Mamta explained that it was difficult to follow one’s dreams when you were a classical dancer. She claimed that dedicating self to this art form and perfecting each movement took many years and the number of people who appreciated these classical dance forms were also dwindling. Being a classical dancer was not the most lucrative job she had, but the devotion to the dance form, and in turn, the devotion to God was rewarding. Odissi has evolved over the years. What separated this dance form from the others was the independent movement of the head, the chest and the pelvis. Much harder than it looks, this dance form is divided into five parts. The dance starts with a hymn invoking the God or Goddess. It then progresses into the dancers posing like sculptures, in tune to the music. From there, the dancers move into the actual dance form. I had the pleasure of watching a batch of Mamta’s students perform a short recital for me. The dance finishes with moksha (In Hinduism and Jainism, release from the cycle of rebirth impelled by the law of karma), which is when the dancers declare complete devotion to the Gods through their movements. After watching them, I understood what Mamta meant about hard work, determination and precision. The dance performance was beautiful and was an outcome of the many years the dancers had spent mastering each movement and pose.
After this cultural stop at Bhubaneshwar, I began the longest stretch of my journey—850 km from Bhubaneshwar to the central-most point of India, Nagpur. It would take me a day and a half to reach this city via Raipur.
DAY 64
After taking a halfway stop at Raipur, I headed to Nagpur.
DAY 65
9 October/ Nagpur
I could proudly say that I had clocked in 2000 km over the last four days from Hyderabad to the geographical centre of India, Nagpur. It was a proud moment for me to realise that I had travelled by road and covered approximately 12,000 km to get there. The centre was marked by a ‘0’ milestone and a sandstone pillar built by the British; a sculpture of four horses were near as well. The pillar was inscribed with distances (in miles) to various other Indian cities. Though Nagpur was not supposed to be on my travel map, I still found a way to make a small stop in this city, to taste the food and its famous oranges. Nagpur is the largest city in central India and you would be surprised to know that it has been deemed as one of the most successful cities of the future. High literacy rate, excellent health care, and lush greenery are the adjectives that describe the city that is Nagpur. As I drove through, these facts became evident to me.
Nagpur, being in the Vidarbha region, the cuisine and the food culture had the latter’s influence. The cuisine was also famous as the Saoji cuisine of Maharashtra. I couldn’t believe that being a vegetarian, I would put all my money down to catch a flight back here to eat that Saoji Mutton again. Saoji is actually a small Hindu community from Central India, specially the Malwa region. Saojis are known for their special blend of spices and the meat dishes that are prepared using them. This community is mostly non-vegetarian, which is quite unheard of for most Hindus. It is very typical of Maharashtra to have small hotels with boards saying ‘Nagpur Hotel’ or ‘Saoji Hotel,’ meaning you will definitely find some excellent mutton dishes on their menu. I ran into a local family who had invited me to try their version of the mutton. I got the invitation through Facebook, where I am quite active (comes with the job profile)! I visited the family in Nagpur, who were part of the Saoji clan.
The family had set up a small arrangement in their garden, where I had a chance to taste their mutton and the traditional Iambi roti (literally meaning a long flatbread, this is a crisp glutinous bread which is a speciality of the Dalit community of Vidarbha). The dough was very slack, and it was beaten and kneaded to make the texture like wet clay. The grandmother of the family was making this roti, sitting next to an upturned earthenware pot, placed atop a wood-fire. The pot was quite large and the roti was quickly cooked on the rounded surface of the pot, much like the popular roomali roti (extremely thin flatbread and usually served folded like a handkerchief). It is extremely thin and flaky and is used to dip in the mutton curry. When it came to the taste, it surpassed any other Indian bread I had had! Speaking of the mutton, I had a chance to see the whole spices separately to be able to relate the taste components. A fair warning, the curry is very spicy! The good part is that the spices are bursting with flavours and it makes you want to challenge your appetite and eat more! The spices were a blend of coriander seeds, cloves, peppercorn, cumin, and cinnamon. The three special ingredients in the mix are poppy seeds, powdered coconut and sorghum flour. These three define the uniqueness of the spice mix. The spices are used for the Saoji Curry, which can be made with mutton or chicken. For the vegetarians, the curry is served with chickpea cutlets. I made this curry into a meal by cooking the curry with rice as a part of it. You can choose to cook the same recipe with mutton and without rice, just reduce the water.
