Kashmiri Pulao is an aromatic rice preparation cooked with milk, ghee, saffron, and loaded with nuts like almonds, walnuts, and raisins, topped with fresh fruits.
A celebratory sweet rice preparation developed in royal kitchens to showcase the abundance of Kashmiri saffron and local orchards.
Tourist Tip
A great option if you prefer a sweet, rich, and completely non-spicy rice dish.
Modur Pulao ('modur' means sweet in Kashmiri) is basmati rice cooked with sugar, ghee, saffron and whole warm spices, then strewn with fried nuts, raisins, dates and coconut shavings. It sits deliberately on the border between rice course and dessert — fragrant, golden and unapologetically rich.
Waza Tips
Parboil the soaked rice in about 900 ml water (the soaking water is traditionally used) until it is roughly three-quarters cooked and the water is almost absorbed. Take it off the heat — the grains should still have a firm core.
Meanwhile make the syrup: dissolve the sugar in 300 ml water over low heat with the cinnamon, bay leaves, crushed black cardamom-pepper mix, chopped ginger and the saffron steeped in its liquid. Simmer gently for 5 minutes so the spices open up in the syrup.
In a small pan, heat the ghee with the cloves and fry the almonds, dates, coconut, melon seeds and finally the raisins (they colour fastest) until aromatic and lightly golden. Reserve a spoonful of the fried mixture for the top.
In a heavy, lidded pot, layer the parboiled rice, then pour over the spiced syrup, the ghee with its fried fruit and nuts, the green cardamoms and the salt. Fold together once, gently, with a flat spatula — do not stir vigorously.
Seal the pot: cover with the lid and, in the traditional manner, press a rope of kneaded wheat-flour dough around the rim (a tight lid weighted down works too).
Cook on the lowest possible heat (or over a tawa) for 20-30 minutes of slow dum, until the grains are cooked through, separate and slightly translucent — the aroma escaping the seal is the traditional signal that it is ready.
Open, sprinkle over the rock sugar and kewra water if using, fluff gently with a fork, and top with the reserved fried nuts and fruit. Serve hot.
A heavy Dutch oven with foil under the lid replaces the dough seal convincingly. Cashews and pistachios are common modern additions if dried dates or melon seeds are hard to find. Start with the lower sugar quantity and adjust — served alongside savoury dishes, less sweetness reads better to most modern palates.
Serve hot as the festive rice of a vegetarian spread, classically alongside a sharp or spicy counterpoint such as dum aloo or chaman qaliya; it also stands alone as a sweet course.
Thirty-six courses, one copper trami — the feast Kashmir is named for.
Begin the feastA concierge that has eaten everywhere and slept nowhere — ask it anything about Kashmir.
Not a list — a seating. Scroll, and be walked from table to table.
Where Srinagar has eaten since 1918.
A century-old dining room on Residency Road that taught generations what a proper Rogan Josh should taste like. Unhurried, unchanged, unmistakable.
Enter the dining room
The wedding feast, every single day.
Wazas work the copper degs from dawn — the same courses served at Kashmiri weddings, plated for a table of two. Gushtaba here ends arguments.
Enter the dining room
The art of dining, facing the Zabarwan.
Modern Kashmiri fine dining — heritage recipes composed like paintings, served in a room of walnut wood and candlelight beneath the mountains.
Enter the dining room
Dinner beside the still water.
A boulevard institution where houseboat lights flicker across your table. Come at dusk, order Yakhni, and let the lake do the talking.
Enter the dining room
The tash-naer comes to you before the food — warm water poured over your hands. Nothing touches the rice before the water touches you.
The trami feeds four. Your wedge is yours alone; the far side belongs to a stranger — and to their trust in you.
No hand reaches before the senior one. Rank at the trami is measured in years, never in wealth.
The last course is the host's honour, pounded smooth by hand for hours. Declining it ends more than the meal.
Every pass and valley crossing in Kashmir, mapped by distance, altitude and the stops worth slowing down for. Drive one now — without leaving your seat.
One road, one steady climb into the meadow.
43.5 km · 1.5 hrs
The same valley, four different masterpieces. Watch it turn.
The valley wakes in tulips.
Mustard fields run gold to the mountains; mornings smell of blossom and wet earth.
Meadows climb to the snowline.
Rivers loud with meltwater, shepherds moving higher, days that refuse to end.
The chinars catch fire.
Orchards heavy with apples; every avenue burns amber, copper and rust.
Snow rewrites the valley.
Frozen lakes, pine forests hushed white, kangri embers glowing indoors.
No matter when you arrive, Kashmir has another story waiting.
Explore Kashmir
Honeymoons, one-day loops, hidden valleys, the best Wazwan near Dal Lake — Waza is the intelligence behind everything you just scrolled through.
Kashmiri Pulao is an aromatic rice preparation cooked with milk, ghee, saffron, and loaded with nuts like almonds, walnuts, and raisins, topped with fresh fruits.
A celebratory sweet rice preparation developed in royal kitchens to showcase the abundance of Kashmiri saffron and local orchards.
Tourist Tip
A great option if you prefer a sweet, rich, and completely non-spicy rice dish.
Modur Pulao ('modur' means sweet in Kashmiri) is basmati rice cooked with sugar, ghee, saffron and whole warm spices, then strewn with fried nuts, raisins, dates and coconut shavings. It sits deliberately on the border between rice course and dessert — fragrant, golden and unapologetically rich.
Waza Tips
Parboil the soaked rice in about 900 ml water (the soaking water is traditionally used) until it is roughly three-quarters cooked and the water is almost absorbed. Take it off the heat — the grains should still have a firm core.
Meanwhile make the syrup: dissolve the sugar in 300 ml water over low heat with the cinnamon, bay leaves, crushed black cardamom-pepper mix, chopped ginger and the saffron steeped in its liquid. Simmer gently for 5 minutes so the spices open up in the syrup.
In a small pan, heat the ghee with the cloves and fry the almonds, dates, coconut, melon seeds and finally the raisins (they colour fastest) until aromatic and lightly golden. Reserve a spoonful of the fried mixture for the top.
In a heavy, lidded pot, layer the parboiled rice, then pour over the spiced syrup, the ghee with its fried fruit and nuts, the green cardamoms and the salt. Fold together once, gently, with a flat spatula — do not stir vigorously.
Seal the pot: cover with the lid and, in the traditional manner, press a rope of kneaded wheat-flour dough around the rim (a tight lid weighted down works too).
Cook on the lowest possible heat (or over a tawa) for 20-30 minutes of slow dum, until the grains are cooked through, separate and slightly translucent — the aroma escaping the seal is the traditional signal that it is ready.
Open, sprinkle over the rock sugar and kewra water if using, fluff gently with a fork, and top with the reserved fried nuts and fruit. Serve hot.
A heavy Dutch oven with foil under the lid replaces the dough seal convincingly. Cashews and pistachios are common modern additions if dried dates or melon seeds are hard to find. Start with the lower sugar quantity and adjust — served alongside savoury dishes, less sweetness reads better to most modern palates.
Serve hot as the festive rice of a vegetarian spread, classically alongside a sharp or spicy counterpoint such as dum aloo or chaman qaliya; it also stands alone as a sweet course.
