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A to Z Of Sindhi Food

Alka Keswani — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 13:46:01 +0000

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 of Sindhi cuisine i.e A-Z of Sindhi food. You can read more about this project here! It was a roller coaster ride and I ain’t exaggerating! The challenges I faced while trying to understand the basics of the scripts, the consonants (52 alphabets!!!!), the vowels, the formation of alphabets, the corresponding alphabets in Devanagari and Roman Sindhi, to find apt dishes, the recipes etc were immense and as if the stress was not enough, I took a plunge and started creating recipe videos too despite of knowing that I will have to learn shooting a video, to manage recording and cooking at the same time, to edit the video (biggest challenge) and to publish it, on my own.I was a nut case! Though I did end up taking a lot of help from my better half but still I managed to pull most of the things on my own. I feel accomplished! I am still not well versed with the script as the word formation is bit difficult to understand unless you are able to remember how each alphabet appears in any word depending on its position in the word. For Example look at the جهہ (Jh/झ) and its various avatars… I need to put more efforts to learn, to memorise and to understand the nuances of the language and the script but I am feeling hopeful! I cannot move ahead without thanking those who played an important part in this project of mine! A big thank you to Shobha Lalchandani Di, Barkha Khushalani Di, Amrita Lal, Surraya Kapri and Deepak Keswani for being always there to help me understand the script, to clear my doubts and to encourage me to keep marching on. Thank you Asha Chand Di, for your ‘Learn Sindhi’ App as it helped me in practising the alphabets in a fun way. Thank you Deepak Keswani, yet again, for creating easy to use Sindhi Dictionary and Sindhi Keyboard Winding up the project AlifBe with this handy, easy to refer list of all the dishes. Do click on the links provided, to get the recipe. Please note that out of 52 alphabets of Alif Be (The Arabic Sindhi script) I had to skip three alphabets; ظ ,ح ,ث since I couldn’t find any Vegetarian Sindhi dish with the names starting with these particular alphabets. So here we go!!! A to Z of Sindhi Food (AlifBe of Sindhi food): ا (अ/A) as inAhmedabad or as in Atte Ja Ladoon ب (ब/B) as in Baby or as in Besan Ji Aani ٻ (B^) as in B^aaru (child) or as in B^itto Lolo پ (प/P) as in Parrot or P as in Pali ڀ (भ/Bh) as in Bharat or as in Bheendi Khatti ت (त/T~) as in Taiwan or as in Tosha ٿ (थ/Th~) as in Thirsty or as in Thumaro ٽ (ट/Tt) as in Towel or as in Tamate Ji Chutney ٺ (ठ/Th) as in Thakur or as in Thab^ak Vadiyun ث (स/S) as in Simple or as in Saandhano ج (ज/J) as in Japan or as in Jwar Ji Tikki ڄ (ॼ/J^) as in J^ibh or as in J^eth Ji Sesa جهہ (झ/jh) made by combining ج ( J) and ھ (h) as in Jhansi or as in Jhang Pulao ڃ (ञ/J~) as in J^aj`a Ji Roti چ (च/Ch) as in Chair or as in Chetichand Ji Sesa ڇ (छ/Chh) as in Chhattisgarh or as inChhola Dabhal خ (ख़/Khh) as in Khalifa or as in Khhoraak د (द/D~) as in Dehradun or as in Dal Dimma ڌ (ध/Dh~) as in Dharamshala or as in Dhaage Waara Karela ڏ (ड/D^) as in D^aha (Ten in Sindhi) or as in D^othiyun ڊ (ड/D) as in Daddy or as in Dabal Pakora ڍ (ढ/Dh) as in Dhaka or as in Dhodho Chatni ذ (ज़/Z) as in Zaro or as in Kagzi Lemon Pickle ر (र/R) as in Rajasthan or as in Raanh ڙ (ड़/R^) as in लड़का, पेड़, लड़ाई or as in Rabdi ز (ज़/Z) as in Zanzeer or as in Zaefrani Kulfi ش (श/Sh) as in Shimla or as in Sharbat ص (स/S) as in Summer or as in Misri ض (ज़/Z) as in Zaroor or as in Zaroori Masalha ط (त/T~) as in Tara or as in Ta’am ع (अ/A) as in Arab or as in Arq غ (ग़/G̣) as in Gazal or as in Magaz Ja Ladoo ف (फ़/F) as in Faluda or as in Faludo ڦ (फ/Ph) as in Phone or as in Phepho Mirch ق (क़/Q) as in Qatar or as in Qeeme Jo Lolo ڪ (क/K) as in Kashmir or as in Kokum Waari Dal ک (ख/Kh) as in Khajoor or as in Khoyo گ (ग/G) as in Ganga or as in Gyarsi Khado ڳ (ग्/G^) as in G^aaro (Red) or as in G^ach For Mahalaxmi گهہ (घ/Gh) as in Ghee or as in Ghotyal Saag^ ڱ (ङ/ng/G~) as in Singing or as in Singyun Tamate Mein ل (ल/L) as in Love or as in Lor^h م (म/M) as in Mithai or as in Majoon Barfi ن (न/N) as in Nagpur or as in Nasarpuri Seyal Bhaji ڻ (ण/N~) as in Brahman or as in Batan Papdi Chaat و (व/V) as in Varanasi or as in Vataran Ji Lilotari ھ (ह/H) as in Haridwar or as in Hurbe Jeere Mein Patata ء (अ/A/Hamzo/Amdhro) as in Mau or as in Gogrun Ji Khatain ي (य/Y) as in Yam or as in Viyam Ja Khaada

