JUNGLIE MEAT ( with Vege option)

Sounds scary? Not at all, this recipe is for the people who are stranded in a jungle in their hunting trip. This recipe is taken from the book of Maharaja Digvijay Singh of Sailana. I am yet to come across a book better than this one dealing in Royal dishes. I have only two cook books, "THE COOKING DELIGHTS OF THE MAHARAJAS " by HH Digvijay Singh and " THE CALCUTTA COOK BOOK " by Minakakshie, Bunny and Jaya ( Penguin books). I shall talk more about Calcutta cook book when I publish a recipe.

 Maharaja explains in his book " As the name suggests, this is a recipe for the stranded Shkaris ( hunters) . It has only 5 ingredients, meat, ghee or oil, salt, whole red chili and water. These can be available in the remotest village in India. With this method one can cook meat, games, fowl or even potatoes."

This is the only recipe in the book , which doesn't have any measurement, the Maharaja rightly says " If you are stranded in a jungle , you cant measure and may not get the spices you would like to use. These are the minimum ingredients  you would get."

To cut the long story short , this dish has been a party dish for last 2 decades for especial people and that too cooked on special request. It has been a great hit.

Imagine a dish devoid of all smells of spices but with a a flavour new to you, then try this ....else dont spoil the meat.

I don't want you to have the trouble of scratching  your scalp, and think of how much ingredients to use. ( There is  hardly any though). So I will give the quantities I used. After the 1st attempt, you adjust the quantity like a stranded junglieeee.

THE RECIPE: As mentioned earlier, there is no spice. The aroma comes from the fried meat, chili.and ghee. There will be no gravy, but a little coating of the juice coming out of meat and dried red chili.There will be no trace of the aroma of onion, garlic, garam masala and all, which we are familiar with.
INGREDIENTS
1. Meat 500gms ,  I am using here vertebra ( chaps) and lower portion of the neck of goat. You can use lamb or thin slices of boneless meat. ( beef will do too) . Meat is generally tasteless if cooked without bone .

2. Dry red chili whole 12 No. ( you can use less hot ones.I use rasampati red chilis, which is reasonably  hot)

3. Ghee 5 tbsp, ( 75 to 100 ml (more the merrier ) ( you can use oil, but the taste will be different but, good) 
4, salt to taste
5 Water as needed.
THE PROCESS.
Wash the meat
Heat ghee in a thick bottom pan, add meat and stir fry for 10 minutes, sprinkle water to prevent burn out.
Add  salt and the red chili , stir and mix.

Sprinkle water from time to time, so that it doesn't get burnt or boiling in excess water.
When the meat is tender, dry out so that ghee comes out .

Eat as a starter or with paratha, Kulcha, Bhatura  or rice.


 CAUTION.. The taste is radically different from all the meat dishes we know. If you think it is too bland , don't make this dish.
VARIATION
I have tried it with sliced Potato, very nice. If you try with Paneer, let me know before I try.


Cinque Terre for my friends 
Manarola village and station , Cinque Terre , Italy