THE STICK SOUP

There was this moringa/drumstick/sajana tree in one of my aunt’s house just on the edge of her terraced ginger fields. The feathery crown with long stick like pods waving in the breeze captured my childish imagination and I immediately named it the stick tree. My ayah told me that the flowers of this tree were eaten and were so delicious. “Even better than chicken” these words really impressed me as after living in our vegetarian household my ayah was always ravenous for meat. Plus moringa flowers never found their way to our kitchen and everything out of reach was automatically deemed to be very delicious.I longed for quite some time to eat the better than chicken moringa flowers. Anyway it was after almost 20 years I actually got to eat it in faraway Delhi. A colleague shared it out of her lunch box and disappointed me. Not that the preparation was bad but I guess my expectations based on childhood imagination was too much for reality.
Later on I discovered a whole lot of dishes using moringa. They serve a tangy tomato and moringa curry in Andhra Bhawan in Delhi which has climbed into my favorites’ list comfortably. Moringa leaves fried in ghee with a little salt are absolutely heavenly. I even ate moringa rice which however couldn’t impress my taste buds much. In my staid house moringa was used in the occasional sambhar and more frequently a jhol (soup) however we all enjoyed this simple preparation and the thoroughly chewed piles of moringa bore testimony to our satisfaction. This dish though stupefying simple to prepare is just the thing when you want to eat something light.
INGREDIENTS
5 drumstick/moringa/sajana fruits cut into 2” bits
1 potato peeled and cut lengthwise into quarters
1 onion sliced
1 tomato finely chopped
1” ginger ground into a paste
½ tsp of mustard seeds
½ tsp of turmeric powder
¾ tsp salt
4 cups water
1 tsp oil
LET’S DO IT
Heat the oil and sputter the mustard seeds
Add the onions and ginger paste and fry till onions turn translucent
Add the potatoes, drumsticks and salt and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the turmeric powder and tomatoes and cook on the low flame for 5 minutes
Add the water, turn up the heat and bring to a boil.

PICKLED DRUMSTICKS

This isn't a standard pickle recipe, I just ended up buying a lot of drumsticks (moringa/sajan phali/sajana) than I could eat from a particularly bedraggled old lady with no teeth and wearing an old dirty torn frock. My neighbours were away and the bai was on leave so all I could think of doing with the drumsticks was pickle them as I couldn't distribute them. Its not a standard pickle recipe as I have warned you earlier, I have put everything and anything I could lay my hands on, thankfully the pickle turned out ok.

INGREDIENTS

1o drumsticks washed and cut to 2" bits

4 tbs Turmeric

4 tbs salt

4 tbs coriander seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

2 tbs fenugreek seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

1 tbs mustard seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

5 tbs red chilly powder (I used a mixture of chilly powder and chilly flakes 3:1)

1 cup oil

juice of 4 lemons

1 tsp mustard seeds (whole and unroasted)

LETS DO IT
 

Mix all the spice powders and salt with the cut drumsticks

Heat the oil and sputter the mustard seeds and add to the drumsticks.

Mix well and add the lemon juice.

Fill in a glass jar and keep in the sun for about a fortnight.

CORN FLOWERS

Much before multiplexes and flavored popcorn costing more than a decent meal in any normal eatery invaded our lives, corn flowers were a staple item on our evening tiffin (belka ko khaja)menu. Before you get me wrong corn flowers are not flowers of the corn plant. Makkai ko phool or Maize flowers were what we called the corn that was popped in a wire contraption over a blazing fire in my grandmother’s place. True enough they looked like snow white flowers as my grandmother popped them and piled them up on a round bamboo tray (Nanglo). All the maize was from our fields, some were consumed fresh (boiled, fried, as rotis, roasted), some ground to a flour and some to grits and rest stored. The stored maize would hang in rows in the loft above the hearth smoked to a lovely golden colour. We were invariably given the job of shelling the corn which gave ample opportunities for corn shelling competitions.
On ordinary days we dipped them in doodh-pani which was milk, water and lots of sugar - a unique recipe concocted by my grandmother to get us children drink the milk. I should not forget to mention that while we happily gulped the doodh-pani , we wouldn’t touch the doodh. Id rather say we were a milkman’s delight since adulterated milk was what we favored. But there were days when a lot of fresh buttermilk would be churned and a radish and cheese dip (Mula ra Churpi ko achar) would be made. If there is a contest for the best way of eating popcorn then this will win hands down. Its been ages since I sat in a circle eating home popped corn flowers with fresh buttermilk and churpi and moola ko achar, catching up on family gossip. Oh! I would give anything in the world for such a moment. But I guess for the time being I have to be satisfied with the inanely expensive boxes of insipid thermocole bits served in the name of popcorn served at the food counters of multiplexes.