SAOJI CURRY
(Spicy curry made from whole spices and dry coconut.)
Ingredients
2 tbsp oil
1½ tbsp poppy (khus khus) seeds
½ cup powdered coconut
1 tbsp coriander (dhania) seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds (shahi jeera)
4-6 cloves (laung)
12-15 black peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
1-2 black cardamoms (badi elaichi)
3-4 green cardamoms (choti elaichi)
1-inch stick cinnamon (dalchini)
2 bay leaves (tejpatta)
6-8 whole dry red chillies
½ tbsp star anise or stone flower (dagad phool)
50 gm sorghum flour (jowar atta)
2 tbsp coconut oil
3 onions, chopped
2 tbsp fresh ginger-garlic (adrak-lasun) paste
300 gm boneless chicken
100 gm rice, soaked
500 ml chicken stock
Salt to taste
Method
1. Heat the oil in a pan. Make the Saoji masala by frying poppy seeds, powdered coconut, coriander seeds, caraway, cloves, peppercorns, black and green cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, dried red chillies, star anise or stone flower, and sorghum flour together. Fry until all spices release their aroma and the sorghum flour is cooked. Reserve the leftover oil and make a paste of this fried masala by grinding it with a bit of water.
2. Now heat the coconut oil in a pan and fry the onions in it until golden brown. Strain the oil and make a brown onion paste by grinding these fried onions.
3. Heat the leftover oils together and add the gingergarlic paste to it. Now add the chicken on high flame and let it sear. Add the fried onion paste and the Saoji masala paste to this chicken. Add the soaked and drained rice. Sauté for two minutes. Add chicken stock and season with salt. Once it comes to a boil, let it all simmer together for 15 minutes. Serve the meal hot!
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The combination of Saoji mutton and lambi roti is worth a trip to Nagpur, a must try before you die!
Nagpur is called the Orange City because of the oranges that grow here. It is also a major trade centre for oranges that travel to many parts of the country. The orange farm that I visited was about 20 km outside Nagpur, in a village called Hatla. Here I paid a visit to the owner, Manoj. He was an ‘Udyan Pandit,’ which basically meant that he was a master of horticulture, a title that he had worked hard to earn. Under his care were 250 small plants and 2500 big trees. These trees were of the Nagpur Mandarin variety. The Nagpur Mandarin is a table fruit and the skin comes off clean and the pulp can be eaten easily. It is very popular for this reason and for the sweet tangy flavour of the pulp. Another fact that Manoj told me was that the smaller the orange, the more concentrated the taste. Good things come in small packages, right?
Of course, I tasted a lot of orange juice. It was refreshing, sweet and very tasty. The skin had such concentrated aromas that my mind was buzzing with ideas of dishes that could be flavoured with the peel. I took the opportunity to pluck my own oranges, and prepared an Orange Pesto Salad for Manoj, right there on the f
ield. People speak of wine tours in France and Scotch tours in Scotland…I had an orange tour in Nagpur. Why not! With this visit, my time in Nagpur came to an end. I was now getting ready to make my way to Madhya Pradesh on an overnight journey.
ORANGE PESTO SALAD
(Orange segments and greens tossed with basil pesto.)
Ingredients (For the Orange Pesto)
3 cups fresh basil (tulsi) leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
3 tbsp Nagpur orange juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
8-10 cloves garlic (lasun)
Salt to taste
Ingredients (For the salad)
200 gm penne pasta, boiled
1 orange segment, skin removed (you can shape them like butterflies if you slit them half from the back side)
1 bunch lettuce leaves
1 tbsp melon seeds
Method
1. Combine all Orange Pesto ingredients in a processor. Blend until it becomes a coarse paste, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Season pesto with salt.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the boiled cold penne pasta, torn lettuce leaves, orange segments, melon seeds and orange pesto dressing.
