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Food Talk
Add pep to chaat
Kachalu can provide a
counterpoint to bland alu, writes Pushpesh
Pant
 Historians
insist that the dear old friend potato is an import—not quite a
swadeshi child. There are die-hard rashtrapremis who dispute
these researches, "How can something so universally popular and
useful not be Indian? Don’t we all, even the most orthodox, consume it
with guiltless abandon to quell pangs of hunger on days of ritual
fasting without losing ‘merit’? And, what about the chaat?
Who can believe that not only the substance but the soul also of tikki
’n samosa is not our own kin?"
At the moment we are
reluctant to take sides in this heated debate that brings in distracting
questions like whether potato that provided basic sustenance in Ireland
in the 19th century can in fact be considered a vegetable at
all.
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Chef’s corner
Ingredients
Kachalu 1
kg
Onions
(medium-sized, finally sliced) two
Cloves of garlic
(thinly sliced) 8-10
Ginger (thinly
sliced) 2 inch piece
Zeera seeds 1
tsp
Dhaniya
powder 2 tsp
Zeera
powder 1 tsp
Red chili powder 1
tsp
Haldi powder ½ tsp
Ghee 3
tbsp
Curds (beaten) 200
ml
Whole red chilies 2
Salt to taste
Few sprigs of green
coriander (for garnish)
Method
Peel and cut the kachalu
into pieces—actually this is more like inserting the knife and
extracting small morsels of the delicious ‘flesh’.
Heat 2 tbsp of ghee
in a thick-bottomed pan and add zeera seeds. When these
begin to crackle, put in sliced ginger and garlic. Stir-fry over
medium heat for about 30 seconds, now add the onions. Continue
frying till the onions are light brown in colour. Add kachalu
pieces, stir-fry for about five minutes. Add all the powdered
spices. Put one cup of water, bring it to boil, then reduce heat
to low cover the pan, and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring
occasionally to ensure that it does not stick to the bottom. At
this stage add beaten curd stirring constantly with a light touch
not to mash the vegetable. Cook for another 20 minutes.
Heat the remaining
ghee in a karchchi and when smoking hot add the whole red
chillies to it and when these change colour pour over the kachalu.
Garnish with green coriander and serve with roti or rice. |
Part of the confusion results from the fact that references to aluka,
kachalu pindalu, raktalu in ancient texts may not
necessarily mean potato but its many interesting cousins—some close
and some distant.
Of these we have always
been intrigued by kachalu a.k.a. banda and gaderi in
Uttaranchal. It can be excruciatingly astringent — almost making you
choke — or creamy and ‘sweet’ with a subtle flavour totally absent
in poor imported or otherwise potato. Not everyone can cook it to
perfection and most are content to include it in chaat to provide the
counterpoint to bland alu.
It figures in the menu of
the last banquet served to the unfortunate Mogul Emperor Bahadurshah
Zafar and some reliable friends tell us that although a root it is added
in their diet by some Jains.
The recipes in the hills
are varied — some quite exotic using bhanga seeds of hemp good
old grass (cannabis Indica) — absolutely non- intoxicating. These are
ground to a fine paste on the grindstone and just the sieved juice is
used. Tempering is done with now almost rare jambu- Himalayan
chives. The time-consuming delicacy is greatly relished during winter
months. Traditional recipes eschew onion and garlic but these are not
taboo for the less orthodox. To our mind, their inclusion makes up to a
large extent for the lack of jambu and bhang. Do try this
out.
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