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.

GUNDRUK FOR THE HOMESICK SOUL

One of the most vivid memories of the winters in Kalimpong is of rows and rows of wilting leaves of Rayo saag, radish and cauliflower drying on plastic sheets spread on the hedge. The backyard would be cluttered with an old chlorophyll stained okhli and tins with their tops weighed down with stones, the sharp acid smell of fermenting gundruk assailing the senses. Though not as famous as the other fermented leaf-tea, almost every house in the hills dutifully makes gundruk during the dry winter months to be used all round the year. Gundruk essentially consists leaves of Brassica family (mustard, Rayoo saag, cauliflower, radish) subject to lactic acid fermentation and sun dried to form a brownish acidic dried product. Not beautiful to look at but heavenly if you have a taste for it. Its is primarily drunk as a spicy soup but even the thought of fresh fermented gundruk spiced up with chillies and mustard oil will produce a deluge of saliva enough to qualify as the great flood itself.

Here's the recipe to a gundruk ko jhol (gundruk soup) any homesick nepali would happily do anything for.

INGREDIENTS

50grams Gundruk

2 green chillies (slit longitudinally)

1 onion finely sliced

3 cloves garlic (coarsely crushed)

1' ginger (crushed)

1 ripe tomato (finely chopped)

1 tps turmeric powder

salt to taste

2 tbs mustard oil

water ( the jhol comes out thick and nice if you used water in which rice has been washed, the second wash and rice should preferably be the indigenous Darjeeling rice locally called Dhikiko chamal or maseeno chamal or busty ko chamal)

1 tsp ghee (Khareyko ghiu/Clarified butter)

LETS DO IT

Steep the gundruk in a little water (just enough to wet it)

Heat oil. Add garlic and onions and fry till translucent and add the ginger and gundruk (after draining the water) and fry till onions turn brown.

Add chilies, turmeric powder, salt and tomatoes and fry til the tomatoes get cooked.

Add the water and bring to a boil.

Add the ghee in the end.

Hot or cold Gundruk tastes heavenly with rice.

[As I write this I suddenly remembered that Gundruk was partly responsible for my grandfather going bankrupt. A highly impractical man never meant for earning money he would carry on various types of business to keep his family fed and fund his studies as well. He floated a Gundruk company for exporting Gundruk to the Gorkha armies in various parts of the world. Well to cut a long story short it led to his bankruptcy and a childhood full of difficulties for my father and a childhood full of the difficulties he faced and "how lucky you all are" type stories for us. Anyway why hold it against Gundruk]