Darjeeling (40 page)
Authors: Jeff Koehler
Another breakfast staple around Darjeeling, feisty and flavorful masala omelets are best kept thin and prepared either individually or for two people.
This recipe serves two. Individual omelets can be prepared without folding in half; simply cook until set and then slide off the pan and onto a plate.
4 large eggs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 small red onion, finely chopped, about ¼ cup
1 plum tomato, finely chopped, about ¼ cup
1 small green chili, deseeded and minced
2 tsp sunflower, canola, or light olive oil
Finely chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves), for garnishing
In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until spongy. Season with salt and pepper. Fold in the onion, tomato, and chili.
In a 10-inch/25-cm nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Pour the egg mixture into the pan. Immediately swirl the pan to evenly spread the mixture and to keep the egg from sticking as it begins to set. Without stirring, let the egg firm up, 1 to 2 minutes. Loosen the omelet with a thin spatula, and fold the omelet in half. Let cook for another 2 minutes or so until done but still moist in the middle, turning it over toward the end.
Slide the omelet onto a plate, generously scatter cilantro over the top, and serve immediately.
Included in
The Englishwoman in India
and published anonymously by “A Lady Resident” in 1864, this porridge recipe still familiar in Darjeeling:
Put as many cups of water, or milk, as you require porridge, into a large saucepan: when it boils fast throw in some salt, and shake the oatmeal in with one hand, stirring all the time with the other. Use a stick and not a spoon. Pour it into a deep dish when thick enough, and send a jug of milk to table with it.
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Surely early British settlers in Darjeeling found this dish—slow to digest, slow to release its energy—a perfect way to begin the area’s cold and damp mornings.
It’s no surprise that the Windamere Hotel, which began its life as a boardinghouse for English and Scottish planters, still serves the best in town. Made with Indian-grown oats and served every morning, the flavor is bold, and its texture, far from gooey or clumpy, is fine without being too chewy. While some traditionalists in Scotland demand that just oats, water, and a pinch of salt be used, in the high altitudes around Darjeeling, milk is added, too.
This recipe calls for traditional, noninstant, non-quick-cooking oats.
Serves 4:
1 cup/110 g medium steel-cut or Scottish or Irish oats (noninstant)
1 cup/240 ml whole milk
Salt
Small jug milk, hot or cold as desired, for serving
Brown sugar, for serving
In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups/480 ml water to a boil. Add the oats and the milk, and stir with the handle of a wooden spoon. Return to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to low, and simmer uncovered until the consistency is thick and the oats tender but still chewy, about 45 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add in a touch more water or milk if needed.
Remove the pan from the heat, stir in a couple pinches of salt, cover, and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir again.
Serve in bowls with the jug of milk on the side to pour generously over the top as desired as well as brown sugar to stir in to sweeten to taste.
THE RITZ OF LONDON’S AFTERNOON TEA SCONES
These divine scones are adapted from
The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea
. While the author calls them “austere little cakes, perfect vehicles for jam and cream,”
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do not overwhelm them with such sweet toppings, as the scones themselves have a delicate and delightful flavor.
Makes about 12 scones:
1½ cups/225 g all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt or slightly less
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for greasing pan
⅔
cup/160 ml whole milk or buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7.
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the baking powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Work in the butter with the fingertips until the mixture has the consistency of large, flaky crumbs. Stir in the milk using a spatula until the dough is soft.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a ½-inch (1.25-cm) thickness. Using a pastry cutter 2 to 2½ inches (5 to 6.5 cm) in diameter or a water glass, press out rounds. (Do not to twist when pressing out, or the scones are likely to bake unevenly.)
Lightly grease a baking sheet with butter. Arrange the rounds on the sheet. Lightly dust their faces with flour.
Bake until they have risen and turned golden, 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Serve warm.
So named for its use of a pound each of its quartet of ingredients—flour, sugar, eggs, and butter—this loaf endures as a favorite for afternoon tea. As the author of an Anglo-Indian cookbook remarked, “A pound cake
is a pound cake, as solid and dependable as the British Empire in its heyday.”
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This version has baking powder to give the cake a slightly fluffier note and some vanilla extract to offer a fragrant hint of warmth.
Serves 6 to 8:
1½ cup/150 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
Generous pinch of salt
⅔
cup/150 g butter, at room temperature
¾ cup/150 g granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
Line the bottom of an 8- or 9-inch/20- or 23-cm loaf pan with parchment paper. Sift the flour together with the baking powder and salt.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together for at least 2 or 3 minutes until pale, light, and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and then the eggs, one by one, scraping down the mixing bowl after each. Beat until smooth and silky. While beating over low speed, gradually add in the dry ingredients until incorporated.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Smooth down the surface with a spatula. Tap down to settle.
Place in the oven and bake until golden, about 35 minutes. When its done, the top should be springy and a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean.
Let cool after taking from the oven, then remove the cake from the pan. Cut into thin slices and serve.
ONION PAKORAS
(
SPICY ONION FRITTERS
)
Bought on a railway platform during a stop of the Darjeeling Mail on its journey north from Kolkata to NJP station outside Siliguri, in one of the roadside tea shops on the curvy and much-patched road up into the hills, or for afternoon tea in Darjeeling itself, crispy, deep-fried
pakoras
—also known as
bhajia
—are a favorite snack with tea. The Elgin serves its delectable
pakoras
with trio of chutneys and some sweet tomato-chili sauce. They make a perfect snack while dinner slow-cooks.
Or just to nibble on to pass a rainy day. On one such drizzly June day in Darjeeling, the city was brimming with Indian visitors escaping the searing the heat of the plains. “But none of the tourists ventured out today,” one hotel manager lamented to the
Calcutta Telegraph
correspondent. “They watched TV and ordered unending rounds of tea and
pakora
.”
