Aab Gosht at Sarposh, Bangalore

Thanks to a conversation between my friends Marryam Reshii, one of India’s greatest food writers, and Azmat Ali Mir, the owner of Sarposh I had a really remarkable dish last week, on I had never tried before. 

Dab Gosht is a special dish, beloved by everyone in Kashmir from little kids to their grandmothers. Lamb shoulder cooked in milk with cardamom and a hint of cinnamon and fennel. It’s a wonderful dish, warm and comforting, and to be honest you don’t even need the meat (except to add depth to the broth). I could have a few bowls of that broth by itself, or with some Kashmiri saffron rice. It’s a little sweet but not cloyingly so, balance by the meaty depth and the fragrance of the spice. It has to be ordered in advance and has to be cooked fresh and eaten fresh because reheating it will lead to the milk splitting. It’s worth the planning though because it really is a unique dish, a treasure from Kashmir’s food heritage.

Of course, a visit to Sarposh is about gluttony so we had a lot more. This time we had a pumpkin yakhni, a capo off the bone lamb shank (dani phol) and the tabak Maas that I am obsessed with.