Food Talk
One for the lotus-eaters

The lotus stem that mimics the texture of meat, lends itself to a variety of recipies, writes Pushpesh Pant

LOTUS can easily be called the flower most beloved to Indians. One encounters it everywhere in the land, not only in ponds and lakes but in paintings and sculptures. The basic posture in yoga is padma asan and esoteric tantric diagrams make use of the 100-petal lotus. The great mantra in Tibetan Buddhism, Om mani padme hum, talks of the jewel in the lotus. In architecture, we find it as the crown in the shikhar and its image evokes multi-layered emotions and triggers a powerful chain of thoughts in paintings to poetry and literature and dance gestures and mudras.

Nadir Yakhni

Ingredients
Lotus stems (kamal kakri) cut diagonally into 3/4" pieces 1 kg
Water 9 cups
Black cardamoms (bari elaichi) three
Green cardamoms (choti elaichi) nine
Cloves 10
Cinnamon sticks (1" each) three
Ghee ¼ cup
Fennel (saunf) powder two tsp
Dry ginger powder (sonth) two tsp
Hung yogurt two cups
Crushed dry mint (pudina) leaves ¼ tsp
Black cumin seeds (shah jeera) ¼ tsp
Salt to taste

Method
Thoroughly clean the lotus stems by repeatedly washing them. Boil the water, add the stems, and cook these until half done. Heat ghee in a frying pan and put the black and green cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon sticks, sounf and sonth powders, hung yogurt. Take care to add the yoghurt slowly and stir constantly so that it does not curdle. For best results, take the pan off the heat and let it cool till yoghurt is incorporated. Add salt mix well and cook for 10 minutes. Add the lotus stems, reduce the heat and cook till done to taste. Add the dry mint leaves and black cumin seeds. Mix well to get the best taste.

Padma or kamal is the ultimate symbol of purity. Though the flower grows in slush, it floats sublimely above the surface free from pollution. The phrase jal kamalvat, like a lotus in water, is the simile indicating supreme detachment.

Elsewhere in the world, the phrase lotus-eaters may not be a compliment and suggests those dreamy-eyed creatures perpetually in a sensuous stupor oblivious of time, in India the lotus stem-eaters are reckoned as epicures.

The 12th century culinary classic of Manasollas mentions a dish of lotus stock cooked with pulses. Excavations at Harappa have yielded a representation of a lotus root and in Yajur Veda — one of the four vedas — the edible lotus root is termed shalook.

In Punjab, it is called bhein or basinda and is used as a kofta. It is also cooked as a vegetable that mimics the texture of meat. In the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, it is less commonly seen but we have tasted a most delicious dish, the dry kamal kakri cooked with besan.

But, we feel, it is in the Kashmir valley that it is cooked with great subtlety and the most delicate touch. A special festival called Dhaan is laid out on lotus leaves. Kashmiris call it nadir and cook it in a variety of ways. Either fried crisp, or draped in rice batter and deep-fried but most often in an exquisite fennel, ginger-flavoured yogurt-based gravy — yakhni. The texture is fibrous that registers a meat-like presence on the palate. In Kashmir, it is also cooked with meat and green leafy vegetables.

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