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Makes about 10 to 12 pakoras:
1 cup/125 g gram (chickpea) flour
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp black onion seeds (optional)
⅓
cup loosely packed chopped cilantro (coriander leaves)
1 to 2 small, fresh green chilies, deseeded and finely chopped
½ tsp salt
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
Vegetable oil for frying
Preheat to the oven to 200°F/95°C.
Place the flour in a mixing bowl and work in about ½ cup/120 ml warm water. The batter should be pasty and silky and just thicker than pancake batter. Add in a touch more water, or flour, if needed. Whisk in the turmeric, black onion seeds, cilantro, green chilies, and salt. Add the onions and blend well with the hands, separating the segments and slightly crunching them down against the bottom of the bowl. The batter should coat the onions but not be clumpy.
In a deep skillet or sauté pan, heat at least 1 inch/2.5 cm of oil to 375°F/190°C. When the oil is hot enough, a small amount of batter should float and vigorously bubble.
Working in small batches that don’t crowd the pan or bring the temperature of the oil below 350°F/180°C, drop spoonful-size globs of the mixture with a pair of soupspoons into the oil, flatten out slightly, and fry until crispy and a rich, deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
Remove with a slotted spoon, and place on absorbent paper towels to drain. Transfer to a baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm until all of the
pakoras
have been fried.
Remove any solid bits from the oil before adding the next batch of
pakoras
. Fry the remaining batter, being sure that the oil has returned to 350°F/180°C before adding the next batch. Serve hot.
Few items on the tea tray are more unappealing than a poorly made cucumber sandwich with soggy bread. But when done well, nothing makes a better companion for an afternoon cup of Darjeeling tea: small, crustless, and prepared using thin slices of bread and cucumbers sliced so thin that they are transparent. Cut into rectangles—properly called fingers—they might seem a touch dainty, but they won’t (unlike scones or pound cake) spoil one’s appetite for dinner. More important, their delicate, fresh flavors won’t overpower even the subtlest first flush Darjeeling tea.
Spreading the butter evenly but not thickly is key, as it makes a sealing layer to keep bread from getting moist. Prepare only at the last moment so that both bread and filling are at their freshest.
Makes 12 finger sandwiches:
1 firm medium garden cucumber
Salt
8 thin slices fresh white or brown bread
Unsalted butter for spreading, at room temperature
Scrub the cucumber and remove any wax. Slice crosswise as thinly as possibly, ideally with a mandoline. Place in a colander and lightly salt. Let the cucumbers sweat and draw out the flavors for 15 minutes. Place on paper towels and pat dry.
Lay out 4 slices of the bread and on one side, spread a thin, even coat of butter from crust to crust. Arrange the cucumbers in 2 or 3 layers. Butter one side of the remaining 4 slices of bread in a thin, even coat from crust to crust, and lay on top.
Gently press down with the palm and trim the crusts with a serrated knife. Cut each sandwich into three even rectangles. Neatly arrange on a platter and serve immediately.
GLENBURN
’
S CHICKEN-AND-FRESH-MINT HAMPER SANDWICHES
Flights into Bagdogra Airport—Darjeeling’s closest access point by air—all land just after lunch. For guests staying at Glenburn Tea Estate, the four-hour journey up to the garden is broken with a stop on a knoll below Kurseong. The driver unpacks a picnic hamper that includes a thermos of tea—shockingly good, considering it was prepared in the
morning—slices of cake, fruit, and some sandwiches, including this delicious Glenburn classic.
Makes 3 sandwiches:
2 bone-in, skin-on whole chicken legs, about 1 pound/450 g total
¼ cup/60 ml mayonnaise, preferably Hellmann’s
¾ tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp finely chopped, fresh mint
6 slices white bread
Place the chicken in saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the heat, uncover, and let legs cool in the water. Remove and discard the skin, and debone the chicken. Hand-shred the pieces. There should be about 1½ cups/175 g of loosely packed chicken meat.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the mustard and mint. Fold in the chicken.
Spread the filling on 3 slices of the bread. Cover with the remaining slices. Trim the crusts. Cut the sandwiches diagonally. Wrap in wax paper.
During the Raj era, some of the only fish found in hill stations such as Darjeeling—or even landlocked places such as Delhi—were tinned anchovies, sardines, and salted fish. Cooks sometimes got creative with their use in recipes. Michael Smith, culinary advisor to
Upstairs, Downstairs
and
The Duchess of Duke Street
television miniseries, offers the Delhi Sandwich (“Straight from the Days of the Raj is this one!”) in
The Afternoon Tea Book
.
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I have adapted it only slightly. Smith recommends spreading this between slices of brown bread or hot over buttered toast or over split, toasted English muffins.
Makes 5 or 6 sandwiches:
6 anchovy fillets
6 ounces/170 g skinned and deboned tinned sardines, about 1¼ loosely packed cup of fillets
1 tsp mild chutney
1 medium egg
¾ tsp mild curry powder
Salt (optional)
2 to 3 dashes of Tabasco or 1 pinch cayenne pepper
10 to 12 slices brown bread
In a blender, add all of the filling ingredients and blend to a paste. Transfer to a saucepan.
Over low heat, cook until the paste has firmed slightly and cohered, about 5 minutes. Spoon into a bowl and let cool.
Spread the filling on 5 or 6 slices of the bread. Cover with the remaining slices. Trim the crusts. Cut the sandwiches diagonally.
Arrange on a platter and serve.
Much beloved by locals, Himalayan steamed dumplings, filled with meats or vegetables and known as
momos
, is the dish more associated with Darjeeling. While cooks here roll out the dough from scratch before stuffing, using readily available dumpling or wonton wrappers make these easy to prepare. Cold
momos
can be reheated in a frying pan with a small amount of oil.
