If you’ve ever had dum biryani, you’d have experienced how the cooking technique of dum pukht imparts such incredible flavour and aromas to a simple dish of spiced rice. Tear open the layer of dough and you would have been greeted by steaming aromatics and fluffy rice redolent of herbs and spices.
Food, especially meat, is cooked this way, usually with the bone on and with very few spices.“The slow cooking ensures that all the flavours are slowly released. The marrow from the bone forms a nice gravy and because of the tight lid, all the flavours are sealed inside the vessel and absorbed by the food,” the chef explains.
While it is mostly meat dishes that are cooked dum pukht style, all manner of biryanis and some tougher vegetables like cauliflower can be cooked using this method. At Rang Mahal, Sovani’s signature dish of Lucknowi Nalli Ghosht, or braised lamb shanks in rosewater and fragrant spiced curry, is cooked using the dum pukht method.
Here are a list of Michelin-recommended establishments you can go for a taste of fragrant dum pukht-style dishes:
Rang Mahal (Michelin Plate, 2018)
The Song of India (One Michelin star, 2018)
Bismillah Biryani (Bib Gourmand, 2018)
Anglo Indian (Michelin Plate, 2018)
Zaffron Kitchen (Bib Gourmand, 2018)
Muthu’s Curry (Bib Gourmand, 2018)
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