Dum Cooking -By Chef Raman

Dum Cuisine Origin

Dum Pukht cuisine in India is over 200 years old. When Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah was building the Bara Imambara during the famine of 1784 to provide work for his starving people, huge quantities of food was cooked in large vessels, degs, in massive double-walled ovens called bukharis. He tasted the food one night and loved it so much that bukhari cooking was incorporated into the royal court.

Meaning-

This is a method used frequently in Moghlai cooking. 'Dum' literally means 'breath' and the process involves placing the semi-cooked ingredients in a pot or deg, sealing the utensil with flour dough and applying very slow charcoal fire from the top, by placing some live charcoal on the lid, and some below. The Persian influence is most evident in this method though in India it has acquired its own distinct character. The magic of 'dum' is the excellent aroma, flavour and texture which results from slow cooking. This method is followed for a number of delicacies such as the Shabdeg, Pilau and Biryani. Any dish cooked by this method is 'Dum Pukht' or 'Dum Bakht'.

More On Dum Pukht

Slow Oven or Dum Pukht has become one of the most refined forms of cooking in Pakistan and India, even though the technique is no more than 200 years old. Slow Oven means cooking on very low flame, mostly in sealed containers, allowing the meats to cook, as much as possible, in their own juices and bone-marrow.
Less spices are used than in traditional Indian cooking, with fresh spices and herbs for flavouring. In most of the cases, cooking dough is spread over the container, like a lid, to seal the foods.

This is known as a purdah (veil), but on cooking becomes a bread which has absorbed the flavours of the food and the two are best eaten together. In the end, Dum Pukht food is about aroma, when the seal is broken on the table and the fragrance of an Avadhi repast floats in the air.

'Dum' means warm breath signifying the steam. The 'Pukht' means choking. 'Dum Pukht' means choking the steam and prevent it from escaping. .

                                                                                              Chef Raman..