Savour made-in-milk side dishes

Milk-based cuisine is not just about smoothies and fruit shakes, sweets and desserts like custards, puddings and payasams or kheer. Culinary expert and consultant chef Reetu Uday Kugaji shares a few recipes of scrumptious spicy side dishes made with milk.

For this immunity-boosting side dish that goes well with rice or roti, crushed ginger, garlic and green chillies and chopped tomatoes (optional) are cooked in desi ghee or clarified butter, until they turn slightly brown. Raw fresh turmeric or turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, Punjabi garam masala and salt are added. Milk is then added and brought to a boil. Freshly chopped coriander leaves are used for garnishing.

This traditional aromatic Kashmiri mutton curry is prepared in milk. In a pan or pot containing clean, 500 gms chopped mutton, add water (2 ½ cups), Kashmiri fennel powder (1/2 tbsp), dry ginger powder (1/2 tbsp), two green and one black cardamom, two cloves, crushed garlic, half teaspoon cumin powder, one inch piece of cinnamon, mace and four black crushed peppercorns. Slow-cook until the mutton is half done.

Now add green cardamom powder (1/2 tsp), clarified butter (2 tbsp), fried Kashmiri shallots paste (1/2 tbsp). Cook the mutton until 90 % done and the curry thickens. Then add thickened, boiled milk (750 ml). Simmer until all the flavours combine well. Keep stirring. Add salt to taste and sugar (2 tsp) to balance the flavours. Cook until the mutton is tender and juicy. Do not over-cook, as the milk will curdle.

For making this Andhra side dish, peeled, cubed and stir-fried ridge gourd is cooked in milk on medium to low flame with a little turmeric and salt, and tempered with oil, mustard seeds, channa, urad dal, cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chillies. In West Bengal, ridge gourd (jhinga) and pointed gourd (parval) are cooked in milk, flavoured with fresh ginger and mildly spiced with green chillies, and tempered with mustard seeds spluttered in mustard oil.

In this vegetarian dish from Bihar, peeled, grated or chopped lauki is sauteed in ghee or mustard oil, rinsed and drained rice is added and sauteed, water is added and cooked until the rice and lauki are done. The dish is tempered with cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, dry red chillies, slit green chillies, crushed garlic, asafoetida and curry leaves fried in ghee. Lastly, boiled milk is added and the dish is cooked for another two minutes.