3. Present in a white salad platter, garnish with shaved Parmesan and orange segments, that are made to look like butterflies, or melon seeds. Serve chilled.
DAY 66
10 October/ Bhopal
Our day started late; with all the travelling, we needed to catch up on our sleep. The previous night I had reached Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Known as the City of Lakes, it is also popular for having the largest artificial lake in Asia. Bhopal was the second largest princely state ruled by the Mughals, which of course made a great impact on the food of the city. As a state Madhya Pradesh is fast developing for its agro food industries. As a chef it is very interesting for me to understand where a lot of these products come from and how they are grown. The state has a very fertile belt, with sufficient amount of rainfall and ample sunshine. The top quality wheat that gets circulated across the country is called sharbati wheat, also called grains of gold, which is one of the best produced in India. The soya bean industry in Madhya Pradesh is one of its biggest economies and accounts for over 5000 crores or 65 per cent of the country’s yield. I decided to visit a new factory, run by a friend of my father’s, where soya milk powder was produced and processed into different products. Since soya bean is very rich in protein, and is an excellent source of digestible protein, especially for those who are lactose intolerant, the company concept was a health-based project with which milk, tofu and soya paneer was made.
I took a small tour around the factory and saw how the tofu was being manufactured. I tasted interesting flavours of the tofu which were being prepared, as well as learnt how to make soya milk. I wanted to use the products and make a dish of my own, something that belonged to the state and yet also fitted in with the profile of the products I was going to use. Therefore, I decided to make Tofu Kofta. Indians are not accustomed to the taste of tofu, and I kept their preferences in mind while making this product. The koftas (savoury ball made with minced meat, paneer, or vegetables) were delicious and the tofu was very easy to work with as an alternate for paneer.
TOFU KOFTA
(Small cheese-stuffed tofu balls served in a thick gravy.)
Ingredients (For the Kofta)
1 cup tofu, crumbled
2 potatoes, boiled
2 tbsp chickpea flour (besan)
1 tsp green chillies, chopped
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
1 tbsp cornflour (makke ka atta)
2 tsp dry fenugreek powder (kasoori methi), dry roasted and powdered
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry
100 gm Cheddar cheese
Method (For the Kofta)
1. Mix all the ingredients, (except the oil and cheese) to make a tofu kofta mix. Heat the oil for frying.
2. Divide the mixture into even pieces to make lemonsized balls. Flatten this ball. Add a small cube of cheese in the centre and roll into a round shape again. Repeat this for all the koftas.
3. Deep-fry all the koftas, until each kofta turns goldenbrown. Drain and set aside.
4. The cheese inside should have melted by now and you can pop in one before you can make the curry.
Ingredients (For the gravy)
2 tbsp clarified butter (ghee)
1 cup boiled onion puree
1 tbsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lasun) paste
1¼ tsp cumin (jeera) powder
1½ tsp coriander (dhania) powder
½ tsp red chilli powder
¼ tsp turmeric (haldi) powder
1 tbsp soaked cashew nuts (kaju), made into a paste
2 cups fresh tomato puree
Salt to taste
½ tsp garam masala powder
2 tbsp fresh cream (malai)
Few coriander leaves (dhania patti)
Method (For the gravy)
1. Heat the ghee in a deep pan. Add boiled onion paste and ginger-garlic paste. sauté for three to four minutes.
2. Add cumin, coriander, red chilli and turmeric powder.
3. Add cashew nut paste to this and sauté for a minute more. Add tomato purée and cook until the oil surfaces.
4. Add one cup of water, bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes or until you have fairly thick gravy.
5. Add salt and garam masala. Finish off with malai or cream. Switch off the gas. You can additionally add half a teaspoon of powdered dry fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) as well.
