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Dadhri|Forgotten Sindhi Snack

Alka Keswani — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 12:56:45 +0000

D^adhri, a healthy snack loaded with nostalgia! I grew up in Ulhasnagar, a place where many Sindhis still follow their traditions, where the old rituals are still valued, where you can hear the locals speaking in Sindhi language, the families eating Sindhi food on daily basis and Sindhi festivals being celebrated traditionally. It is a place where you can still find the forgotten food like Kuneh Ja beeh, Lor^h, Beeh Ja pakora/Tikki, Suhanjhro, Pali etc. As a child growing up in a typical middle class Sindhi family, I remember consuming only seasonal vegetables, fruits/food and nothing fancy/exotic/imported. It was not a fad but a norm in those days. You can read more about my rants on how the certain things in the modern world annoy me, and about my food memories from the past, here! Winter blessings! I wait for winters to cook my favorite food as some of my favorite vegetables/greens are available for a brief period from December- January. The winter delicacies like Turnips, Drumstick flowers, Fresh green garlic, Cholia saag, Lor^h are available only for a brief period. Another lesser known, seasonal delicacy that I always crave for is D^adhri (डधिड़ी)! My memories of enjoying a plate full of hot boiled D^adhri garnished with spices on a cold winter evening, after returning from school/college, often invoke cravings for these seasonal pods every winter but from past two decades I couldn’t find these in the local markets. Neither could find it during my innumerable trips to Ulhasnagar. Suddenly two days ago, Chef Jyoti Vishnani, of Sindh Da Swaad fame told me that she spotted D^adhri in Ulhasnagar and if she should get some for me! I couldn’t believe my luck! But well, ” Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to puri Qaynat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.” My good luck and the generous friend made it happen and the D^adhri reached me, against all odds:-) Thank you Jyoti, thank you, dil se!! D^adhri, as far as I know, was a term used for specific tiny green pods, that were boiled whole and consumed as snacks. I was not aware of the botanical/regional names of these pods. When I discussed it with my extremely knowledgeable friend, a respected blogger, nutrition consultant, recipe developer, healthy, sustainable food promoter, with Master’s degree in Botany, Sangeeta Khanna, she suggested that it could be Khesari (Lathyrus sativus L) a controversial dal that was banned for years. Now when I finally had the D^adhri, I showed her the pics of the same and she confirmed that it is indeed Khesari!Thank you, Sangeeta Khanna 🙂 Many Sindhis told me that they call boiled Peas pods as D^adhri, and not necessarily only the Khesari. Friends from Sindh tell me that the Khesari is also known as Phari (plural= P haryoon)! There is hardly a recipe for D^adhri. Just pick the fresh looking pods, discarding dried, wilted or rotten pods. Rinse with water a couple of times. Either boil in an open pan, with enough salt, some turmeric and water for 20-25 minutes or cook in a pressure cooker (15 minutes on low flame after 1 whistle or cook on medium heat for 4 whistles of the cooker). Drain and garnish with some black salt, coriander powder, red chilli powder and amchoor. Some also add little of tamarind juice. As kids we were asked to hold each boiled pod towards the light source. The boiled pods would be fairly transparent and if you see any suspicious bits in the pods (worms, insect or rotten peas) discard it. I seriously don’t remember if we were actually able to figure out the bad stuff but we would religiously hold each pod against the light, pretending to scrutinise each, like a CID officer but eventually popping each pod in the mouth 😉 Actually to eat D^adhri one has to hold the pod in between the teeth, pull out the skin of the pod, thereby releasing the flavorful ‘peas’ in the mouth. Have shared a Reel about cooking D^adhri on Instagram. Update: Sharing the video here:

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Tomato Toaster~Salsa Stuffed Toasted Sandwich

Alka Keswani — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 18:41:03 +0000

