India on My Platter (5 page)

S
IDDU

(Stuffed steamed bread served with clarified butter.)

Ingredients

Method

1.  Add the baking powder and a bit of salt to the wheat flour.

2.  Knead the wheat flour in water
(1¼
cup approximately) to make a soft dough. Leave the dough overnight (covered with wet muslin cloth or in an air-tight container in the fridge). In the morning it would turn light and fluffy.

3.  Dry roast the poppy seeds in a non-stick pan for three to four minutes. Keep stirring so the seeds cook evenly, else a few might burn. Let it cool and then grind them finely in a mixer.

4.  Mix the ground poppy seeds and
chana dal
together. Add coriander, onions, green chillies and salt to this mixture.

5.  Divide the dough equally to obtain golf ball-size roundels. Flatten them out slightly on your palm and then stuff them with the poppy seed mix. Pinch all the ends together to make it into a roundel again. They should look like fat dim sums or buns.

6.  Steam these buns for 15 minutes in a steamer or make a temporary steaming arrangement by preparing a double boiler; placing these buns on a sieve or a similar plate and shutting it with a lid.

7.  Remove from the steamer and then slightly brown it from all the sides on a heated
tawa.
Serve it warm with hot
ghee
on the side.

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Alas! Every perfect meal comes to an end, so it was time for me to leave. This family had treated me not like a guest, but like one of their own. This is the speciality of Indians. In our houses, and our hearts, we have a place for everybody. With a heavy heart, I tried offering them some money for their hospitality. Not only did they refuse, but in return they handed us a huge box of apples. I did not want to leave, but India’s various other flavours were waiting for me. My next destination: Manali.

D
AY
10

15 August / Manali

After a long journey from Kullu to Manali, we were all very tired and just wished to quickly eat and sleep. But we just had 100 days and so did not want to miss out on anything that was particular to the hill station. Kullu and Manali are two sides of a coin, but I could smell some Italian herbs in Manali. That’s because it is extremely popular for its Italian cuisine. For the past 10 years the culture of Italian food has really developed here because of the number of expats who visit Manali. We went to one such spot famous for their pizzas called Casa Bella Pizza. The restaurant was very quiet and was totally painted in white; it seemed like a place where couples would come for a romantic wine and dine experience. They had a huge outdoor seating, a small indoor seating allowing people to enjoy the weather outside and perhaps enjoy the warmth from the wood-fired oven for times when it was cold.

Italy also has many options in vegetarian food just like India. People are mistaken if they think they have to eat a lot of meat when they go to Italy. Basil is one ingredient that I can live by for a lifetime. The chef there on request quickly tossed a thin crust wood-fired oven pizza with lots of fresh vegetables and basil on it for all of us. The pizzas were delicious and were far better than any I’ve had in Mumbai or Delhi. So this whole ‘Italian food in Manali’ hype actually lived up to its reputation. After this, it was time to relax, get a good night’s sleep and wait for the morning to begin my exploration.

D
AY
11

16 August / Manali

The Mall Road is the liveliest and the most throbbing street of Manali and is lined with plenty of hotels, eateries and shopping options. The street, being a popular hangout, was teeming with people everywhere. After doing the regular touristy window-shopping and buying small tokens for family, it was time for something new. Our journey brought us a new adventure every day. Today’s adventure was to explore a hidden food gem in the city: Dylan’s Toasted and Roasted Coffee House, whose logo said, ‘We are here to serve you with love and care.’ It reminded me of my mom and that family in Kullu we met the day before.

I asked the owner of the café, Raj, ‘What is Dylan’s café about?’ Raj’s response was prompt, ‘The name is inspired by Bob Dylan, the great music legend. I think that food is the most important thing in our lives. We want to love it and people are passionate about the food they eat, and that’s why they want to cook it as well. The most beautiful thing that we miss is food cooked by our mother. So, we thought why not cover the gap to provide what backpackers are really missing. So, we are here to provide the taste of home with a bit of a wow factor through the music.’

The story of how this café began was interesting; it revealed a great cross-cultural connect. In 2005, Raj started this project with two Californian hippy guys. A guy called Eric taught Raj how to make the world-famous cookies the café is known for. Basically, these cookies are American chocolate cookies. After hearing so much about the cookies, I was shameless enough to ask Raj to share the recipe with me, and he said it was all about our love for food. There were a few secrets though that Raj did share with me. First was, that there should be at least two big chunks of chocolate in every cookie. Second was, you have to make small balls like we make for
rotis,
that shouldn’t be too hard and there was no need to flatten them totally. Also, most of the times the tray went directly to the customers, fresh from the oven and it was sold out within minutes.

As the cookies were being baked and the aromas were sifting through my soul, I got a chance to join a table with a small group of foreigners who were backpacking through India. There were three guys, Alexter and Amir from Israel, Alex from England and Natasha from Spain. They had been regularly visiting this café for the past three days and were totally in love with Manali. On being asked what he loved the most about India, Alex answered, ‘It is very different from what we thought. People are extremely hospitable, it is not as crowded as we imagined it to be, at least not so in the hills, and it is given me a lot of peace and love.’ It made me feel very proud and it was encouraging to hear such great words about my country. In a short while, the cookies were with me; I shared the whole batch with my new friends, bid Raj goodbye and sat inside the Tamatar for our next destination, where we would be catching a fresh Himalayan trout and then cook it.

It was 3 p.m. and I was sitting on the banks of a mountain stream, the city rush, long forgotten. There was a cool breeze and the sounds of waves rushing by, which transported me to a different realm. When I had left home for this journey, I had promised myself that I would overcome all my fears. I wouldn’t get scared of anything. Fish was one of those things that I never fancied, catching it, definitely not! But a promise is a promise! It was time to face that fear and I was told by my director that till the time I wouldn’t catch a fish we wouldn’t leave the place. Hence, catching a fish was of paramount importance for me.

