What comes to your mind when we say Indian royalty? It instantly reminds us of Rajasthan. The state has a heritage of its own that goes back to thousands of years. And this can be well understood from their food culture. It is very fascinating to see that food habit in Rajasthan varied as per people and their livelihood. While the Marwaris and Brahmins eat vegetarian food, the Rajput indulged in non-vegetarian delicacies, specially made with game meat. One such popular instance is laal maas. Game meat, slow cooked with basic spices and Mathania chillies (from Jodhpur), this dish spells indulgence. Then there are safed maas, jungli maas and more. Each of these delicacies has been associated to royal food habit. Another such popular dish is khad.
For the unversed, khad is a semi-dry dish cooked (in fact, baked) using minced meat and a pool of spices. Traditionally, this dish was cooked in pit, dug underground. Food blogger Kalyan Karmakar in his book 'Travelling Belly' explains, "This (cooking process) was a practice followed by soldiers in Rajasthan at night when out at battle . Cooking in the chicken in pits, dug under the ground would ensure that the soldiers' location wouldn't be given away to the enemy as there was no open fire by which to be spotted." It was indeed a cumbersome process, but the taste, texture, aroma and flavour made the dish one of a kind and a must try.
Here we bring you an easier version of the khad recipe that can be prepared using baking process, that too in the comfort of your kitchen. Take a look.
Royal Meat Recipe From Rajasthan | How To Make Khad:
To make this dish, first marinate the meat keema (here we used lamb) with yogurt and various herbs and spices. Keep it to rest for some time. Meanwhile, saute onion for some time in butter and add the marinated meat to it. Add potatoes and cook until water evaporates.
Now, place some sauted meat on a phulka and cover with another phulka. Do it the same with the remaining meat. Wrap the stack with foil paper and bake for some time. Finally, cut the fish into wedges and serve hot with mint chutney.
Click here for the detailed recipe.
For more such Rajasthani non-vegetarian recipes, click here.