Flavours of Winter – Reliving My Childhood

Returning to my home state after seventeen years, which is almost half my life, I decided to overindulge in things that I had missed for all these years. As far as food was concerned, it meant eating vegetables which we always associated with a season. We always had lady’s fingers, lauki (bottle gourd), parwal, turai (both ridged ones, and smooth ones, which we call nenua) in summer; while cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, and above all green peas were quintessential winter veggies. It was never a matter of choice as there were hardly any veggies available through the year. It also meant that so many dishes became seasonal specialties.

Nimona with badiyan (sun-dried pumpkin and lentil dumplings, called konhdauri in Awadh after pumpkin which is called konhda)

The most popular winter dish has always been nimona. Till I read a recipe of nimona in Dastrkhwan-e-Awadh, one of the better researched books on Awadhi cuisine, I was under the impression that other than our neighbours and us, no one knew about it. It is a green peas curry, which actually substitutes the dal in a meal. It epitomizes winter because almost all its ingredients – green peas, coriander leaves, spring onions, spring garlic – are seasonal, and leaves out standard gravy bases like onions and garlic.

Tehri, which is kind of a winter pulao, has now found its way into the menu of some upmarket restaurants under the name of ‘Tehri biriyani’. Key to a good tehri is always lots of green peas, which should be sweet, along with tomatoes and cauliflower ensuring that veggies make as much of the volume as the rice. The standard accompaniment is a savoury chutney made by roasting tomatoes, flavoured with raw garlic and mustard oil.

Hot and sweet chutney as accompaniment for matar kachauri

Ghughri, a snack made by sautéing green peas is popular across north India, though recipes vary due to use of different spices and herbs across states. We also add small pieces of potato to this snack. The same can mashed and form a stuffing for matar kachauris, with potato binding the stuffing. I ignored the calorie counts to have these kachauris with hot and sweet tomato chutney which is essentially a sweet tomato chutney but has a whole red chilli and cumin seed tempering giving it a bit of a zing. 

When accompaniments for all snacks are being standardized to a ‘green chutney’ and ‘red chutney’, these are two  tomato based chutneys  completely different in flavor and so rigidly coupled by tradition with tehri and matar kachauri respectively.

Gajar ka halwa

Preparing khoa on the second burner for garnish while the halwa is cooking

Like ghughri, gajar halwa is also popular across the subcontinent but comes with its variations. Ours differs from what I have come across in Delhi and Punjab, in not frying the gajar in ghee. We cook finely grated carrot in milk itself. I understand that in the Delhi version carrot is more coarsely grated and sautéed in desi ghee, and then mixed with khoa. Lot of people would find both the texture (it has a bite) and colour (has a shine) of this Delhi version better than the pudding like form of the gajar halwa we make, in which milk reduces over hours of cooking to khoa but having become one with the carrot and not mixed separately. Additional khoa is used only as a garnish.

I sometimes fear if these traditions will last another generation. Maybe as documented recipes but as dishes eaten almost every other meal during winters? But then my father must have had the same fear when he married a woman from Bihar and again when his son married a Tamilian. It is really to my wife’s credit that she has kept some of these culinary traditions alive even though many of these dishes were completely unknown to her a decade back. And what makes this culinary tradition richer is that I would be having an adai-avial  (lentil pancakes and coconut and yoghurt based mixed vegetable curry – a popular dish in Tamil Nadu) breakfast tomorrow.