Long long ago when life was all about school, homework, friends, doll marriages, ludo, carom, skipping ropes, sibling fights and having crush on Bollywood stars, food was not a hyped fad and terms like Gourmet, Haute cuisine, Molecular gastronomy, were unheard of. Eating out was a luxury strictly indulged in, during Diwali and the family get- togethers meant a bunch of family members slogging all the day to prepare the feast. Festivals meant some extra cooking, little ahead of the D-day, to share food with friends, family and neighbors. Packaged food was nowhere in the scene and food was generally prepared with locally available, affordable ingredients. Spices were sundried and ground either at home or got done at local flour mill. Food was made from scratch and instant food probably meant a quick Upma, Poha , Koki etc. More importance was given to the quality and variety of wholesome food and less emphasis on ‘protein rich’, ‘gluten free’, ‘carb free’, ‘sugar free’ meals. More efforts were put in cooking the food with fresh ingredients while the presentation and garnishing was of least significance. My mother always used to knead fresh dough for making rotis, for every meal. She used to cook just as much food as required so that there were hardly any leftovers. Working on limited budget, the homemakers generally purchased only those vegetables and fruits that were sensibly priced, but fresh, even if that meant walking down to vegetable market every single day. So on a day when cauliflower was sold at low price in vegetable market, one can find gobi aloo, gobi paratha, gobi keema, gobi pulav etc being cooked in almost every home in that locality.Soaring prices of onions would result in using it sparingly and by switching over to tomato based curries. When rice got costly people used to eat more wheat and viceversa. I guess that’s how inflation was managed in that era, unlike now when multiple source of incomes in families lead to buying ingredients that we need, despite of ridiculously high price tag. People try to impress guests by cooking ‘restaurant style’ food, made with exotic ingredients, using frozen food, with some unpronounceable ‘nomenclature’. Well, blame it on food going global and all sorts of cookery shows that consistently imparts ‘knowledge’ to us. And oh ! hail the Google! We must change with the changing times and so am I, but somehow for me, nothing can beat a simple homely meal, freshly made, using ‘real’ ingredients. I was raised the old school way . Simple food stirs memories.. yes, ofcourse ! And today is just that kind of day when I walked down the memory lane to relive the moments of the rain soaked evenings, when we, the hungry kids, back from school, used to look forward to piping hot evening snacks, lovingly made by dear mother. The sinful cutlets, Pakora (fritters), the delicious chaat, sawa phota, healthy Upma, seyal pao and the yummy tomato toasters. Oh well, the last one being one of the most favorite of mine ! Tomato toasters could be made in jiffy, using the ingredients almost always available in kitchen. A kind of salsa is made by mixing chopped onions and tomatoes, spiced up with green chilies, fresh coriander leaves and basic powdered spices. The salsa is then stuffed in laadi pao/Pav or placed between 2 bread slices and cooked on griddle till crisp golden brown. A very simple recipe, ready in minutes and taste heavenly with some green coriander chutney or the mighty tomato ketchup. Give it a try !!! Print Tomato Toaster~Salsa Stuffed Toasted Sandwich Rating 4.3 from 3 reviews Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 15 mins Serves: 2 A toasted sandwich stuffed with spicy salsa Ingredients 2 small red onions 1 large tomato 2 green chilies Salt as per taste Dash of red chilli powder ¼ tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp coriander powder Some fresh coriander leaves 8 bread slices or 4 Pav Method Peel and finely chop the onions.Chop tomato, green chillies and add some salt. Mash the mixture and sort of squeeze it. Reserve the liquid (wont be much) and use it in any curry. Add spice powders, chopped coriander leaves and mix well. Stuff a portion of this mixture between two bread slices or in the pav. Repeat for rest of the bread. Heat a griddle and grease it well with some oil. Place the sandwich on hot griddle and lower the flame to sim. Place a flat metal dinner plate/thali (steel/ copper/ aluminum) over the sandwich and place any heavy utensil on top of the plate. Flip the sandwich after a minute and pour some oil to avoid sticking of sandwich and to make it more crisp.Cook sandwich till both sides appear crisp brown. Depending on the size of griddle, you can cook 2-3 sandwiches at one go. Serve it hot with chutney or tomato ketchup. Notes Some people do not like the taste of undercooked onions. In that case, before stuffing in sandwich you can microwave the mixture for 30 seconds or cook in a pan for a minute or so, to make the onions more soft. 3.2.2708

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Patties

Alka Keswani — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:33:33 +0000

Print Patties Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 40 mins Total time: 55 mins Serves: 3 Simple aloo patty called patties, generally served with ragda or vatana curry. Ingredients For Potato Covering 3 large Potatoes, boiled and mashed 3 Bread Slices 2-3 Green Chillies Few spoons of Chopped Coriander Leaves 1 tsp Chaat Masala (Optional. Available in any Indian grocery shop) 1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds Salt to taste For Stuffing: 1 cup (A tad less than that) Chana Dal/Split Bengal Gram/Split Chickpeas 1 Green Chilli ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder ¼ tsp Garam Masala Powder Salt as per taste ¼ tsp Amchoor Powder/Dried Mango Powder or Chaat Masala 1 tsp Jeera/Cumin seeds Oil/Butter/Ghee for shallow frying Method Mix boiled and mashed potatoes with bread crumbs (grind bread slices along with green chillies). Add salt, coriander leaves, cumin seeds and chaat masala (optional). Mix it properly and keep aside. Take care that there are no lumps in the mixture. For stuffing pick, soak, wash chana dal, add salt and turmeric powder, chopped green chilli and about one and half cup of water. The water should barely cover the dal. Close the lid of the cooker. Boil the dal till just cooked(two whistles in pressure cooker). Put off the gas, let the pressure subside and then open the lid. If dal is cooked but still some amount of water remains, then drain the excess water. If just traces of water are remaining, then heat the dal without covering with lid on high flame. Remember we need just cooked chana dal, not mushy. Add some garam masala powder, amchoor powder, cumin seeds and keep it covered for few minutes. You can also add some raisins and cashew nuts. Let the dal cool properly. Grease you palm and take a small portion of potato mixture, pat it on your palms , place the stuffing of chana dal and roll it back into a ball. Now if you have the heart shaped mould that is used for making patties, then use it otherwise just make a tikki shape, a ball of mixture flattened a bit from both sides(just press the stuffed ball in between yours palms, very gently). Shallow fry on a hot griddle, adding some oil/ghee/butter and tossing it at intervals. Cook it on high to medium flame till the surface becomes crisp and brown. Serve immediately with mint coriander chutney or ketchup. This patties along with choley (garbanzo beans curry), some chutney and raw onion slices, with some bread or Pao, makes a filling meal. Popularly known as 'Chaap chola' in Sindhi, its one of the most loved street food. 3.2.2708

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