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Rabri~AlifBe~25

Alka Keswani — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 07:23:46 +0000

The Dairy products could be divided in many types, for example, heat desiccated (khoya), heat and acid coagulated (paneer, cheese), clarified butter (ghee), frozen (Ice cream), frozen concentrated milk (Kulfi variant) and condensed or concentrated products like Rabdi, Basundi etc. In the spotlight today is the Rabri or Rabdi or as many Sindhis call it, Reb^di! Rabri is a concentrated, sweetened whole fat milk and is considered to be of high nutritive value. It is a traditional preparation and its variations are mentioned in ancient food manuscripts, in food related accounts from 16th century and even in popular Mangal Kavyas (Poems of Benediction, in Bengali literature) composed between 13th (or is it 15th?) to 18th Century! There are plenty of versions of Rabri depending on the flavors of the ingredients used, for example, the dry fruit rabri, Khoye waali Rabri, Sitaphal (Custard Apple) rabri or Seb (Apple) rabri, Kesar, Mango, Gulkand Rabri etc. Also, depending on the process of making Rabri and on the texture of the final product, a Rabri it could be classified as Ghatta Rabri, Lachedar, Lachedar khurchan waali, Sar Rabri, Basundi, Faluda waali rabri , Chena Rabdi etc. The basic rules of making a Rabri are same i.e Simmer full fat milk till three fold or four fold concentrations (i.e till it reduces to 1/3rd or 1/4th of its original volume), add sugar and cook a little more. But different kinds of rabri are made by adopting different methods of treating the cream (malai) collected while the milk is being reduced. As the milk is gently simmered, layers of cream appear on the surface. The milk is allowed to simmer undisturbed as stirring would hamper formation of cream layer. Milk is stirred gently only at intervals to prevent the milk from sticking to the bottom of the Kadai. The simmering milk is fanned from the top so that the surface is cooler so as to facilitate formation of cream layers from time to time. The thin cream layers are carefully collected either on the side of the pan/kadai or allowed to thicken a bit and then collected in another vessel only to be added back at the later stage! While on the side of the pan, the cream layers tend to dry out and are then scrapped and added to the final sweetened concentrated milk (here, the rabri) and hence the term Khurchan (the scrapes)! If the cream layers are thinner and are scraped from the sides and mixed in, the rabri is called Khurchan waali Rabri . If the slightly thickened cream layers are mixed and stirred in the rabri the resulting chunkier rabri is called Ghatta Rabri. The texture is not very different in both the cases and many would call both as the Rabri. If larger chunks of thick cream layers are dunked in the rabri it is called as Lachedar (flaky) Rabri. But again, not many consider Lachedar and Khurchan types to be different. Many even label either of it as Lachedar Khurchan waali rabri. Then there is Bengali style Sar Rabri where the malai is really thick and it is neatly cut into slices (squares or rectangles) and served with some thickened milk. Basundi on the other hand is more smooth (creamier) and little runny as compared to