Nostalgia

Last few days, my mother is serving us aambil (आंबील) in the morning. Cuisine, recipe and taste of the food are generally unique to the family, caste, religion and region. Continuous churning happens in these social actors and new recipes / eating habits are developed. Similarly, though aambil is not a part of dietary tradition of our family but it entered through the impact of the region where we are brought up. We all siblings cherish its taste and enjoy it during the summer. It is not the only one which entered in our family but there are few other recipes like aalan (आळण) (Many people in our region can’t pronounce “ळ” and therefore they pronounce it as “आरण”) and dhasala (धासलं) and they became the tradition of our family.

On close observation of these recipes, I realized that they are extremely economical, easy and very quick to prepare. They also represent a profound innovation of lower income group to adjust their dietary habits according to their income. This is my small effort to put them in front of you.

·        The aambil is made up of Javar (जवार) flour. It’s a main meal and normally prepared in summer as it is colder in nature. Take 150 grams of Javar flour. Ferment it overnight with the help of traditional culture or curd. Next morning, cook it with 3.5 - 4 liters of water. Add salt as per your taste. We also add pinch of cumin seeds (जीरा), sesame seeds (तील) and lovage seeds (अजवायन) for flavor. The thickness of aambil should be similar to the veg thick soup. It gets thicker as it cools down. Therefore, enjoy it hot! With the current market rates, 4 people can have stomach full meal in just (7 rupees for flour and 1 rupee for other ingredient) 8 Rupees!

·        The dhasala is made up of newly harvested rice. It is generally made during winter only. Take 200 grams of newly harvested rice and cook it with 2-2.5 liters of water until rice is completely cooked. Its thickness should be similar to khir. Add salt as per your taste. It is generally taken along with pickle or chutney. With the current market rates, 4 people can have stomach full meal in just 7 Rupees.

·       The aalan is a side dish or curry and accompanies with rice or roti. There are lots of varieties of it. But, I will explain only 2 simplest recipes here.

ü  Take just 10 ml of cooking oil and heat it in the pan. Make very thin batter of 2 table spoon of gram flour (बेसन) with water. Add red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt as per your taste.  Add mustard seeds in pan and allow them to crack. Crush 4 fenugreek (मेथी) seeds (1 per person) and add into oil. It gives very good flavor to it. Add batter in the pan and stir till it cooks well. Generally, spicy aalan is the most favorite in our region. The total production cost for 4 people (10 ml oil – 80 Paise, 4 Fenugreek seeds – 20 paise, 25 grams gram flour – 2.5 Rupees, others – 50 paise) is 4 Rupees.

ü  In other variant, replace fenugreek seeds with ladyfinger or okra (भेंडी). 100 grams are sufficient for 4 people. Make bigger pieces and add into gram flour batter. I also add 2 table spoon of curd into batter (but it is optional). The total production cost for 4 people is 9 Rupees.

All these recipes make me nostalgic and take me to my childhood. Moreover, they help me in remaining firmly on the ground and bring the memories of my primary school classmates. I strongly feel that they should be brought into mainstream dietary and given them due respect like we have given to Biryani. I am just doing my bit here. Give a try and give me your feedback!