Pakodas and samosas

It rained so hard some days ago — throwing up memories of rain-soaked childhood days — that I felt I had to go look up an old buddy. The friend, called ghevar, and I had drifted apart. But the companion that always came along with a heavy downpour knocked on the doors of nostalgia — and I embraced it with open arms. And, well, yes, an open mouth.

The ghevar is a sweet that we grew up with in the north. Halwais cook this during the rains — possibly because it has a long shelf life and endures well in the season of chills and infections. Once upon a time it was a simple dessert — cooked with a batter of flour, ghee and water, and then soaked in sugar syrup. Now ghevars come with all kinds of toppings — from cream and almonds, to pistachio and thickened milk.

Moong dal aur sabzi ki khicdhi

The rains demand special kinds of food. When the worst of the summer is behind us, and winter is still some months ahead, the palate yearns for something fried that goes well with anything light. The ghevar works well, for it is deceptively light — it looks like a piece of filigree or honeycomb, but it is cooked with an ample quantity of ghee and in a special cylindrical utensil. Some people even cook their ghevar in milk instead of water.

The khichdi, of course, is another great favourite of the season. Some of my friends go a bit berserk at the sight of the first grey clouds. For them, this is the signal for khichdis — which are essentially rice-and-dal preparations, but jazzed up with side dishes of fries of all kinds.

Malpua

I often wonder why we yearn for pakoras and other fries when it starts to rain. I think the in-built warning system within us tells us that this is the time when infections loom large, and fried food is one way of keeping germs at bay.

So you bring out your potatoes, brinjals, onions and cauliflower — and fry them after dipping them in a thick batter of besan or rice flour. I love dimer pakora. Whisk an egg, mix it with besan, chopped onion, chillies and salt — and then simply fry. It goes wonderfully well with hot khichdi.

Actually, even the khichdi can be tarted up with vegetables. Corporate chef Subrata Debnath of Hotel Hindustan International in Calcutta has given us some interesting recipes for khichdis cooked differently. The moong dal aur sabzi ki khichdi, for instance, is cooked with a variety of boiled vegetables. You need to first assemble 100gm of boiled rice, 50gm of boiled moong dal, 10gm each of diced boiled carrot, cauliflower and beans, and 10gm of boiled peas. You need some ghee, 2gm of cumin seeds, 5gm of ginger slivers, two dried red chillies, two green chillies, 1tsp turmeric, two bay leaves and salt.

Gulab Ghevar

Now heat the ghee in a frying pan. Add cumin seeds, red chillies, bay leaves and ginger. Add the boiled vegetables and green chillies and stir for few minutes. Sprinkle turmeric powder. Add the boiled dal, and then the boiled rice. Mix it well. Season and then top with ghee. Serve hot, along with chilled mangoes for dessert.

Indeed, this is also the season for mangoes — and they are eaten not just as a juicy, end-of-the-meal item, but along with food. In the north, there is a tradition of eating parathas with keema and mangoes. During the rains, some of our friends cook a particularly hot red pumpkin dish, with is eaten with puris and mangoes. Besan ki rotis — rotis prepared with chickpea flour — and birahi rotis — made out of dough mixed with besan and other powdered grains — are some of the other seasonal dishes.

Bajra Khicdi

Take this recipe for a bajra khichdi. For this you need 100gm bajra or millet, 40gm yellow moong dal, salt and ghee. Soak the bajra for an hour, then remove the husk by grinding it coarsely in a mixie at a low speed. Mix it with the moong dal when it is completely husk-free. Pressure cook with water and salt for 10 minutes. Mix with hot ghee and serve.

The rains also usher in festivals like Teej and Rakhi. So sweets, obviously, form a part of the menu in August. And again because food — especially milk products — spoils easily, most sweets in the north are cooked with flour.

Take another of my childhood friends — this one called gulgula. These are small and brown fried dumplings, cooked with wheat flour and jaggery and flavoured with fennel seeds. You have to first soak and dissolve jaggery in hot water. When it cools, make a paste by adding flour and water to the jaggery. Add the saunf — or the fennel seeds — and mix well. Now heat oil in a kadhai, drop a dollop of the batter in the oil and fry on all sides.

The rains, like all seasons, throw up memories of food that we ate when we were kids. The pattern of rains may have changed drastically in the last many years, but some things remain just the same. You devour a mound of crispy fried potatoes with a steaming plate of khichdi and look out as the world turns a soft green. Some things, happily, never change.  

Palak aur dal ki khichdi

Ingredients

200gm basmati rice
200ml water
100gm moong dal
2 bunches spinach
4-5 chopped garlic
1 chopped onion
1 chopped tomato
3 green chillies
1/2tsp cumin seeds
Sugar, a pinch
Turmeric powder, a pinch
Ghee

Method

Wash the rice and soak it for 20 minutes. Blanche the spinach and make a purée with green chillies. Boil the moong dal. Heat ghee in a kadhai. Add cumin seeds. Fry garlic until brown. Sauté onions till transparent. Add tomatoes and stir for a minute. Add the spinach purée and stir for another minute. Add salt, sugar, turmeric and water. Allow it to boil. Add the rice and dal, and keep covered till cooked.