The Mughal emperor Jahangir called Jammu Kashmir as the heaven on earth. A beautiful place, which I would love to visit sometime…
Like I said before, the place I stay has people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. I put this Kashmir thali too with a neighbour’s help. The restaurants had me believe that Kashmiri food was all sweet and nutty. Now, that’s far from truth.
You get really spicy food there, mainly non vegetarian.Given that Kashmir is a very cold place, it makes a lot of sense. My neighbour also suggested radish chutney (its more of a salad, if I am right) and lotus stem curry. I was not able to get these two things, else I would have loved to feature them also here.
Another thing I learnt was that their regular cooking doesn’t include onions and garlic much. If I remember right, turmeric powder is also not used much. The Kashmiri chilli/chilli powder is a must, though.
This khatte baingan was a new recipe for me. This is eggplant cooked with tamarind (khatte means sour/tart).
Next was the saag. The Kashmiri saag is not easily available here. It’s the knol khol/kholrabi’s leaves. I used a bunch of palak (a variety of spinach) for making this saag.
I followed a recipe on-line to make this simple green leafy preparation.
And of course the dum aloo! How can we forget the Kashmiri dum aloo?! Parboiled baby potatoes (again, I had only big potatoes and so I diced them up) deep fried later and then simmered on a spicy yogurt gravy…
I took a lot of short cuts here and so mine weren’t the royal dum aloos, just ordinary ones :D. I didn’t deep fry, I didn’t even shallow fry the potatoes. Those are just boiled potatoes in the curry. In my enthusiasm, I overcooked the gravy and so ended up with a thicker curry. But anyway, it tasted fine, so no complaints there.
The Menu:
- Kashmiri Dum Aloo : A Kashmiri spicy potato preparation, with yogurt.
- Khatte Baingan : Brinjal cooked in tamarind, sour and tangy in taste.
- Saag : Green leafy preparation using palak spinach.
- Rice
My Kitchen Trials 
Agree with Mir. Wish we had some of your neighbors to help us out. :) Khatte baingan looks very inviting and not to mention the saag. I love leafy vegetables. My first pick for this state was dum aloo but ended up making a different dish. Simple yet, nice thali
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wish I had all your neighbors to help me:)
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Simple and comforting dish, Looks great dear..
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That khatte baingan is calling my name. All the dishes sound simple and easy enough to make.
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Both kohlrabi leaves n kohlrabis are very popular up there in the north. Very neat representation of J & K.
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Such beautifully made dishes..all three of them are looking so inviting..
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When I grew kohlrabis a few years ago, I had used the leaves and they were on slightly bitter side. I bet spinach tastes a lot better.
I would like to try that baingan dish.
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Nice looking thali. Rajani, you are doing an amazing job for this BM…
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very simple and natural looking dishes, just like the state
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Dum aloo here on my blog too ! I envy the sunlight on ur clicks ;-))
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Absolutely delicious looking platter…
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such a homey and comforting platter!!! very elegant
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simple everyday food that’s tasty and wholesome – love the saag and dum aloo
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Kashmir is heaven..full of beauty and amazing food..they have rich as well as simple dishes..I too love their saag , dum aaloo is a signature dish, wish you could have got lotus stem..the set up is amazing and the combination is perfect..needless to talk about clicks:))..Super as ever.
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Rajani even i thought that Kashmiri foods are sweet and nuts stuffed dishes until i bought a Kashmiri cookbook. Your Kashmiri platter is very comforting with healthy foods.
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