The trouts of this region are very popular. January to March are the best months to catch trout, but unfortunately, we were here in the wrong month. So, it would be a miracle if I happened to catch one. Thirty minutes had already elapsed since I put the hook in and nothing happened. After an hour of staring at the empty hook, disappointment sunk in and it was one of the first defeats I faced on this trip. To not dampen the spirits, I still decided to cook a fresh trout bought from the market and made it as tasty and simple as possible. I dedicated this recipe to the region and called it
Kullu Manali Trout.
One important thing to remember while cooking this trout is that you don’t remove the skin because the taste lies in the skin of this fish. Within 10 minutes, the fish was ready with a lot of help from the crew.

K
ULLU
M
ANALI
T
ROUT

(Pan-fried trout marinated with local herbs.)

Ingredients

Method

1.  Clean and wash the trout. Do a fillet and do not remove the skin. Trout is best cooked with its skin on.

2.  Make a marinade by mixing curry leaf paste, crushed coriander seeds, red chilli flakes, orange rind, lemon juice, salt and mustard oil in a bowl.

3.  Rub this marinade all over the fish and let it rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

4.  Heat two teaspoon olive or mustard oil in a pan and add the marinated fish and cook on both sides on medium flame for five to seven minutes or until the fish curls up.

5.  Have this hot fish like a starter or with a bowl of rice.

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Despite not having caught a trout together, the whole exercise of cooking the fish for my team definitely established a great bond between all of us. This journey of Kullu and Manali was very different and it challenged my thought process as a chef; having trained in professional kitchens, a chef’s outlook is very different from someone who cooks in home kitchens. Kullu made me realise the importance of instinct and a constant thirst for knowledge for a chef. After having seen people cook at a woodfired stove and pickling a fern, it opened my eyes to a completely new dimension of food. I started questioning myself, what all could be created if this knowledge was transferred into a professional kitchen and then developed further? I started realising that food is bigger than I ever thought, it doesn’t stop at serving a good meal to a guest. To go beyond I’ll have to unlearn a lot and then accept all these new learnings. Also, someday I’ll catch a fish! Kullu and Manali are usually mentioned together. But during my visit, I saw two very different flavours; while the Kullu cuisine has very localised flavours of the mountains, Manali’s eating joints are cosmopolitan with a lot of Mediterranean influence.

D
AY
12

18 August / Rohtang Pass

If one is willing to let go of all food inhibitions while travelling, that is when the right kind of food will find you. There are many ways to find the right place to dine at in an unknown city, from guides to websites to blogs. The real deal, though, lies with the people of that city. It is always a much more interesting way of discovering local eateries, talking to the people of the city or friends who have visited that city before and you’ll be amazed at the in-depth information people are willing to share when it comes to food. If you’re planning a road trip to the serene and enchanting Leh in Ladakh, these guidelines will definitely come in handy.

So, I was expecting this leg of the trip to be definitely the most scenic and adventurous one. And I couldn’t believe my luck, I was actually going to Leh!

If someone in Ladakh smiles and says ‘Julle!’ don’t get confused. Because that would mean he or she is saying hello in the local language. That was also my first word to Ratan, who ran a small
dhaba
called Maggi Point, which was the only place to eat before Rohtang Pass. Also, it was raining, so the possibility of getting stuck in a four hour-long jam at Rohtang Pass was certain. The journey to reach Leh, about 473 km away, was a two day-long trip. It was amazing to see that Maggi was a lifesaver even in this part of the world. As it was 4:30 a.m. in the morning, that was the only thing Ratan had to offer. He served a hot bowl of Maggi to each one of us, and I must appreciate the fact that he had a lot of courage to have opened a shop just 10 km below Rohtang Pass. Ratan explained his business model by saying, ‘During season time around 1000 vehicles go to Rohtang per day, out of which 100-200 are sure to stop here.’ It was a tough bet as he lived in Manali but it was necessary for him to run this shop to support his family.

As presumed, I knew what was going to come next. After driving uphill for another three kilometres, we got stuck in a seven kilometre-long traffic jam at Rohtang Pass. To top it all, our poor Tamatar got stuck in a mud pile. After remaining stuck there for two hours and running low on patience, I finally decided to trek on foot for at least two or three kilometres. The beauty of Indian roads is that you can be sure to find food somewhere near them. To my surprise, I met this incredible entrepreneur with a mobile kitchen who would wait every day for passers-by to get stuck in a similar jam at Rohtang. His mobile kitchen comprised Indian
chaat
items like
matra kulcha
(a popular street food consisting of round Indian bread made from flour, milk, and butter, typically stuffed with meat or vegetables and a chickpea curry) and
bhel puri
(an Indian dish of puffed rice, onions, spices, and hot chutney). He would sell 100 plates in a day just because of the traffic jam. It does need some business acumen and guts to do this! He has served food to people from at least 50 countries. He said of his venture, ‘
Sahab,
I’ve served everyone, from Amreeka to Dilli and I feel blessed and thank God every day for this opportunity.’ He quickly dished out three kinds of
chaat
and I tasted all of them. They were not only finger-licking good, but it was astonishing to see him serve another seven Australians that same
chaat
with a dozen chillies in them!

Talking about epic kitchens and cooks, this man certainly had a certain kind of magic in him to run his mobile kitchen. At the moment, I felt small, thinking of times and of challenges I would cry about in a fully functional kitchen in a five-star hotel. After being stuck in the jam for almost the entire day, everybody was numb with frustration and had a backache to accompany the fatigue. So we decided to take a stopover after a mere 100 km and called it a day.