Cooking India, Jammu and Kashmir

 Gastronomy

The huge diversity of dishes depend on the State, origin of the population and their respective castes. The only common ingredients are rice and tea. The Dhal, a type of soup with lentils is the most widely-eaten dish. In Ladakh, discover Tibetan cuisine. The main ingredient of most dishes is the tsampa, grilled barley flour. Try it as a pancake or moulded with chang (beer made with barley, try it alone as well). Try the gyatug, a dish made of long tsampa straps, sprinkled with a flavoured meat stew. Enjoy the momos, a sort of white meat or vegetable ravioli, steamed or fry cooked. Drink Tibetan tea, gur-gur chai, a mix of green tea, butter and salt that might surprise you, but invigorates against the cold. You also find Chinese food. In Kashmir, the different rice dishes are flavoured with many spices, including saffron. Let yourself be tempted by a gushtava and a rishta, chopped meat preparations (sheep or goat, for one, and lamb, for the other) and spiced, served as meatballs cooked in a yoghurt sauce. Smell the scent of rogan josh, a lamb stew simmered in a yoghurt sauce, spiced with ginger and various other spices. Regarding vegetables, try the nedru yakni, lotus' roots cooked in yoghurt. As a drink with your meal, have a Kashmiri tea, salted (shiri) or sweetened (kahwa), flavoured with ginger and cardamom, brewed in a samovar with pruned almonds.
You will also find, like in northern India, chicken, sheep and lamb tandooris, marinated in spiced yoghurt and cooked in a clay oven. Like in Pendjab, eat plenty of breads, such as chapatis cooked on a heated pan. Also enjoy the biryanis, a mix of meat and rice, sometimes seasoned with almonds and dried fruits.