Game and Indian Food

[bague25]

Hello

I'm Indian living in France. Since it's the season now, have you had experience in cooking game Indian style. Back in India, in the north of Bombay where my parents have a farmhouse, the Warli tribals used to cook game.

Thanks

[Monica Bhide]

Suggestions from others.. This is not my forte! Game that is

[Suvir Saran]

Hello

I'm Indian living in France. Since it's the season now, have you had experience in cooking game Indian style. Back in India, in the north of Bombay where my parents have a farmhouse, the Warli tribals used to cook game.

Thanks

What game did they cook?

At our restaurant Amma, we cook wild boar and venison. Also rabbit, teetar and bater (partridge and doves) as specials. In parts of India these are certainly game... not sure what you grew up eating.

If you can speak of what meats you ate, perhaps we can give you ideas.

[Suvir Saran]

Hello

I'm Indian living in France. Since it's the season now, have you had experience in cooking game Indian style. Back in India, in the north of Bombay where my parents have a farmhouse, the Warli tribals used to cook game.

Thanks

How rude I was.. in answering your post, I forgot to welcome you to eGullet and its Indian forum.

You shall enjoy it as you spend time around here.

Monica Bhide is working hard to keep the forum active and alive, she has much to offer through her cookbooks and her eGCI classes. Stay tuned for announcments around the site about them. You may be happy you came here.

Perhaps in another thread, you can educate us about Indian restaurants in France. Where they are... what kind of food they serve... what kind of customer are they serving and all of that. It would be a great treat for the rest of us.

[mongo_jones]

At our restaurant Amma, we cook wild boar and venison. Also rabbit, teetar and bater (partridge and doves) as specials. In parts of India these are certainly game... not sure what you grew up eating.

If you can speak of what meats you ate, perhaps we can give you ideas.

in northern bihar they even eat porcupine! unfortunately, i don't have a recipe.

[bague25]

Hello Suvir

I just received a pheasant from a neighbour! Besides that, I have quails, venison et wild duck in the freezer now. I usually do a classic French dish but I occasionally make a curry using Mom's Bottle masala! I was wondering if any of you use a special technique for game. For example tThe book "Cooking delights of the maharajas" by Digvijaya Singh has a recipe that was cooked when on shikar and used only chillies, salt & ghee...

I was just trying to get more ideas. How do you cook the game at your restaurant?

I stay and work during the week in Brussels (I know the Indian restaurants there better) & am in France only on weekends...

Gosh I almost forgot - thanks for the warm welcome...

[bague25]

I spent my holidays in Bassein (now Vasai, north Mumbai). The Warli tribals (known for the wonderful paintings on their huts) used to work in the fields during the monsoon. And we would spend our time with the Warli kids and often got to taste their food! I remember being told something I ate was fox!

My cousins once brought down eggs from the sea gulls (I'm not too sure now that they were seagulls but they were white birds) nests in the tamarind grove next to our house and we had boiled seagulls eggs. I was too young to remember the taste but I remember that the whites were not white but opaque.

Also during the monsoons there used to be tortoises that my grandmother would cook. There was a special cleaning process to be done and since she was the only one who knew how to do it, I do not think anyone cooked tortoise after her death.

[Monica Bhide]

What wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing them. i look forward to reading many more of your posts here on eG!

[Vikram]

There are quite a few communities that cook game in India. The Rajputs are, of course, most famous for it and Episure will probably be able to oblige with a recipe for Jungli Maas (for the non-Hindi speakers, jungle meat) or other shikari (hunter) recipes.

Apart from them Coorgi pandi curry is an excellent dish usually made with pork but which, in its most ideal form, should be from wild boar (unfortunately I've never eaten the wild boar form, but I've friends who go into ecstasies at the memory).

The other community worth checking out for game is the Chettiars. They, and the other non-Brahmin Tamil communities like the Gounders, all have a passion for game, particularly birds. If you try out the big non-vegetarian (somewhat manically so) thali at places like Velu Military Hotel in Madras (military is Madras short hand for non-veg) you could get small bowls filled with curries made from chicken, turkey, duck, quail, partridge and pigeon.

Fascinated to read about your grandmother cooking tortoise. I've never heard of this before, but will try and check out with NGO people I know who work in tribal communities,

Vikram

[mongo_jones]

Fascinated to read about your grandmother cooking tortoise. I've never heard of this before, but will try and check out with NGO people I know who work in tribal communities,

Vikram

east bengalis used to eat tortoise as a matter of routine. now that it is mostly illegal to slaughter the animals knowledge of how to cook these dishes may be fading away. but i remember fondly my own grandmother's "kochhop" recipes.

[Rushina]

My husbands family has a tradition of having "Kachmauli" at celebrations. This is a whole Goat slow roasted over an open fire. I am told Kachmauli means slightly raw / rare met. the meat is then taken of the cooking goat and mixed up with raw mustard oil, hing (asafeotida), salt, raw chili powder and served up. It is delicious.

Could the same results be achieved on a smaller scale with the help of a rotisserie in a small oven. ?

I also have a very interesting recipe I foundfor smoking chicken in a wok. will post it if I can find it. Might work for smaller game.

Rushina