DUM PUKHT

Slow Oven or Dum Pukht has become one of the most refined forms of cooking in  Pakistan and india, even though the technique is no more than 200 years old. Slow oven means cooking on very low flame, mostly in sealed containers, allowing the meats to cook, as much as possible, in their own juices and bone-marrow. The cuisine of Awadh is the original cuisine which introduced Dum Pukht to the world. Now it is also commonly used in other cuisines like Mughlai, Punjabi and Hyderabadi.

Less spices are used than in traditional Indian cooking, with fresh spices and herbs for flavouring. In some cases, cooking dough is spread over the container, like a lid, to seal the foods.

This is known as a purdah (veil), but on cooking becomes a bread which has absorbed the flavours of the food and the two are best eaten together. In the end, Dum Pukht food is about aroma, when the seal is broken on the table and the fragrance of an Avadhi repast floats in the air.

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup curd (dahi)
• 1/2 cup regular atta (dough)
• salt (namak) to taste
• 2 tblsp oil (tel)
• 1/2 kg mutton

For Marination:

• 2-3 green cardamoms
• 1 tsp jeera
• 2 pods garlic (lasan)
• 1 black cardamom
• 1/2 cup corriander leaves
• 1-6 green chillies
• 4 cloves (lavang)
• 1 inch piece ginger (adrak)
• 6 black pepper (kali mirch) corns
• 1/4 cup mint (pudina) leaves
• 1/2 onion (pyaz)

Method

1. Mix completely mutton, curd and salt and keep aside
2. In a mixer grind the marinate till it forms a fine paste.
3. Mix the paste with the marinated mutton.
4. Put in freezer for 6-8 hours
5. Heat up oil in a thick-bottomed pan.
6. Mix in marinated mutton and stir fry on a slow flame for 10 minutes or till the oil leaves the masala.
7. Mix in the water.
8. Cover the pot with a lid.
9. Seal with aata and stir fry for 45 minutes on a slow flame or till steam comes out of cracks in the aata.
10. Cut off the aata and serve with nan.