the Lachedar Rabri and is generally without any clotted cream (flakes). Rabdi for Faluda is less chunkier than Lachedar but more concentrated and grainier than Basundi! Mostly commercial Rabri is made from high fat Buffalo milk (6% or above, fat) and while some rely on basic ingredients i.e Milk and sugar only, you may find a Rabdi that is made using a little of Tatri (citric acid crystals), lemon juice, curds etc. A perfectly made Rabri will have chunkier malai bits and smooth condensed (concentrated) milk and not the chunks suspended in milk that looks curdled or whey like. And well, by now you may have figured out why the Rabri is in spotlight today, no? The 25th letter in the AlifBe of Sindhi food is ڙ in Sindhi, ड़ in Devanagari and is represented by R^ in Roman Sindhi. No word starts with ड़ in Devanagari and so is the case with Arabic Sindhi too and hence ڙ never comes in the beginning of any Sindhi word. The consonant sound (Voiced retroflex flap ) is peculiar and is used in few languages only. Sindhi and Devanagari Transliteration courtesy Deepak Keswani and Barkha Khushalani! Some Hindi words where this letter is used are: लड़का, पेड़, लड़ाई and of course रबड़ी Kindly note that the Rabri words begin with another R (We have covered it in the Previous post)! Print Rabri~AlifBe~25 Rating 3.0 from 1 reviews A rich and delicious dessert made by reducing milk! Ingredients 1 lit full fat milk ( I used Amul's milk with 6% fat) 3 Tbsp Sugar (Add a tbsp more if you like it very well sweetened) Method Take a thick bottomed kadai, add 2 tbsp of water or grease the kadai with ghee. Pour full fat milk and heat it on medium to high flame till it starts bubbling. Lower the flame. Remaining process needs to be done on medium flame only. A very low flame will not only increase the making time but will also alter the color of the final dish . Traditionally one has to swing hand held fan over the kadai to ensure that the cream is formed quickly. I just kept switching the ceiling fan on and off but it was not of much help! Do not stir milk very frequently as it will hamper cream formation. Just keep a spatula in the kadai and at decent intervals gently scrap the bottom of the kadai with it, without lifting the spatula off the surface. Collect the cream formed on the surface and gently move it to the sides of the kadai. Allow the cream to dry while being stuck on the sides. Keep collecting cream by pushing it to the sides and keep sticking cream on the sides of the kadai. Continue with the process till the milk is reduced to ⅓rd of its original volume. You can go ahead till it is ¼th of its volume. Add 3-4 tbsp of Sugar and gently mix it. Now mix in the thickened flakes and scraped dried thin layers in the reduced, sweetened milk. Allow the mix to cook a little more and then transfer the contents in a bowl. Once cool enough, refrigerate the Rabri for few hours. Rabri tends to thicken after cooling and more so, after the refrigeration. If you find it too thick for your liking after it is cool, simply mix in few tsp of boiled (but warm) milk. You can add saffron, cardamon, dried nuts etc if you wish to make Kulfi from this Rabri. 3.5.3251 And for those who are following the AlifBe series to learn Sindhi script, here is a short video about how to write ڙ in Sindhi:

