Kabargah is fried mutton ribs—or chops if your butcher doesn’t cooperate—that features as a dish during celebrations in Kashmir. It takes a lot of labour and ingredients to get this right, but once you've made them, you’ll be thankful because the dish is a piece of art in itself. There are various interpretations, so the combinations and kinds of spices people use in this dish varies—some use star anise and rosemary. I decided to go with saffron in mine.

Ingredients

• 900g ‏mutton or goat chops. You can use ribs, too.

• 500ml ‏whole milk

• 4 pieces ‏cloves

• 6 pieces ‏cardamon, crushed

• 1 ‏cinnamon stick, crushed

• 2 ‏bay leaves

• 1 pinch ‏saffron

• 3 tbsp ‏gram flour (besan)

• 1 ½ cup ‏yoghurt

• ½ tsp ‏asafetida

• ½ tsp ‏garam masala powder

• ½ tsp ‏cumin powder

• 1 cup ‏ghiu

• ‏Salt, according to taste

• 8 cups ‏water, boiled

• 2.5cm piece ‏ginger, smashed

Directions

Pour the milk into a heavy, deep pot and mix in cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamoms, cloves and saffron.

Douse the lamb chops in boiled water twice before adding them to the milk and spices. Add salt, ginger, asafetida and stir the chops in the mix. Cook on high heat and bring the chops to a boil. Then turn the heat to medium and cook them until the milk starts evaporating and the meat is fork-tender. Remove the chops and drain them on a wire rack.

In a bowl, mix the gram flour with yoghurt, a little salt, garam masala and cumin. Once mixed well, dip the boiled ribs into the mix until fully coated. Don’t hesitate to get your hands dirty.

In a large pan, heat the ghiu and start frying the chops until they are golden brown and crispy on all sides. Voila!

See other recipes:

- How to make fried liver
- What’s black and tastes like goat? Kalo Masu, obviously
- How to roast a leg of goat (or lamb)
- This is not your father’s (or mother’s) goat curry