The Supper Club by Zafran.

I posted a while ago bemoaning the lack of good Kashmiri food in Bangalore. Well that was soon resolved thanks to Owais Rasool’s exceptional Wullar Kitchen which offers the best Kashmiri Wazwan food I’ve had south of the Aravalis.  

Then I heard about The Supper Club by Zafran which people claimed was as good so I had to try it out.  Started by the wonderfully talented Neetu Jalali, it also allowed me to eat Kashmiri Pandit food. Though both cuisines have many similarities, they are clear differences between Wazwan and Pandit food. Pandit food doesn’t use onion and garlic (or even tomatoes in previous generations). The gravies are not as heavy, the food is generally a bit lighter and there’s a lot more fish, especially trout. 

I had a fantastic meal as part of their delivery special, so now I’m planning to order a lot more of their food, especially if she does a nice mutton pulao soon. 

Here’s what I ate that day with a bit of background in Neetu’s own words.. it really brings alive the though behind each dish in a way I could never dream of describing, helping me appreciate and understand each dish so much more. 

Thank you Neetu for a wonderful meal and for taking the time to explain it!

Rogan Josh

My Rogan Josh is an attempt at the actual Persian one; from where our Rogan Josh has travelled to Kashmir via the silk route, we boil lamb with all healthy dry spices, drain it then add a bit of ghee to mutton with our traditional ginger, saunf masala and v little red chilli. Slow cook it for an hour or more. To get the colour for our Roganjosh, I use dry Mawal (cockscomb flower) from Kashmir; it’s used in wazwan but I use it for my roganjosh too (separate post on insta)

Apricot Mutton

I believe this dish dates back to Royal Nawab times however it’s very similar to Moroccan Lamb Tagine & Persian dish too.

We would stock apricots from Ladakh for winters and cook this mutton called Chaer maaz or chaer syun during extreme winters & keep the stones as it is   much to my dislike , all kids in the family had a job which was to extract kernels out of that, make a paste using mortar & pestle that was used for marinating , I still do that minus mortar bit. Garnish traditionally with walnuts but I use sesame seeds – just a variation

 

Just when autumn starts, we get a fresh produce of Apricots and orchards are flooded, we will make best use of these fresh apricots with our mutton but since they are more sweet than the dried, we add little tamarind or lemon. We also do a sweet called Apricot Kheer(separate post on Insta)

 

And it goes for Plums, Apples, cherries, mulberries & so many other fruits

We just use them to make wholesome dish. The idea was to make use of local produce as much as we could be it apples, walnuts, almonds, red chilli, green chilli, vegetables, our own meat stock, milk, almost everything. During  peak summer we sun dry almost all vegetables, fruits & fish so we can use them during winters 

 

 

Yellow Rice

We will always have yellow rice at home if not white rice. It symbolises prosperity, harvest and good will. If there was a special occasion at home, family would cook lots of this rice & send us (children) to distribute it amongst neighbours and in return we will get salt , sugar, dry fruits whatever they are able to afford at that point of time. This was a way to get to know their haal chaal too so it would also act as a messenger since we didn't have phones. So that's the reason I never do white rice in my platter. I want everyone to stay healthy and with yellow rice I send good will and get the same in return. 

Also since we don't produce coconut, it was a prized commodity then hence you’ll see only one or two on top and I still follow the same 

 

Buz Wangun

wangun (aurbergine) is one such element in our food that kind of  is available throughout the year . Its used as an accompaniment with other red gravies so we can tone down the heat /spices coming from lamb or veg dishes like Dam aloo/chok wangun (tangy aubergine) etc.. We don't add tahini like how in Middle East they do, instead add simple curd that’s available in abundance throughout. Traditionally green chillies are used but I do not use them as I feel it interferes with the aubergine base too much. Do use roasted cumin though and I put dried mint too

 

Phirni

Phirni traditionally like any other region is cooked night before and let it set. Saffron is soaked overnight and that milk is used to get the yellow colour for the phirni.