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Raanh/Chauran ~AlifBe~24

Alka Keswani — Sun, 30 May 2021 06:42:57 +0000

As mentioned many times in the AlifBe series, the 52 letters of Sindhi Alphabet are divisible into 16 shape groups and so far four shape groups are done and dusted! For the recap of the alphabets covered so far, please check this list! In the 5th shape group there are three letters and the first one in this group isر in Arabic Sindhi, र in Devanagari, while in Roman Sindhi it is R as in Ratnagiri/Rajasthan etc. And the corresponding Sindhi dish is Raanh, also called Chauran and Chawli for AlifBe of Sindhi Food #24 Raanh or Black eyed beans are often a part of Prasad in Sindhi temples. Simply boiled with salt and water till soft, Raanh are distributed with Kanau (Karao or Kada Prasad) or with Suji jo seero (Semolina halwa). In many Sindhi homes, Raanh are made in tomato gravy and you can find its recipe here! But personally I like these beans cooked in the typical Sindhi style Onion Tomato gravy, with no other overpowering ingredients like garlic or garam masala powder. I am often asked about how to make a homogenous ‘daag^ waari ras‘ (gravy) without using a blender. ‘Daag^‘ here means a brown coloured gravy that Sindhis use as a base to cook many Sindhi style curries and let me demystify the ‘daag^‘ today! To cook a perfect ‘Daag^ waari ras‘: 1) Make sure that you are using sufficient fat(ghee/oil)…not too much, but just sufficient enough to help proper sautéing of onions. If you use very little oil the onions will stick to the bottom of the pan/cooker and may get burnt or turn crisp. We want perfectly browned but yet soft onions. If you use more than needed fat, the oil will float in the curry and may not to be acceptable to health conscious people. Here is a tip: Add sufficient oil initially, cook onions till brown and then drain out the oil. Re-use it in a day or so to cook another onion based curry. 2) Never allow onions to turn crisp. Crispier onions affect the texture of the final dish as the gravy would look chunkier and not smooth. Make sure that onions are not burnt. Even few burnt bits can turn gravy bitter. 3) Do not blend the gravy using a blender. Always whisk it with a wooden whisker if you want the typical Sindhi flavors of the dish. 4) Once onions and tomatoes are cooked well, add vegetables/meat/chickpeas/Soya chunks etc and bhuno it well till oil separates out (no need to bhuno black eyed beans). Keep sprinkling some water if the contents start sticking to the bottom of the vessel. 5) Add some water to make the gravy and cook vegetables/meat/beans etc first on high flame and then always simmer the curry on low flame, preferably under pressure (Mostly pressure cooker is used to make Daag^ waari ras i.e gravy). 6) You can add Akha garam masala at the beginning or can add some garam masala powder while bhunoing and some, towards the end of cooking process. Hope this helps! If you have any doubts or troubles while cooking any Sindhi food, do let me know via comments and I will make sure to discuss it with you! Here is the recipe: Print Raanh ~AlifBe~24 Raanh or Black eyed Beans cooked in onion tomato gravy! Ingredients Raanh (Black Eyed Beans) 1 cup Onions 2 Tomatoes 2 Green chillies 2-3 (As per taste) Ginger 1 inch piece Salt Turmeric powder ½ tsp Coriander Powder 1 tbsp Oil 2 tbsp Method Pick, rinse several times with water and soak Raanh in water for 6-8 hours. Later discard the water if it is frothy and rinse 1-2 times again. In a pressure cooker heat 2 tbsp of oil, add chopped onions and ginger. Cook onions on medium to low flame, till brown. Add chopped tomatoes, green chillies, turmeric powder and little salt to facilitate softening of tomatoes. Mix well and allow tomatoes to turn mushy. Add about 1 cup of water and close the lid of pressure cooker and wait for 3 whistles. Put off the flame and let the pressure subside! Open the lid, whisk the mixture properly with a wooden whisk (Mandhiyaro). Add soaked beans and some salt along with a tbsp of coriander powder and mix properly. Add some water (about 2 cups) and again close the lid and wait for a whistle of cooker. Put the flame on lowest and allow beans to cook under pressure for 10 minutes. Comparatively fresh beans that are soaked well, tend to soften by then. Else cook a little longer. Once cooked, adjust the consistency of gravy, if needed and serve it garnished with coriander leaves. Goes well with white steamed or boiled rice and/or rotis! 3.5.3251 Signing off with this short video about how to write in Arabic Sindhi!

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Jwar Ji Tikki~AlifBe~11

Alka Keswani — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 21:04:31 +0000