DEONARAYAN, DHARMENDRA AND DALMOTH

I am going to talk about the good old days once again when one rupee was a luxury. I mean you could get so much from the wayside shops on the way to school. 50 paisa worth aloo thukpa was enough for two, churan was just five annas a piece (the round ones), suntala mithai, kalo mithai, peppermint drops were all five annas a piece and not to forget the huge khochi (newspaper cones) of piro channa, mattar and dalmoth. I specially remember dalmoth as you really dont get dalmoth anywhere else specially in newspaper cones. It used to be spicy, tangy and really smelly as it used to be salted with rock salt - birey noon or padhey noon(fart salt) as some called it and it did smell like someone around had a bad digestive system.The best ones were those that made you sick later - which were full of chilly powder and rather red. After eating the dalmoth licking the hands carefully, finger by finger was another ritual in itself.

Deonarayan bhaiyya, the grocer near our house sold the dalmoth. His stock was kept in a big tin and he carefully measured out 50 paise/one rupee worth portions in newspaper cones while we would coerce him to add some more. And the most fascinating thing were the faces of film stars stuck on his tins probably from some old magazines - Smita Patil, Mithun, Raj babbar, Sree Devi, Jaya Prada, Jeetendra etc. Films being restricted in my house the photographs were an added attraction, in fact I came to know many of the film stars from my visits to this shop with a lot of help from Deonarayan bhaiyya himself. The last time I visited home I saw that his shop has transformed into something different. Gone were the bright blue wooden walls and the shutters hammered out of old tins and painted a deep green, in its place was a concrete structure painted a staid colour with a glass and steel STD booth added near it. I didn't have to go in to find out if the tins were still having posters of film stars were still around. Deonarayan bhaiyya's shop had changed and I guess after a few years it will inch its way to become one of those unfriendly self service shopping places where you walk around with a trolley and be serviced by a bored attendant at the cash counter.

Here is my recipe for dalmoth, it isn't as good as the original but then you don't fall sick with this.

INGREDIENTS

250 grams split chana dal

100 grams peanuts

2 cups oil

2 tsp powdered rock salt

1/2 tsp pepper powder

1/2 tsp roasted cumin(jeera) powder

1/2 tsp chilly powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

LETS DO IT

Soak the chana dal in water for 2 hours.

Drain the water and spread the dal to dry in shade for a day.

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the peanuts and keep aside.

Fry the soaked and dried dal in the oil on a low flame till it turns crisp and golden.

In the last batch of dal you fry add the turmeric powder just before removing from flame.

Mix all the powders, peanuts and salt in the fried dal and mix well.

Let the mixture cool before packing it in an airtight container.

CARAMELISED SWEET POTATOES

On my way back from work there is a place where a bunch of village women sit with small piles of vegetables from their garden. the vegetables are home-grown, fresh and organic. I make it a point to buy them every alternate day. Last week I bought sweet potatoes worth Rs 10 which was quite a big pile. I was boiling and eating them rather uninterstingly until my neighbour gave me this recipe. Its fattening but truly divine.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet potatoes about 5

1 tbs clarified butter(Khareyko ghiu/ghee)

1 tbs sugar

LETS DO IT

Finely slice the sweet potatoes into roundels

Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the sweet potatoes

When the sweet potatoes are half cooked add the sugar

let the sugar caramelise and stir so that all the sweet potatoes are coated evenly with the caramelised sugar.

This tastes great by it self and is a unique topping idea for ice cream.

DUSTY PLATFORMS, TICKETLESS TRAVEL AND GHUGNI TO DIE FOR

There is this railway station in South Bengal called Naihatti where we used to board the train for Kolkatta (then Calcutta). I never saw the ticket counter of this station, for buying a ticket would amount to social boycott in the ladies hostel. It was one of the traditions in the university that the girls always travelled ticket less. So during the few months spent in the university I experienced ticket less train journeys whenever we went to Kolkatta. Looking back I think it was a survival strategy since going to Kolkatta took 3 hours and we got just 10 hours leave from the hostel to go to Kolkatta and back and see a movie, shop and eat. 6 hours went in the journey, 3 hours for a movie and just 1 hour for shopping and eating.....the time was too less. Boys never had to bother about not getting back to the hostel in time so didn't think the long ticket queues were a waste of time. Anyway all I remember about Naihatti is dashing to the platform from the bus stand and gobbling a plate of ghugni before boarding the train. I had eaten ghugni all my life since it was one of the things my mother invariably prepared on all occasions but nothing had prepared me for this stuff. It was hot, spicy, tangy and dusty and priced amazingly (just Rs 2/plate!!).

Ghugni is a eastern cousin of choley. Its a thick yellow curry made with dried peas/matar or chickpeas/Kabuli chana and is very versatile can be eaten with rice, bread , moori(puffed rice), chanachur you name it or simply by itself also.

Coming to Naihatti's special tangy, spicy and dusty ghugni- the ghugniwala would add a liberal dose of chanchur, raw onions, coriander leaves, chopped green chillies and top it all with a slurpy tamarind sweet chutney and a sliver of fresh coconut and and and a train would go whooosh!!! coating the entire mixture with a fine layer of dust. I bet the dust did the magic since I tried making the stuff at home many times but it never tastes as good.