Food talk
From the Frontier

The flavour and aroma of balti gosht, less oily than other similar meat preparations, can bowl one over writes Pushpesh Pant

WE must confess that the first time we had balti gosht, we were completely smitten. The dish was prepared before our eyes, did not take long to cook, tasted flavourful, yet refreshingly light-great to look at and not too pungent.

It easily put to shade the much more plebian karhai gosht oozing oil/ghee and dripping all over with tomato gravy.

Our bewilderment started when a friend gifted us a balti cookbook. The book, designed and printed in England, was obviously targeted at the phirangs—the recipes were toned accordingly and the aromatic spicing was restricted to what is easily available in the superstores here.

Chef’s special

Ingredients
 Mutton (chops and shoulder pieces) 1 kg
Onions (sliced) 250 gm
Curd 100 ml
Tomatoes 100 gm
Garlic paste 1 tbsp
Ginger paste 1 tbsp
Red Bell pepper ˝
Yellow bell pepper ˝
Dhaniya powder 1 tsp
Jeera powder 1 tsp
Red chilly powder ˝ tsp
Cloves 3-4
Cinnamon 1 inch piece
Cardamom 2-3
Bay leaf one
Whole red chillies two
Oil 150 ml
Salt to taste
Green chillies (slit and deseeded) 3-4

Method
Clean, wash and trim the meat. The mutton chunks should be small. Marinade the meat in curds, garlic and ginger pastes with the powdered spices and sliced onions. Keep aside for about three hours or overnight in refrigerator. Heat oil in a thick-bottomed pan and when it reaches smoking point, put in the bay leaf, then cloves, cinnamon and the cardamom. Last come the red chillies. As soon as these begin to change colour, add the meat and stir well. Raise the heat and stir-fry briskly for two minutes, then lower the flame to medium low and continue cooking till done to taste. Sprinkle a little water if required. Cut the peppers into strips and add in the end to cook for no more than two minutes. Garnish with ginger juliennes and hara dhaniya, serve hot with roti.

What was even more curious was that all the accompanying pix displayed food in miniature balti (buckets). We have been told by friends who have splurged on along the khau gali in Lahore that there, too, restaurants specialise in this genre and take pride in cooking and serving a multi-course meal in gleaming miniature buckets. For many of us balti cuisine gets its name from this unusual cooking and serving vessel. Nothing could be farther from facts. Years later, researching Droolingly, a book on food along the GTR, we disovered that this was the epithet that identified the popular cuisine of Baltistan, a region in the North West of Pakistan. It is not surprising that some of the tastes and aromas recall to mind the delights of the frontier.

But then as they say what is in a name and the proof of all things edible—be it pudding or balti gosht—is in the eating. Recently we were treated by Chef
Dhyani, who works at the Paatra restaurant in Vasant Continental, New Delhi, to a very decent rendering of this bewitchingly beautiful delicacy. We were surprised that he had never been to Lahore, forget Baltistan—and picked up the nuslha from fellow chefs who have been to Lahore. We share the recipe with our readers, confident that they will enjoy it as much as we did.

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