The 11 th letter/consonant of AlifBe series is ج which is J in Roman Sindhi and ज in Devanagari. J as in Jowar, Japan, Java etc. This consonant belongs to third basic shape group. To know more about the 1st and second shape groups you can check this recap post! My hunt for a Sindhi dish starting with Alphabet J led me to Johar/Jwar Ji tikki and when I was discussing it with Ma and Papa (MIL and FIL) I realised that it is indeed very unique. Not sure about the Zen X generation but Millennial Sindhi kids may nod in affirmative that the peppermint candy was one of those delicious, breath freshening, carminative, herbal candies that was actually fed by mothers and grandmothers to young and old. The Jwar ji tikki also known as Phudney ji tikki was a ‘must have’ in every home back then. It is a part of the first chaato (a sweet fine powder mix ) that a newborn is given or the Faqi, a post natal powder mix given to the new mother. Everyone from kids to elderly loved this mint candy and some people even confessed to me that when they were kids they would fake stomach ache just to eat this. So What is Jwar/Johar ji tikki? What it is made of? What does the word Johar means? Is it a candy or medicine? I had so many questions on my mind and though we (me, MIL, FIL and hubby dear) couldn’t find any answers then but that discussion made Papa (FIL) very nostalgic about few things associated with Jwar Ji tikki which gradually led me to many valuable discoveries that I am surely going to share with you all in my upcoming posts, on Instagram and even on Facebook. So do join me there, if you haven’t, yet. I need to thank my extended family who helped me in finding answers to many queries regarding Jwar ji tikki. Thank you Prakash Uncle for connecting me with Dilip Uncle (of Kaka’s Jwar tikki fame) who explained the process of making Jwar tikki. Thank you Renu Di and Varsha, for being so patient and for sharing so many details along with lovely memories of the forgotten delicacies (that I must share in upcoming posts) and of course thanks to my better half for helping me in my culinary and literary research and for everything else. So what is Jwar Ji Tikki? Jwar Ji tikki is basically a sweet menthol flavored hard sugar candy/ tablet, also known as peppermint Lozenges. It has nothing to do with jowar (sorghum) tikki 😉 Jwar Ji Tikki is made by boiling sugar to which glucose syrup and mint oil are added but there are many variations of the candy and hence varying ingredients like gelatin (derived from plants or animal collagen) fats /oil and even Magnesium Stearate may be present in different kinds of Mint candies. Apart from sugar and Glucose (syrup) an important ingredient used in Jwar Ji tikki is Mentha. Mentha: Mentha (plant) is a genus of perennial herbs belonging to family Lamiaceae and there are around 25 species of these aromatic herbs and one of it is Peppermint. Mentha oil is derived from Mentha foliage i.e leaves, stems or even flowers of Peppermint (even spearmint/mint). The foliage is collected and dumped in large tanks and the mix is compressed thoroughly. Steam is allowed to pass through the compressed foliage which drives along with it the oily fumes of mentha. This steam is then allowed to pass through a cooling chamber where it gets converted into liquid (water) form, carrying mentha, forming an emulsion which is collected in a container. The mentha oil floats on the surface of the liquid and is then collected and stocked. The mentha or Menthol (organic compound made from mint oil) are then used in various medicine preparations, vapo rubs, toothpastes and mouth fresheners etc. Some Interesting facts about Menthol: * In ancient Greece, Menthol was used as room freshener. It was spread on the floor or in corners of rooms for that cool, fresh fragrance in the air. * While in ancient era cloves were chewed to freshen the breath, in Medieval era, people started using mint as mouth fresheners. * Mint candies were used not only as breath fresheners but also for its carminative properties. Altoids, the mint candies, similar to Jwar Ji tikki were first created by a confectioner named William Smith, in London in l8th century. Those were originally made from a mix of Sugar, gum arabic, gelatin, glucose syrup and peppermint oil. However after a century (almost 100 years) Altoids became more popular in America than in Europe. Coming to Jwar Ji tikki, this desi peppermint candy was and still is, a favorite of Sindhis. Dilip Uncle told me that now mostly Menthol crystals are used to make Jwar Ji Tikki, instead of mint oil. The crystals used, could be natural or synthetic. Natural Menthol crystals are made by freezing the essential oil extracted from mint plants. Upon freezing, the menthol crystals are separated from dementholized oil with the help of a centrifuge machine and are finally dried for a day or so. These Menthol crystals (previously known as peppermint camphor) are then used in candies or in products for Oral hygiene etc. Synthetic Menthol crystals are produced by hydrogenation of thymol. Why the name Jwar Ji Tikki ? Ideally it should be pronounced as Johar or Jowhar Ji Tikki. Johar in Sindhi means essence/arq/essential oil etc. Menthol is known as Phudney Jo Johar (Phudna= mint in Sindhi). For such interesting translations you can refer the dictionary of Sindhyat.com A detailed recipe (trade secret) of this Jwar Ji tikki is promised by few sources and if I do get it, I will share it with you all. And as usual, I am sharing here a small video for those who wish to learn how to write in Arabic Sindhi script.

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