Celebrating Eid with Tehsildari Qorma

May you be blessed with peace, joy, fine health, good food and delicious books. Eid Mubarak!🌙Marking the occasion with Rana Safvi's recipe for Tehsildari Qorma from DESI DELICACIES, edited by Claire Chambers. Have a taste of it!

Tehsildari Qorma(late nineteenth-century recipe)

500g mutton2 onions (fried, then ground or blended to a paste)
2 tbsp ginger–garlic paste¼ cup yoghurt¼ cup cream2 tbsp khoya, grated (you can use ricotta if you can't get khoya)
¼ cup rabdi or condensed milk (½ litre of milk reduced to ¼ cup by boiling)
Pinch of nutmeg powder
Pinch of mace powder
2 tsp of red chilli powder (or to taste)
1½ tsp salt (or to taste)
4 tbsp oil

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan and add the onion paste. Fry for 5–6 minutes till it turns golden brown.
2. Add the ginger–garlic paste and fry for another 3–4 minutes.
3. Now add the mutton pieces and sauté for 8–10 minutes on medium flame.
4. Beat the yoghurt with a spoon and add to the pan. Stir immediately.
5. Then one by one add the red chilli powder, salt, cream, khoya, and rabdi. Mix well and cook for 5–6 minutes.
6. Add half a cup of water. Cover and cook on low flame for 20–30 minutes till the mutton is completely cooked.
7. Once the mutton gets cooked, sprinkle the nutmeg powder and mace powder over it.
8. Switch off the flame and serve.

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Desi Delicacies is a delectable anthology of food writing exploring the histories and cultures of Muslim South Asia. Contributors include Nadeem Aslam, Rana Safvi, Tabish Khair, Annie Zaidi, Sarvat Hasin, Tarana Husain Khan, Sadaf Hussain, Rosie Dastgir, and others.

A multitude of flavours blend with love, joy, grief, regret and nostalgia in this book which is not only a beautiful collection of food writing, but also a rich helping of the histories and cultures of Muslim South Asia and its diasporas.

With a Foreword by Bina Shah and an Afterword by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley.