World Milk Day: Moo-ve over desserts, try doodh-icious regional dishes!

Chefs talk about scrumptious milk-based savoury dishes, from sultani dal to aab gosht.

"Milk is one of the ingredients that makes me the happiest! If you need to make anything richer, add a little milk. Want the texture of the food to be silkier? Use a little milk. Wish to enhance natural sweetness? Go ahead and add a little milk to it!” shares Tarun Sibal, a Delhi-based chef and entrepreneur.

Milk lends a smoothness and richness to savoury cooking (Shutterstock)

When we talk of all things dairy, it’s also a time to note how the Indian savoury cooking makes use of milk as a key ingredient. Ahead of World Milk Day, which is on June 1, we talk to chefs about their thoughts on this primary ingredient.

Lucknow to Kashmir: Milk adds smoothness to regional delights

Calling milk a “smooth operator,” culinary expert and consultant chef, Reetu Uday Kugaji shares, “In India, you may usually think of milk with dairy-based desserts, smoothies or milky chai. But have you ever tried food preparations, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, made with milk? Indian cuisine has a complete treasure of recipes that are prepared with milk, including Punjabi chitt, lauki jabar and more.”

Milk is used in the preparation of sultani dal, a Lucknow specialty (Reetu Uday Kugaji)

She continues, “Sultani dal or Lucknowi dal also gets a royal taste owing to the milk in it. During its preparation, cooked and mashed toor dal is simmered in a blend of milk, cream, yoghurt and Indian spices. After this, it’s given a tempering of desi ghee, garlic, ginger, green chillies, chopped onion, dry Kashmiri chillies and fresh cream.”

Kashmiri aab gosht is another delicious indulgence made with milk (Jasleen Marwah)

Another treat for the soul comes in the form of aab gosht, a legendary dish from Kashmir, which has milk as a primary ingredient. Jasleen Marwah, a chef and restaurateur, who savoured the dish on her recent trip to Kashmir, says, “Aab gosht is a part of the wazwaan (multi-course meal in Kashmiri cuisine), and it is the only dish with milk in it. The cooking process is the same as yakhni, where mutton is cooked separately. But here, instead of dahi, milk is added to the preparation,” Marwah shares, and continues, “Because of milk, the gravy becomes more tender and also carries a natural sweetness.”

CHEF'S TIP
If you're planning to cook with milk, here's a culinary tip from Chef Tarun Sibal. “Certain Indian staples and milk go hand in hand, such as dal makhni and cashew-based gravies. but the trick of trade is to always add a little milk to your curd when you are making kormas or kadhi.” he says.