Rogan Josh — Kashmiri Colour from Ratanjot, No Tomato (रोगन जोश)

Kashmiri rogan josh (रोगन जोश, literally 'red juice' from Persian) is the defining lamb dish of Wazwan cuisine — intensely coloured red-orange not from chilli heat or tomato but from two specific Kashmiri ingredients: Kashmiri dried chilli (for mild heat and deep colour) and ratanjot (रतनजोत, Alkanna tinctoria — alkanet root, a plant whose roots release a deep red pigment when bloomed in hot oil). The absence of tomato is categorical in the authentic Kashmiri version — tomato introduces an acidic, vegetable character completely foreign to the original dish. The fat (mustard oil or ghee, never neutral oil) carries the colour into the sauce.