Rogan Josh

A Kashmiri slow-braised lamb curry with aromatic dried Kashmiri chillies and whole spices — deeply red and intensely flavoured.

Rogan josh is the crowning dish of Kashmiri cuisine, a slow-braised lamb curry whose vivid red colour comes from dried Kashmiri chillies and ratanjot (alkanet root), not fresh chillies. The dish arrived in Kashmir with the Mughals — rogan means oil in Persian and josh means heat or passion. There are two distinct versions: the Hindu Kashmiri Pandit version uses no onion or garlic (prohibited in Pandit cooking); the Muslim version uses both. The dish became famous outside Kashmir through Madhur Jaffrey, whose 1982 cookbook introduced it to Western audiences. The lamb must be bone-in — the bones release collagen that enriches the sauce in a way that boneless meat cannot.

The red colour comes from Kashmiri chillies not tomatoes — this is the authentic version. Use bone-in lamb for more flavour. The whole spices are for aroma only — do not eat them.