-seeded. Good thing I didn't see that recipe first or I would have run quickly away!
The recipe I followed is a paleo version so there are some non-traditional substitutions that you will see. For example, coconut milk instead of yogurt. (A paleo way of eat is typically grain-free, dairy-free, and processed sugar-free.) I found it in an e-cookbook I own but I was thrilled to find that it is also on the internet so I can share it with you. Click here for the recipe.
I used beef instead of lamb and it was still fantastic. I made a homemade blend of rogan josh because I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy the blend. I started this right after lunch and then just turned off the stove after it was done cooking until I needed to heat it up for dinner. Oh! Also, I used 1 1/2 lbs of beef but kept everything else the same.
[image error]
Before I start cooking, I like to gather up all of my ingredients. Yup, 11 spices! Full of flavor.
[image error]
Water, coconut milk, onion, coconut oil, beef. I'm so glad this part was simple because... 11 spices!!
[image error]
I really followed the recipe's advice and let the meat sit there and brown without touching it. It wasn't too difficult because I was also making the spice blend at the same time. I wasn't "watching the water boil"!
[image error]
Oh, that makes my nose tingle just by looking at the picture! Remember... 11 spices! That still just blows my mind since many recipes have 2 or 3. 5 is plentiful. So 11 is mind boggling. The aroma is superb. Actually, at this point, you will think the aroma is superb.
[image error]
Now THIS was the hard part. The two hour long simmer. (Followed by 1 1/2 hours resting before reheating it again for dinner.) The smell in my house was amazing! It drew my brother in who promptly tried to snitch some meat.
[image error]
The taste test. The moment when I finally get to taste 11 spices that has had time to get down and boogie with the meat. Trust me, guys. You should make this at least once!
[image error]
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We ate the rogan josh with rice and roasted cabbage. The sour cream was an after thought on account of the spiciness. Our poor taste buds just couldn't handle it!
There are four of us in this household. We all have one thing to say. HOLY SMOKE!!! No really, I thought I would turn into a dragon and begin to breath fire. We pulled out the milk to drink and the sour cream to help. BUT. We loved the flavor. We adored the flavor! We want to make this again. But dial back that cayenne pepper by at least half....
[image error]
Before I begin, let me add a disclaimer that I am not an expert in anything. I'm a decent cook but I lack many skills still. Especially presentation so forgive the photos for not looking fantastic. :-)
Most of my exposure to Indian food has occurred in the past six years after being married. My husband loves ethnic foods. So do I. But one that I hadn't had much of was Indian food. I'm sure my parents fed me some at one point during my young years because they fed us a wide variety of foods. And whenever we learned about a country, we cooked at least one meal from that country. However, my first memory of Indian food was at my sister-in-law's house (Linda--you've met her right here on Colleen's blog). There was this one Indian restaurant that my husband and Linda's husband loved. They ordered take out one time and I only remember naan and lamb saag. But I tried a little bit of everything. My mouth was on fire within two bites. Maybe three. I'm sure I made it past one bite!
Since then I've been to other Indian restaurants and tasted a wide variety of Indian food. There was one restaurant where you could ask them to adjust the heat but we found that that also made the dish a little bland. At least at that restaurant. One thing was very clear to me. Indian food is full of flavor. And heat. But the flavor is amazing! If I could stand the heat.....
Rogan Josh is a curry dish from the Kashmir region. It is a popular dish in India and Pakistan (and I'm sure some other places around there). Rogan Josh means heated in oil. Again, something like that.... (reminder: Suki is not an expert.) You braise the meat in a sauce of yogurt and garlic and tons of spices that make your mouth water when the scent fills the air. Braising meat is just cooking the meat for a while in a sauce. So plan a few hours for this dish. I believe the dish is traditionally made with whole dried chilies that are de-seeded. Good thing I didn't see that recipe first or I would have run quickly away!
The recipe I followed is a paleo version so there are some non-traditional substitutions that you will see. For example, coconut milk instead of yogurt. (A paleo way of eat is typically grain-free, dairy-free, and processed sugar-free.) I found it in an e-cookbook I own but I was thrilled to find that it is also on the internet so I can share it with you. Click here for the recipe.
I used beef instead of lamb and it was still fantastic. I made a homemade blend of rogan josh because I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy the blend. I started this right after lunch and then just turned off the stove after it was done cooking until I needed to heat it up for dinner. Oh! Also, I used 1 1/2 lbs of beef but kept everything else the same.
[image error]
Before I start cooking, I like to gather up all of my ingredients. Yup, 11 spices! Full of flavor.
[image error]
Water, coconut milk, onion, coconut oil, beef. I'm so glad this part was simple because... 11 spices!!
[image error]
I really followed the recipe's advice and let the meat sit there and brown without touching it. It wasn't too difficult because I was also making the spice blend at the same time. I wasn't "watching the water boil"!
[image error]
Oh, that makes my nose tingle just by looking at the picture! Remember... 11 spices! That still just blows my mind since many recipes have 2 or 3. 5 is plentiful. So 11 is mind boggling. The aroma is superb. Actually, at this point, you will think the aroma is superb.
[image error]
Now THIS was the hard part. The two hour long simmer. (Followed by 1 1/2 hours resting before reheating it again for dinner.) The smell in my house was amazing! It drew my brother in who promptly tried to snitch some meat.
[image error]
The taste test. The moment when I finally get to taste 11 spices that has had time to get down and boogie with the meat. Trust me, guys. You should make this at least once!
[image error]
[image error]
We ate the rogan josh with rice and roasted cabbage. The sour cream was an after thought on account of the spiciness. Our poor taste buds just couldn't handle it!
There are four of us in this household. We all have one thing to say. HOLY SMOKE!!! No really, I thought I would turn into a dragon and begin to breath fire. We pulled out the milk to drink and the sour cream to help. BUT. We loved the flavor. We adored the flavor! We want to make this again. But dial back that cayenne pepper by at least half....
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message 1:
by
Aminah G
(new)
Apr 24, 2013 10:45AM
Looks good.
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"Rogan Josh is the pride of kashmir."atleast that's what my kashmiri friend say's who would as well die of sorrow if it isn't made in the weekends.unfortunately i am a veggie.so don't really know how it tastes.but yeah all indian foods are full of spices!!!we simply hate bland.
