An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [21]
Contrary to what most outsiders think, beef is eaten in India. About 80 percent of India is Hindu (those who, technically, do not eat beef) but the other 20 percent includes 60 million Muslims and 12 million Christians, i.e., 72 million people who can eat beef without battling their consciences first. Every now and then, when it seems politic, there is a rousing debate in our parliament on the subject of cow slaughter. But while cows (“The cow is your mother,” they say) are being heatedly discussed, no one is saying much about the buffalo (a kind of poor relation, I suppose), so this creature is being slaughtered and sold—though not always in the open market. A very popular dish in most “Western”-style Indian restaurants is the “sizzling” steak (alas—buffalo), and I must say I have seen many a Hindu devour this with great relish. It does not taste as good as the best American steak, but it is served very attractively right on the platter on which it is cooked, accompanied by a lot of hissing and sizzling vegetables.
When beef is cooked in the Indian manner, it is cooked like mutton, slowly, over a period of time. In some areas, beef is dried and then fried with onions and served at breakfast. I have also eaten it cooked with spinach and with potatoes. One strange thing that I have noticed about us Indians is that although many Hindus will eat beef in restaurants, in Muslim and Christian homes, and when they are abroad, very few will cook it in their own kitchens. Each country has its own varieties of national hypocrisy. Self-righteously proclaimed rules on diet and cleanliness seem to be part of our heritage.
Besides “mutton” and beef, pork, lamb, and venison are also eaten in the areas where they are found. Dumba, a fan-tailed sheep, is used for a special pullao (a rice and meat dish) cooked at the Muslim festival Id. Venison, considered rather dry, is often made into koftas (meatballs) or shami kababs (ground meat patties).
Meat is, of course, cooked very differently in the different regions of India. Most of my recipes are for dishes eaten in and around my hometown, Delhi. I will start with the easier recipes. My aim is to interest you first, and then entice you on—slowly.
Cuts of meat to use
Generally, when Indians cook a simple, everyday meat dish, they use meat with bone. This could come from the neck, shoulder, shank, ribs, or elsewhere from the goat or sheep. Often they combine these different parts, add some chunks from the leg, and throw in a few extra dark marrow bones for good measure. (These coveted marrow bones, once cooked, are fought over by the children with the winner gleefully digging out the delicious marrow with long, slim spoons!) When I buy lamb in America for stew-type dishes, I use all the cuts just mentioned. But I find that most Americans, eating with a knife and fork (and more often with only a fork), do not seem to be much attracted to cubes of meat that are often three-fourths bone and one-forth meat. When you eat with your hands, there is a great deal of pleasure to be derived from tearing meat off a bone with your teeth, and from sucking the bones. Since this is seldom done in America, I have limited myself a great deal to cubed, boned meat from shoulder of lamb. Any butcher will bone