Society

Five-Spice Mix (And The Remix)

The ‘Plain Jane of Indian food’ is actually a delicate, native diva—and the palanquin beckons

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Five-Spice Mix (And The Remix)
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Dhokla-fafda-handva-thepla—the breathless hyphenation to which a range of Gujarati snacks is routinely reduced to, a stereotype even Bollywood feeds upon, isn’t particularly kind to the cuisine’s true repertoire. Underrated, misunderstood, underexplored—that is what Gujarati cuisine essentially is, and those sensitive to the many nuances of Indian food know this only too well. Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to find a reliable Gujarati diner that would do its cuisine proud outside of its home state and parts of Mumbai. Vishalla and Agashiye of Ahmedabad or Chetana of Mumbai have no comparable cousins elsewhere when it comes to serving authentic Gujarati thalis, and introducing patrons to its true flavours.

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Sure, neighbourhood markets over the decades have dedicated shelf space to khakhra and thepla, while dhokla and khandvi readily sit beside the kachoris and the malpuas in sweet shops in very many non-Gujarati regions now, but does the food genuinely occupy pride of place on the Indian gourmetscape? Not quite so, and far from it.

Of course, it could have a lot to do with the fact that Gujarati food suffers from some damaging misconceptions. Madhur Jaffrey was only being extre­mely laudable when she termed Gujarati food the “haute cuisine of vegetarianism”, but it probably did the state’s culinary variety no apparent fav­ours. “Gujarati food is rich in heritage, with influences from so many dynasties, but it all gets lost in stereotypes like Gujju food is only vegetarian, and that it is mostly too sweet,” rues Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna. “Meat undhiyu, and the non-vegetarian food in Kutch blew me away. If I had to have my very last meal, it would be a thali at Surat’s Sasumaa. No one serves you food quite as warmly as the staff there. You are made to feel like a member of their family,” he says.

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Gujarati fare is certainly a plateful of comfort food: richly flavoured veg pre­parations paired with delicate kadhi, an army of sweet and sour pickles and chutneys, the softest of rotlis and appetising khichudi topped with dollops of ghee along with a side of gur. The preparation and choice of veggies (or meat) changes from region to reg­ion, from aakha dongdi (whole oni­ons in gravy), undhiyu (mixed vegetable), sev tamatar to spicy chicken/fish masala. Inner richness and external non-visibi­lity, it shares this trait with most other traditional cuisines, “Gujarati food is seen as common man’s food, not what you call upmarket fare,” says chef Man­ish Mehrotra of Delhi’s experime­ntal Indian Accent restaurant. “It has not travelled the way Punjabi, Awadhi and some bits of South Indian cuisine have across India.” Mehrotra is one of the few to have tinkered with the cuisine to fit fine dining tastes, and brought to the table dishes like Silken Tofu Gathia with a Kokum Kadhi, Shrikhand with Fresh Berries or Khandvi Ravioli (see recipe).

Celebrity chefs like the late Tarla Dalal and Sanjeev Kapoor too have paid homage to a variety of Gujju favourites in their studios and cookbooks over the decades. It hasn’t been enough, however, to elevate the food to the realm of culinary exotica, something foodies across the world would lust after. Food entrepreneurs may well have sensed this lack of enthusiasm for the cuisine among non-Gujaratis, for the few Gujarati restaurants there are in the country usually play it safe with their menus, hardly firing the imagination of patrons enough to make them try something new. Does it have to do with a kind of inferiority complex the Gujaratis themselves suffer from that even the state’s highways have Punjabi, Rajas­thani, Awadhi-style dhabas as stopovers but none from the local kitchens?

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Outside of Gujarat, there could be other reasons why Gujarati khana hasn’t matched the conquering zeal of butter chicken or masala dosa. “Gujarati cuisine is not always very easy to adapt outside Gujarat,” says Mehrotra. “Unusual ingredients like purple yam or kand, a favourite among Gujaratis, as also different types of beans and arbi ke patte, are not readily available everywhere.” People also often think of Gujju fare as “too simple (read boring)”, but actually, believes Khanna, “Gujaratis don’t know simple flavours at all. What they cook is multi-dimensional, having perfected the art of the five-flavour balance. Even their vrat ka khana is usually bursting with flavour. Due to historically having been short on fresh produce, they have learnt to make more with less, and mastering the art of chutneys and preserves.”

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Bhanu Hajratwala, author of Gujarati Kitchen, and hailed as the ‘Martha Stewart of Gujarati cooking’ in Cali­fornia, where she is based, finds Gujarati food is better understood abroad than in India. “When my cookbook was released in India, several food critics told me they did not realise that there are non-vegetarian Gujaratis till they saw the non-vegetarian recipes in the book. Apart from the US and India, my book seems to have become quite popular in Fiji, Australia, New Zealand.” More cookbooks, food shows, better restaurants could turn around Gujarati food’s culinary fortune yet, she feels. If the cuisine hasn’t got its due in India yet, there is perhaps no better time than now, with politics offering the chance for a cultural encounter—with a noisy, busy kitchen all set to serve its best dish yet.

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The Italian Job

A recipe by Manish Mehrotra Indian Accent

Khandvi Ravioli, For 4 Portions

Ingredients

For khandvi sheets

  • 110 gm gram flour (besan)
  • 50 gm corn flour
  • 25 gm sugar
  • 2 gm turmeric powder
  • 2 gm yellow chilli powder
  • 10 gm curd
  • 800 ml water

For mixed-cheese mash

  • 75 gm goat cheese
  • 15 gm cottage cheese
  • 10 gm chopped bell peppers
  • 2 gm crushed roasted cumin
  • 2 gm crushed black pepper
  • 2 gm chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 10 gm butter
  • 5 gm ginger juliennes
  • 15 gm cherry tomatoes
  • 15 gm fried pine nuts
  • 1 khakhra

For Beurre Blanc

  • 15 ml fresh cream
  • 5 gm butter
  • 1 gm garam masala
  • Salt to taste

Method

For making khandvi sheets

  • Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl using a whisk, mix well to make a smooth mixture
  • Strain through a fine sieve into a kadhai
  • Start cooking the mixture on slow flame stirring continuously to avoid any lump formation
  • Keep stirring as the mixture starts thickening
  • Cook for 10 min, till mixture becomes thick, shiny and spreadable
  • Pour the mixture on a clean tabletop and spread evenly and thinly using a dough scraper to a 1 mm thickness
  • Let it cool and set for 5 min. Trim off the edges and cut into 5-inch sheets.
  • Carefully roll the sheets, cover and refrigerate

For mixed-cheese mash

  • Grate goat cheese and cottage cheese; mix bell peppers, black pepper, roasted cumin and fresh mint. Refrigerate.

For khandvi ravioli

  • Spread the rolled khandvi sheets on the table. Cut around 35-40 round discs of 3.5 cm using a round cutter.
  • Place about 4 gm of mixed cheese mash on half of the discs. Cover it using the
    remaining discs making a ravioli.
  • Cover and refrigerate; keep till use

For Beurre Blanc

  • Heat cream in a non-stick pan, add butter, garam masala, salt and water to adjust consistency. Remove from flame. Keep in a clean bowl.

For finish

  • Heat butter in a non-stick skillet, sauté ginger and green chilies
  • Add cherry tomato halves and turn the flame off
  • Place the ravioli carefully without any overlap
  • Turn the flame to slow, cook for 30 sec and flip the ravioli
  • Add pine nuts and arrange the ravioli on the serving dish topping with the cherry tomatoes, green chilies, ginger and pine nuts
  • Finish with beurre blanc and serve with crushed khakhra
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