Beeh Sawa Basar (Lotus stem and Spring onions curry) There is a dish in Sindhi cuisine named Sawa basar patata i.e Spring onions and Potatoes Curry and though it is loved by many, I somehow find the texture and flavour of the curry to be very unappetising. A similar dish is cooked using Beeh (Lotus stem) and Spring onions. When cooked in a pressure cooker, the peculiar over-powering flavours of spring onion greens and slightly slimy, mushy texture is not something that I like and hence I seldom made that curry. Later, I learnt many variations of the recipe from…
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Suran (Jimmikand) Kofta Curry : Well spiced, deep fried Suran Kofte simmered in basic onion tomato gravy is one of the much loved dishes from the Sindhi cuisine. Though Suran (Jimikand) Kofta curry is popular in many other Indian cuisines, the one that I am sharing here today, is made by flavoring the boiled Suran with ginger, garlic , freshly pounded pepper and Darunkhatta (Annardana). Usually Besan (Gram flour) is added to bind (and to absorb excess moisture) the mashed Suran and the portions of this mixture are rolled to make Kofte that are then deep fried. One can use…
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Pharyun in Sindhi could mean the pod of any legume or pulse grains but most of the Sindhis consider french beans as the Pharyun. Chauran (or Raanh) means Chawli or black eyed beans and the whole beans are called Chauran Jyun (of) Pharyun. Tender Long beans are not commonly had in many Sindhi homes though fresh pods from the matured beans are often cooked in Sindhi style gravy dish (Ras mein). Recently I found extremely fresh tender long beans and couldn’t resist buying a bunch of it. I cooked it the way Sindhis make Gvar/Guar patata. In the Thali: Chithyal…
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Kadhi! A Kadhi, for Sindhis, generally means something that is soul soothing, heart warming, exhilarating…a dish that while being stirred in a pot, stirs up memories in your mind. It is not what the non Indians label as a ‘curry’. It is what your Mother/father/grandparents would cook, with all the love. It is something that you crave for, on a cold day, on days when you feel low, when you need a balm to soothe your aching heart. Kadhi is a Soul food, Kadhi chaawal, a comforting meal! Drop a yes, if you agree ! Many assume that a Sindhi…
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Matar Pao or the black vatana chaat is a classic street food dish from Ulhasnagar, my home town! It is made by cooking dried black peas (Kaala Matar/Vatana) with salt and water and the curry is generally flavoured with just pepper. A spicier version is made by adding garam masala powder by many vendors. The rustic flavours of the dish come from cooking vatana for longer duration, till soft and then by mashing some to make the gravy more thicker, homogenous and flavourful. Dried black peas take forever to cook and hence soaking these for 12 – 24 hours is…
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When I started working on my project about documenting ancient, traditional as well as lost recipes from Sindhi cuisine, a few years ago, the biggest challenge I faced was the lack of accessible information about the same. The limited documents that I could access, were in Arabic Sindhi, a script that I never could learn, despite of trying umpteen number of times, since my childhood. I felt stuck up. So the only way to move forward was to learn the Arabic script and to make sure that I don’t give up this time, I took up a challenge; The AlifBe…
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The AlifBe of Sindhi food series is inching towards the end and I am trying to stay focused and enthusiastic about blogging beyond the AlifBe series. Wish me luck, dear friends! For the uninitiated, there are 52 alphabets in Arabic Sindhi script. Out of 52, I have skipped three alphabets, namely ح , ظ , ث i.e ‘S’, ‘Z’ and ‘H’ respectively as these are used in the words of Non Sindhi origin (i.e in words that are Arabic, Persian etc) while هہ , ز , س are used for the similar sounds (S, Z, H) in words of Sindhi…





