How to make meat as Dashain Delicacy

 

Boar's meat

Dashain is incomplete without the meat delicacies. I love cooking meat and pickles for dashain. I am a huge fan of hot spices which we add in our meat during festival times. I like it, if the scent of food please our nasal senses first, long before we eat it. Plain meat which do not have aromatic scent fails to impress me. The whiff of aromatic food do have a strong power to remind us that there is festival going on. There is something good going on. I love that scent; of festival and of good feelings and mood that comes from the food that is being cooked. Aromatic food do have power to make us feel good and boost our mood; about us, about the life that has to offer all the good thing with it. We are healthy and we can enjoy and digest the heavily spiced up food.

I think this aromatic meat takes me back in my memory lane and all I am trying to do is to bring back my childhood and relive the childhood as an adult. Where Dashain used to be a big event in the year. I do not think anyone was living the moment when they prepared great food. Everyone who prepared such lavish dashain food in that moment left me a deep impact, a very good memory in life, which never vanish from my  mind laste in our taste bud for decades after the childhood is gone.

I know now I make meat differently than they used to make it when I was child. If not all, there are many spices that I choose not to add in my meat. I do not know but I have come out my own five hot spices; which includes, green cardamom [sukumel], clove, nutmeg, staranish and jaipatri. Timur is another spice which I use to get rid from the natural scent of the meat. Yes all meat not just buff or goat’s pungent scent. And yes, without bay leaf my work is incomplete when I make meat. These are the spices I use almost every time I cook meat and do not wait until Dashain or another festival to enjoy the well scented food. Good scent is one major part of the food I cook.

Yesterday I have five kg of domesticated boar's meat. When there is this big meat at home during dashain, I am given the department to cook it better and I love that part. So, with the cook I prepared it like this. I like marinating meat before I cook. Sometimes I really do not have much time so at least ten minutes is better to marinade it but in general you should keep it aside for about half an hour. My time to marinade is for about six hours and sometimes I leave it in fridge for more than 12 hours to marinade.

My favorite five hot spices

Receipe : Before marinating I add spices like this. this is for five kg meat which is enough for 15 people. I take 15 timur and grind it with sea salt. Before grinding it I remove its black seed or else it will give you that uneasiness in  your mouth later on when you stay to relish the meat. Then in that same mortar where I just grinded about 15 timur, I add five green cardamon [we call it sukumel here], ten cloves, one third of a nutmeg, one and half cover of a full jaipatri and one and half star anise. Grind it all in mortar and try to make it as fine as you can.

Then spread it over the big bowl where your meat is finely cut and cleaned. I recommend you not clean meat more than once. Then I take two medium size whole garlic, chinese is better. About 30 grams of ginger, five medium size onions,  finely chopped. Add chilly and salt as to your taste. I like hot, so I add about 10 - 12 Akbare chilli that is small but it's very hot, to give it a spiced up taste. Now you can use your grinding machine or mortar to make fine paste it all. Again, spread all that paste in that big bowl of the meat. Now spread five teaspoon of mixed cumin and dry coriander dust, one and half teaspoon of turmeric powder for good color. At last add 100 grams of mustard or sunflower oils, and then marinate it with your hand. I keep it aside about an hour or so for marination. This is my minimum time. My normal time is six hours for marination.

When it's time to cook it, I heat a big pan which we call karai here, over gas and then transfer all the meat on that karai. This is the right time to add about five bay leaf. Stir it for some time and then cover it, In the beginning high heat is needed and after fifteen  minutes lower the gas heat and bring it to medium heat and let it cook with its cover for about twenty minutes. Once the water dries out, let it covered up for about ten minutes and then it's ready to serve.

Black Timur

If you like tomato add about half kg just when all the water dries out and  then cover it up for ten minutes. However, festival meat is better off without tomatoes on it.

Timur [Sichuan pepper] cures my boredom and anger. The moment I bent on the mortar to grind it; all my anger, irritation and boredom vanishes in an instant. It is also believed that this also kills bacteria from food as well as inside our belly. Its ability to add the strong smell in meat makes it my number one spices to keep in meat. I cook not just I like cooking but I know it as a lasting impact to make in the mind of people even after years pass by. Cook for a reason, cook for a memory and cook for a festival.