I rarely risk cooking the cuisine of my smallish community of Chittapavan Brahmins. Don't get me wrong - it's not because it is not delicious, or because it is difficult or time consuming. It is in fact simplicity itself. Yet its simplicity is what strikes terror in me if I have to cook it for someone else. Terror of not being able to keep the green of the beans green, the orange of the carrot orange! Terror of committing the cardinal sin of overcooking and mashing up the veggies in a dish! Terror of not being able to achieve the perfect balance of sweet and sour! Terror of not using the very few ingredients in exactly the correct quantities to produce a flavour that is exactly as it should be! I know that if I am callous with the cooking of this delicate cuisine, it could very well be insipid or even unpalatable. For myself however, I will take the chance if the craving gets to be too much, like it did the other day!
I had gone vegetable and grocery shopping the day before. I had bought some fabulously fat peanuts and some of the freshest spinach and green chillies, there was a whole potful of dahi (natural yoghurt) set just right to just the right degree of sourness, I knew there was enough besan (chickpea flour) and chana daal (yellow split peas) in the kitchen cupboard along with cumin seeds and turmeric. Why not make some Palakchi Patal Bhaji? I had all the ingredients and I was a little tired of the usual onion-ginger-garlic-tomato based heavy curries the cook produced every single day. But would it turn out like Mom's? Well I was going to give it a shot and hope for the best!
I shooed the poor cook out and got to work. Soaked some peanuts and chana daal in slightly warm water, washed and chopped up the spinach and green chillies, beat the dahi with a little water, besan, two or three pinches of turmeric, salt and sugar, got out my cooking oil and whole cumin seeds and I was ready! No grinding, grating, frying to be done, and just a meagre ten ingredients plus salt and sugar! How difficult can this be?
Well, precisely because of the meagreness of the ingredients, the rocket science as usual was going to come in at two pressure points, one of which lay in making the tadka or phodni (tempering) flavourful and full of punch! I remember how my mother used to be, and still is at eighty one years of age, almost anal about getting this stage of the cooking of our special cuisine just right. The trick here is to get the oil to the exact temperature at which the tempering mix splutters immediately on hitting the oil, but does not get burnt! Well, I must confess I still sometimes burn it well into middle age and with a fair amount of cooking experience under my belt! This stage becomes a bit of a circus as the number of ingredients to be thrown into the oil increases, because different ingredients splutter at different times. As a result they are not usually to be added altogether, but rather in a certain order. My Palakchi Patal Bhaji luckily has just one ingredient in the tempering mix - whole cumin!
I put the cumin into hot oil, followed immediately by the chopped green chillies. The drained, soaked peanuts and chana daal went in before the chillies lost their greenness, but after they had sizzled just a little!
Which brings me to pressure point number two. We Chittapavan Brahmins are fixated on, among many other things, being able to see very clearly what we are eating. We hate our veggies to lose their shape, colour, firmness and distinct existence and identity in any dish, dry or curried! It is an affront to the senses, no less! My senses are of course slightly deadened, having been fed as I have, mainly by cooks from other parts of India for the past three decades or so! Hence my anxiety in the face of such culinary challenges as I take on from time to time, when my tastebuds need to be cleansed and reawakened to the joys of subtle, light and delicate fare!
And so, with pressure point two weighing heavily on my mind, I added the chopped spinach after stirring the peanuts and chana daal around on medium heat for a few minutes. I let the spinach sweat, then dried it up a little but not completely, added just about one eighth of a teaspoon of turmeric to the spinach, and then well before the spinach could lose its fresh greenness or even begin to shrivel up, I poured in the dahi, water, besan, turmeric, salt and sugar mixture, making sure it was well beaten and without any lumps. I brought it to the boil stirring all the time to make sure the dahi and besan were well combined and the dahi did not split, and then simmered it for just about two to three minutes. No more. It would be brought to the boil just once more and simmered for only a minute or two when heating it for service.
Ingredients to make Palakchi Patal Bhaji
2 cups chopped spinach
2 green chillies chopped into half inch pieces
1 cup slightly sour, medium thick, beaten dahi
3 cups water
3 level teaspoons besan
2-3 pinches turmeric for dahi mixture
salt to taste
3 level teaspoons sugar or to taste
2 tablespoons raw, shelled peanuts
2 tablespoons chana daal
lukewarm water to soak the peanuts and chana daal
2 tablespoons sunflower or refined oil
2-3 level teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
Slightly more complex recipes for this dish exist on the internet but they are not entirely authentic. Several of them have ingredients which their respective authors think ought to be in all dishes in Chittapavan Brahmin cuisine! This here recipe is honestly the simplest, quickest and much more than adequately delish one! Enjoy it piping hot and by the bowlful!
Linking back to Bellybytes and Shilpa
I had gone vegetable and grocery shopping the day before. I had bought some fabulously fat peanuts and some of the freshest spinach and green chillies, there was a whole potful of dahi (natural yoghurt) set just right to just the right degree of sourness, I knew there was enough besan (chickpea flour) and chana daal (yellow split peas) in the kitchen cupboard along with cumin seeds and turmeric. Why not make some Palakchi Patal Bhaji? I had all the ingredients and I was a little tired of the usual onion-ginger-garlic-tomato based heavy curries the cook produced every single day. But would it turn out like Mom's? Well I was going to give it a shot and hope for the best!
