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The mouthwatering sirkewali tangri is sure to bowl you over, writes Pushpesh Pant IT was more than half a century back when the writer of these lines was introduced to the joys of a vinegar-laced leg of chicken. The lady who was popularly known as Bindra Aunty had come to the small hill station where we lived on transfer with her husband. The Bindras were technically refugees (from Pakistan) but her husband’s government service had mitigated their hardship greatly. She talked derisively of poor paharis who didn’t know how to cook or eat well and always looked famished. This certainly didn’t ender her to persons like my fiercely proud mother but the good thing was that Bindra Aunty was a gifted cook and she had made it her mission in life to showcase and share Punjabi delicacies to whoever was willing to be converted to true faith. Mother was a die-hard vegetarian and aunty focused on us kids. Pots full of rajma, panir, chole et al reached us at regular intervals reminding us not very subtly that our own repast was so much poorer in comparison. We obviously never complained. It was under this project that we were treated to sirkewala chicken leg that simply bowled us over. Even mother, no mean cook herself, had to admit after sniffing that the dish seemed different and interesting. Such is the stuff memories are made of. What triggered the mouth-watering chain of thoughts in stream of our consciousness is the chance encounter with another vinegar-laced tangri recently when our nephew Mahavir wielded the ladle in kitchen and was in a hurry to finish cooking and get down to work. To be honest, one doesn’t recollect any longer how the original tasted. This beauty simply oozed oomph and didn’t disappoint on the flavour front. We are absolutely thrilled to rekindle nostalgia of happy adolescence and share it with our dear readers.
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Ingredients