6. Toss the tofu koftas in this curry. Garnish with coriander and serve hot.
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After leaving the factory, I set out to discover the cuisine of Bhopal. This was one of those rare cities where the Muslim and Hindu cultural mix was heavily reflected in the food. Hindu side of the cuisine was heavy on vegetarian food with chaats being the most popular. Poha jalebi was one breakfast that one should not miss when in this part of the world. Most popular dishes from the Muslim side are meat based. Traditional dishes like korma, sheekh kebab and rizala till date are a hit. Most of the Muslim eateries are found in busy alleyways of small markets; the same story exists in Bhopal, where the best kormas, kebabs and curries are found in the busy heart of the city. So, it is interesting that how two entirely different cuisines coexist in the same city and you’ll meet many people who enjoy both with the same passion.
Today, I was to meet a legend of sorts. He and his family had been cooking for the Pataudi family for generations. It was time to meet Chandu Bhai at his house. It was indeed an honour to be invited to cook and dine with him. He had previously been known for several years for the meat delicacies that he prepared, especially for the royal weddings that took place in Bhopal. His family had been cooking professionally for 250 years, almost when Bhopal came into existence. Chandu Bhai’s grandfather, Khan Abdullah, catered for more royal weddings than any one of us could imagine. He handed me an 80-year-old photograph of his grandfather cooking over huge pots lined up in a row. As he put it, their speciality was the Nawabi cuisine. For me, he was a teacher, and what he said was worth remembering. He took out time to cook with me and he taught me how to make Chicken Rizala that had exceptional flavours. It was made of yoghurt and flavoured with coriander. The secret ingredient was the poppy seed that gave the dish the extra edge. This dish also happens to be very popular in Bengal.
CHICKEN RIZALA
(Chicken served in a thick white gravy.)
Ingredients
2 onions, roughly chopped
1-inch piece of ginger (adrak)
6 cloves garlic (lasun)
10 cashew nuts (kaju)
1 tbsp poppy (khus khus) seeds
1 cup thick yoghurt
½ kg chicken, cut into big pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
½ tsp nutmeg (jaiphal) and mace (javitri) powder
4 tbsp clarified butter (ghee)
2-inch cinnamon (dalchini) stick
4 cloves (laung)
2 whole dry red chillies
1 black cardamom (badi elaichi)
4 green cardamom (choti elaichi)
6-8 black peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
½ tsp sugar
A few drops of Panadanas syrup (kewra essence)
A few drops of perfumed sweet essence (mitha ittar)
Method
1. Make an onion-ginger-garlic paste. Blend it nicely to make a smooth one.
2. Soak the cashew nuts separately and make a paste with the poppy seeds.
3. Add thick yoghurt to the chicken, along with onion-ginger-garlic paste, salt, pepper powder and nutmeg-mace powder. Mix and keep aside at least for an hour.
4. Heat the ghee in a pan. Lightly pound the whole spices (cinnamon, cloves, red chillies, black and green cardamom, and black peppercorns) so they release fresh aromas and add this to the ghee. Add chicken. sauté the chicken in the pan until it seals its juices. Now pour in all the leftover or excess marinade.
5. Cook on medium flame for five to six minutes. Once the yoghurt is thick, add the poppy-cashew nut paste. Cook for a minute and pour half cup of hot water. Check the seasoning and cover. Let it simmer on low flame till oil starts to float on top and the chicken is cooked through.
6. Finish it with some sugar, Panadanas syrup and perfumed sweet essence. Serve hot.
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We sat down to eat after spending time together cooking. The menu had vegetable saloni, chicken rizala, laccha parantha and kheer. The rizala was my favourite; it smelt good, tasted even better, and felt at home in my stomach. The yoghurt made the curry tangy, the cashew nuts made the curry thick and rich and the poppy seeds made the curry slightly sweet. As per the tradition in Bhopal, a paan is eaten after every meal; so, we too did the same. It was the perfect ending to my meal.
India on My Platter Page 15