boiled snacks Archives | Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes

Lor^h| Lotus Corms|AlifBe~42

Alka Keswani — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 06:31:26 +0000

Lor^h!! Lotus corms Not many of you might be aware of the Lor^h/Lor^hu/Lor^hiyun (लोड्ह/लोड्हु) from the Sindhi cuisine. Not many of you might have tasted the earthy, rustic Lor^h. Only a few of you may remember your grandparents or parents relishing these and I bet only a handful of you appreciate the flavours of these ugly looking corms (or bulbs) of Lotus plant. AlifBe # 42 The 42th alphabet of Arabic Sindhi script is ل in Sindhi, ल in Devanagari and ‘L‘ in Roman Sindhi. When I first made the list of dishes for the AlifBe of Sindhi food series, I had plenty of options for the letter ‘L’ as there are many Sindhi dishes with names starting with this alphabet but as the project kept delaying, the list kept changing depending on the availability of the ingredients or the season. At the beginning of this month I had made up my mind that it would be Lor^h for ‘L‘ as these black beauties appear in the market for a brief period around Navratri. Lor^h are very hard to find as these are neither available online, nor in the super marts, nor in your local markets, unless there is a large percentage of Sindhi dwellers around. I literally approached every possible source to connect me with the vendor from whom I used to buy these, till a decade ago. But no one was able to help. I was about to give up! But then as the saying goes ” What you seek is seeking you”….I experienced the magic ! I received a call from the Chef Vicky Ratnani (Ah! the joy of boasting!), the celebrity Chef (no introduction needed) who also runs The Speak Easy kitchen dishing out scrumptious meals, including popular Sindhi gems like Dal Pakwan, Sindhi Mutton/Chicken, Saibhaji, Kadhi etc that you can order online. And guess what he had to discuss? Yes, the Lor^h!!! He was telling about how he spotted the Lotus corms at a popular Sindhi shop in Khar and that he was wondering how these could be used in interesting ways (Do watch his Insta video about the lovely salad he made using Lorh). I couldn’t help but crib about how I was unable to find some around. And guess what? The most humble, generous celebrity Chef, packed some for me and despite the courier chaos he didn’t give up and sent one of his staff members to personally deliver it to my home. Who does that? Well, that sweet gesture of Chef Vicky Ratnani truly touched my heart! Thank you Chef Vicky, for the Lor^h and Zillion thanks for always encouraging me to work harder! Coming back to the Lor^h (लोड्ह), you may have read about my love for these unusual tasting corms in this post! But like many of you, even I had limited knowledge about what exactly these are. My friend Sangeeta Khanna enlightened me a few years ago, that these are the corms of Lotus or maybe a Water Lily plant. So what are corms? Some plants have underground stems that are swollen (mostly round or oval) and are used as the storehouse of nutrients/food. The plant stores nutrients in these stems, called corms, during the season. These reserved nutrients in the corms are then used by the plant to produce leaves, flowers, roots etc in the next season. So basically corms store nutrients throughout the unfavourable season to help the plant reproduce when the right season arrives. Experts, kindly correct me if I am wrong!! Ps: A little more research lead me to the fact that these are probably known as Shaluk, the Nymphaeaceae root vegetable (also the Lily is called with the same name, I guess) and are relished in Bangladesh as well. And Lor^h are the corms of Lotus or maybe the water lily plant. Sindhi dictionary mentions it as a root tuber of water lily. These are often found on the carts along with Lotus stem and Pabhodi (Pabhun) i.e Lotus pods around Navratri and the season lasts for barely a few weeks. My father was very fond of such seasonal vegetables and fruits and would often buy these when in season. Mom would boil these with just salt and water and we would enjoy these, hot and fresh, with a dash of salt and pounded black pepper and some mint coriander chutney. Video Recipe of Lor^h: Back in Sindh, the elderly would add Lor^h instead of potatoes in many vegetable preparations. Have you ever tasted these?Do you like the Lor^h? Show the picture of Lor^h to the elderly around you and let me know if they could recognise these or if they remember eating these? Print Lor^ha| Lotus Corms|AlifBe~42 Ingredients 250 gm Lor^h 2 Tbsp Salt 1 lit Water Salt & Pepper For Chutney 1 Cup Coriander leaves ½ Cup Mint leaves 3-4 Spinach leaves 2-3 Green chillies 3 Garlic cloves 1” Ginger 1 tsp Cumin Seeds 4-5 Black PepperCorns ½ tsp Black salt Tamarind (a small lump, soaked in few tbsp of water Salt as per taste 2-3 ice cubes (to retain the green color) Method Rinse Lorh with water and get rid of mud and grit. In a pressure cooker, add the Lorh. Add the water (must be above the level of Lorh) and 2-3 tbsp of salt. Wait for 1 whistle and then lower the heat. Cook on low flame for 30-40 minutes. Switch off the heat. When the pressure subsides, open the lid of the cooker and drain the boiled Lorh. Peel, cut in slices/quarters/cubes and garnish with salt and black pepper powder. Dip each slice in mint coriander chutney and enjoy the seasonal bliss! Green Chutney Pick and rinse with water, coriander leaves (along with tender stems), mint and spinach leaves. Soak a small lump of tamarind in some water. In a blender jar, mix the leaves, chillies, ginger, garlic, salt, peppercorns, cumin and black salt/rock salt. Add soaked tamarind and 2-3 ice cubes. Blend till the chutney is smooth. Stays good for 2 days in the refrigerator. If you wish to make the chutney in bulk and store it for a longer duration, then do not add tamarind. In that case, while serving, add some fresh lemon juice or beaten curds (dahi). 3.5.3251 And here is a short tutorial about how to write alphabets in Arabic Sindhi!