I shooed the poor cook out and got to work. Soaked some peanuts and chana daal in slightly warm water, washed and chopped up the spinach and green chillies, beat the dahi with a little water, besan, two or three pinches of turmeric, salt and sugar, got out my cooking oil and whole cumin seeds and I was ready! No grinding, grating, frying to be done, and just a meagre ten ingredients plus salt and sugar! How difficult can this be?
Well, precisely because of the meagreness of the ingredients, the rocket science as usual was going to come in at two pressure points, one of which lay in making the tadka or phodni (tempering) flavourful and full of punch! I remember how my mother used to be, and still is at eighty one years of age, almost anal about getting this stage of the cooking of our special cuisine just right. The trick here is to get the oil to the exact temperature at which the tempering mix splutters immediately on hitting the oil, but does not get burnt! Well, I must confess I still sometimes burn it well into middle age and with a fair amount of cooking experience under my belt! This stage becomes a bit of a circus as the number of ingredients to be thrown into the oil increases, because different ingredients splutter at different times. As a result they are not usually to be added altogether, but rather in a certain order. My Palakchi Patal Bhaji luckily has just one ingredient in the tempering mix - whole cumin!
I put the cumin into hot oil, followed immediately by the chopped green chillies. The drained, soaked peanuts and chana daal went in before the chillies lost their greenness, but after they had sizzled just a little!
Which brings me to pressure point number two. We Chittapavan Brahmins are fixated on, among many other things, being able to see very clearly what we are eating. We hate our veggies to lose their shape, colour, firmness and distinct existence and identity in any dish, dry or curried! It is an affront to the senses, no less! My senses are of course slightly deadened, having been fed as I have, mainly by cooks from other parts of India for the past three decades or so! Hence my anxiety in the face of such culinary challenges as I take on from time to time, when my tastebuds need to be cleansed and reawakened to the joys of subtle, light and delicate fare!
And so, with pressure point two weighing heavily on my mind, I added the chopped spinach after stirring the peanuts and chana daal around on medium heat for a few minutes. I let the spinach sweat, then dried it up a little but not completely, added just about one eighth of a teaspoon of turmeric to the spinach, and then well before the spinach could lose its fresh greenness or even begin to shrivel up, I poured in the dahi, water, besan, turmeric, salt and sugar mixture, making sure it was well beaten and without any lumps. I brought it to the boil stirring all the time to make sure the dahi and besan were well combined and the dahi did not split, and then simmered it for just about two to three minutes. No more. It would be brought to the boil just once more and simmered for only a minute or two when heating it for service.
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| The lighter green of the chillies is quite distinct from the darker green of the spinach!
I was done! The whole exercise had taken about 20-25 minutes, from prepping to cooking. It was only about 11.30 am when I turned off the heat. A quick check before I walked out of the kitchen told me it was absolutely delicious, and I was not sure I could wait till my usual lunch time of about 1 pm. I barely made it to 12 noon that day, rushing the cook to make me hot chapatis, a spot of rice and a roasted papad to eat with the Patal Bhaji!
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2 cups chopped spinach
2 green chillies chopped into half inch pieces
1 cup slightly sour, medium thick, beaten dahi
3 cups water
3 level teaspoons besan
2-3 pinches turmeric for dahi mixture
salt to taste
3 level teaspoons sugar or to taste
2 tablespoons raw, shelled peanuts
2 tablespoons chana daal
lukewarm water to soak the peanuts and chana daal
2 tablespoons sunflower or refined oil
2-3 level teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
Slightly more complex recipes for this dish exist on the internet but they are not entirely authentic. Several of them have ingredients which their respective authors think ought to be in all dishes in Chittapavan Brahmin cuisine! This here recipe is honestly the simplest, quickest and much more than adequately delish one! Enjoy it piping hot and by the bowlful!
Linking back to Bellybytes and Shilpa
This post has reminded me my Mom's cooking! An easy still difficult dish to make.. :-) The other one in this category is Alu Chi Patal Bhaji.. I have not even attempted that for fear of not getting the right proportion of chinch-gul... Well, I am off now.. to get palak and make its patal bhaji!
ReplyDeleteHey Amita!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to #FlavoursomeTuesdays!
Your recipe is like a breath of fresh air for me, you know? It's one of my favourite veggies...and I mostly prepare it for myself, hubby being a CKP, and not fond of my Brahmin style of Palak chi patal bhaji! :P
I prepare it by pressure cooking the palak and the peanuts first. Then, once it cools, I mix the palak well, add the turmeric, chilli powder, salt and sugar, and then give the phodni. At times, for a change of flavour, I add some mashed garlic (I love garlic), so it gives a different taste. Otherwise I give it a jeeryachi phodni and I am done!
Thank you so much for your recipe! :)
I know exactly what you mean, Amita. I struggled for many years to get the sweet and sour of the amti right. Yet, it still is not as perfect as my mother-in-law used to make it or like my mom makes it. Finally, I realised it's all about practice which makes perfect. If I cooked it ten days in a row, on the 7th or 8th time it would come out just right! Once, I asked my grandmother about her secret of making such delicious food with such few ingredients. She said she has been cooking since she was a teenager...that's their secret.
ReplyDelete