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Ubaaryal Phota|Boiled Fresh Garbanzo Beans

Alka Keswani — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:38:58 +0000

A plateful of ‘Ubhaaryal Phota’ or the boiled, whole (in pods) fresh garbanzo beans stirs memories in many a hearts, particularly if you belong to the ‘pre gizmo-freak generation’. The generation that never got bored despite of the absence of social media networks, 3GS, WiFi, smart phones, X-box, infinite TV channels and coffee shops to hang around with friends. Now when I hear my son complaining about how often he feels bored of his board games, Cartoon channels, baseball and unlimited access to books and computer games, I can’t help but sit and wonder; what was it, that kept us happily occupied, while we were kids? There were no dedicated cartoon channels back in 70s and 80s and maybe that was the reason that a Sunday treat of ‘He-man’ or ‘Ducktales/Talespin ‘ excited us so much. The only board games that normal middle class family kids (proudly) owned were probably Chess and ‘Nayavyappar’ (Desi Monopoly game) and of course the best game to keep us involved on hot, lazy afternoons of summer vacations was Carrom (The ‘strike and pocket’ board game’). Unlike the outdoor games these days that demand truck loads of money to be spent on branded sport shoes, head gears, expensive sports clothes and stuff like that, our outdoor games were cheap and inexpensive. We seldom got bored of playing ‘Chuppa Chuppi (ice spice), ‘chor police’ (chase game), ‘khokho’ (Again, a ‘Run Chase’ game), ‘ Nadi kina pahad’ (river or mountain) ‘Sata Thikryunh‘ (the seven stones games), skipping and many more. Now the coach demands branded cricket bats, fashionable sports caps, shorts, expensive foot ball, imported skates, high quality rackets etc etc, if we wish to send our kids for sports activities. And what did we used, back then? A ‘soti’ (dhobipatta) was used as a bat, and any ordinary rubber ball was used to enjoy a game of cricket. The abandoned flat pieces of asbestos sheets were used to play ‘seven stones’ games, the cheap marbles to play ‘Kanchey‘, any ordinary rope was used for skipping and majority of outdoor games required nothing but physical activity, team spirit, enthusiasm and ample open space. As a kid from a middle class family, living in a small town, I never had access to a full fledged books library. Enid Blyton, Ruskin bond, Roald Dahl etc were unheard of, during that time. But we had array of local writers, some gems who knew how to weave in, simple day to day conversation and activities into lovely stories. The Panchtantra, Jakarta tales, Chandamama, Amar Chitra Katha, Diamond comics, Tinkle, Champak and many such books and comics kept us entertained for decades or so. We had our local favorite characters like Chacha Chowdhary, Suppandi, Shikari Shambu etc, along with some ‘eemported’ ones like Spiderman etc. Not that the situation is hopeless now, considering that the kids now are ‘well read’, gadget friendly and probably more smart than us but I often cringe at the amount of money spent on the kids,just to keep them occupied and physically active. Why the parents/societies/schools are hell bent on ‘constructive and planned’ playing schedule, with the emphasis on having proper sports gears? Is nonconstructive playing that bad? I am often looked down upon, by the new age moms when I buy hindi comics for my kid. I cant understand how is it gonna shake the earth, if he reads a Tinkle along with tons of Geronimos and Famous Fives? Why can’t I tear off the remaining blank pages from his old notebooks and use them for making worksheets or for his Math practice instead of purchasing reams of papers? Why do parting birthday gifts need to be stereotypical colours/tiffin boxes/water bottles and not some home made goodies ? Why is it so that a birthday party of kid means to have Pizza from a Pizzeria on the menu? Is it really the time crunch that we, the parents, rely on quick fix meals rather than home made stuff? While my own kid wanted to ‘treat’ his friends with Pizza at his birthday party, I made sure to serve kids at least few things that were healthy and home made. I have nothing against the changing pattern of the likes and dislikes of kids, or people in general, but what amuses me is their obsession to spend money and to value the happiness and satisfaction depending on the price tag ! Not wishing to continue the rants, I would quickly switch over to the boiled fresh garbanzo beans..well in our school days, all we looked forward to , was some nice ‘after-school’ snack once we hit our homes. And no, we never used to get a packaged health drink, or any so called, ‘sugar free natural’ tetra packed juice. The heat and serve packaged soups were unheard of, and so were the ‘healthy cornflakes’. Our after school snacks used to be the humble Upma, Poha, Cheela, Idli, Toasters (Toasted stuffed sandwiches, often stuffed with spiced potatoes, or Onion and tomato stuffing), omelet sandwich . Once in a while, we got to indulge and so there would be Vada pao, Pani puri, Sevpuri, Bhelpuri, or Pakora sandwich (Fritters sandwiched in local dinner rolls). Then there were seasonal varieties too; the corn on the cob, roasted over charcoals, boiled Singharas (water chestnuts),Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana and many other varieties), Kunhey Ja Beeh (Steamed/ boiled lotus stem cooked in earthen pots, relished with mint coriander chutney) or even a plateful of boiled whole peanuts in the shell, ‘D^adhree‘ (a tiny pea pod, not sure what it is known as, in other languages) and of course the boiled and spiced up fresh garbanzo beans, just locally produced and seasonal veggies and fruits ! One of our favorite past time used to be, was to search and pluck the pods amongst the bunch of leaves and stems of garbanzo. Once plucked, these were snapped between fingers and the vibrant green beans were a delight to munch upon, just like that…no rinsing, no cooking and no seasoning required. But it doesn’t mean that the boiled beans tasted any less..the juicy, mildly salty and spiced up beans were a delight to eat. Ah the pleasure of gently squeezing the whole boiled pod, and savoring the spiced up water, that gushes out from the pod, as you pop in the tender mildly seasoned fresh bean! Bliss!!!!! And the best part is, you get a zero oil, healthy snack ! Boiled Fresh Garbanzo Beans might remind you of Edamame, a famous Snack/appetiser from Japanese cuisine. These beans are called Phota in Sindhi, Cholia in Hindi and Harbhara in Marathi. You can boil these fresh beans intact, or steam, or boil it after shelling, roast the shelled pods with little oil and season well, add raw to salads, add steamed pods to cutlets or puree the steamed ones and knead a dough to make healthy parathas..innumerable ways to enjoy the little greens! And the recipe..well, there is hardly any, but still for the heck of it, here we go… Print Ubhaaryal Phota|Boiled Fresh Garbanzo Beans Rating 5.0 from 3 reviews Prep time: 1 min Cook time: 5 mins Total time: 6 mins Serves: 2 Fresh Garbanzo beans either boiled or steamed, seasoned with spice powders. Ingredients Plucked fresh garbanzo beans 150 gm Water for boiling 2 cups or more Salt ½ tsp (more or less, as per your choice) Turmeric powder ¼ tsp (optional ) For Seasoning (Use as much preferred) Red chilly powder Coriander powder Amchoor powder(Dry mango powder) /Chaat masala powder Method Rinse well with water, the plucked garbanzo beans Boil with enough water and salt, and add the turmeric (optional) If using pressure cooker, just cook till the pressure builds up and you can hear that hissing sound. Put off the gas before the pressure is released. If boiling in an open ban, just use water more than 2 cups and bring the water to a boil.Lower the flame, a bit, and add salt, turmeric and fresh beans and cook till the pods/beans are al dente (roughly, for 3-5 min, or so). You can also steam the beans using salted water.(Approx. 6-8 min.) Once boiled/steamed, drain the pods, well, and serve immediately, but not before seasoning it with coriander powder, red chilli powder and Amchoor powder 3.1.09

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