JUMP TO RECIPE PRINT RECIPE I look out of the window from my kitchen, washing unripe jackfruit chunks under ice cold water. Do I really need to wash these? Aren't these from a tin? Well, I blame it on COVID I guess. Why do I not heat some water and spare my fingers, I wonder and easily shrug the answer off. The mountain outside is not seen, laden with snow bouncing off crisp daylight, only the winding road around it is visible. I move to the counter and check on the paraphernalia for the biryani, humming with ghazals playing on the husband's iPhone (I wish it was a radio). A slight glance at the window again. The fox is paying us a visit today, it's family capering behind the frozen bushes, perhaps missing our diurnal encounters by the Old Log Church. Tossing the rice into the roaring water in the pot, I hope I've salted it enough. I'm doubtful though, so a lump goes in. I have a taste—ugh, it's like the ocean in my mouth—and then I feel at peace. I'm not fooling around with salt here. The rice will hardly spend any time in the water before it's ready to be taken out, drained and fluffed, and all that salt will flow with the slushing water. A lot of salt ensures that rice absorbs just the right amount of it. Pasta cooking tips, remember? Enough of techniques, dear reader. I've them pinned below if you're eager. So, let's go back to the window. I don't think I can cook well without it. Every kitchen I've cooked so far in Canada and India had a window, and what a blessing it is to have light enter through it and bath everything amber bright in the morning and moody gold at dusk. Not to forget the joys of watching the world passing by outside as I cook and almost dance a little when things are going right on the stove or inside the oven. Ruskin Bond sums it up very well in Words from my Window: A Journal, "I need a window to look at the world without; for only then can I look at the world within...Never a dull moment. And the magic mountain looks on, absorbing everything." Jagjit Singh has sung five ghazals by now, and my onions are a winsome auburn. The wedges of jackfruit are getting rustic with the spices, and the smell is ethereal. You have to make it to believe me, the power of a good kathal (jackfruit) biryani. I don't miss meat at all when there's jackfruit zinged with spices. So good! The yogurt looks a fiery goddess with the seasoning whisked into it, lustrous and smooth, and impatient to be slathered on the roasting jackfruits. I feel like eating it right away, but then, the moment has yet not arrived. Jackfruit is native to India, originating in the rainforests of Western Ghats. It derives its English name from the Portuguese word Jaca, which was probably a version of a name used in the Malyalam language (in Kerala), chakkapazham or chakka. Portuguese physician and naturalist, Garcia de Orta mentioned this fruit in his 1563 book, Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India as Jaca. The Malyalam word chakka originates from che-kai, meaning a group of green fruits (kai) joined together. In Hindi, jackfruit is known as kathal, echor in Bengali, panasa in Odia, as kanun in Thailand and nangkain in Malaysia. It's extremely popular in the hot tropical parts of the world, where the trees thrive best. With veganism and vegetarianism going places in the west, jackfruit has made inroads into the meat dominant diets. While raw jackfruit can be made into gravies, pickles, can be fried or made into biryanis, the ripe fruit can be eaten as is, made into payasam, ice creams, jams, pies, cakes, appams and what not! I believe a well-made biryani is almost like a ghazal; it's all in the details. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who want to cook a biryani but have no patience for attention to its subtle layers. You can't make a biryani like that, if your pulse is on the next train to catch. Do you enjoy poetry or slow music? If you do, you know why. Don't you? How there's a build-up of words and emotions playing with the mind, a rumble and fall, a thousand syllables and notes moving with gentle calm and forbearance. The story of biryani is akin to that. All the elemental ingredients matter, and how you treat them matters even more. It's a labour of love, and I adore it with its concomitant moil. Don't be discouraged by the long list of ingredients and the fair amount of time it takes to prepare. If you have all the ingredients mise en place, the next steps are easy. Biryani is a culinary art where subtle balances and thorough timing play key roles in deciding the final outcome. As Pamela Timms, the food author I deeply revere, explains in the Mint article, While learning how to make biryani, I understood why it is one of the finest dishes in the Indian repertoire. As with so many traditional recipes, it’s all in the detail... Whoever tells you that a vegetarian biryani is hoax, I say graciously thank them for their opinion but don't take it! The word biryani itself is coupled with rice, and rice alone. Read my Khumbi ki Biryani: Mushroom Biryani post to dismiss such claims. Looking for more vegetarian biryani ideas, check out the pointers below. Having its roots in the Persian words birian (fried before cooking) and birinj, biryani originally most likely was rice cooked with some form of meat. Muslim cooking, and the Mughal imperial kitchen where biryani was conceived in its present day form and perfected, were inherently meat-rich in their repertoire of recipes. In no way this disbands the idea of vegetarianism in biryani, and neither does this imply that Muslims don't eat vegetables! In fact, food historian Salma Husain says in an interview with The Indian Express about Mughlai food, "The cooks in the royal kitchen were competitive and creative. You’ll find a lot of nuts and dry fruits in their dishes, that is what they got from central Asia. In India, they found vegetables, grains and fresh fruits. That’s how you can see dishes with ingredients such as falsa, banana, melon, mangoes and oranges." Husain further explains that "With each emperor, a new type of cooking was introduced. With Akbar came a lot of Indian dishes, Jehangir lived mostly in Kashmir, so cooking of the birds was introduced as he would hunt a lot near the Dal Lake." Perhaps varieties of vegetarian biryanis would have also matured in the Mughal kitchens if later emperors like Aurangzeb had taken greater interest in the finer arts including cuisine. The most famous iterations of biryani come from Awadh, present day Lucknow and Hyderabad, and either places do not have vegetarian biryani in their long-established culinary art. Does this mean biryani is reserved for meat? While some will ridicule a vegetarian biryani to be a rip-off and some will argue that only pulao is vegetarian, I don't understand the staunch incredulity for it. Whether you like it or not, vegetarian biryani is real, irrespective that it's perhaps an improvisation of the primal non-veg versions. It's as kosher as the the egg or paneer biryanis and vegetarian kebabs, koftas and quormas! So don't fret, and go make this kathal/jackfruit biryani and add a prodigious vegetarian dish to your recipe collection. What are some tips to make any biryani good? Biryani is a rice-based dish. The meat, vegetable or legume are its inner layers. Every grain of rice must be perfectly cooked and separate. To ensure this, always rinse and soak rice for at least half an hour before you start cooking. Rinsing helps remove some of the sticky surface starch and soaking makes the it softer, so water can pierce through it easily during cooking. When cooking by the pakki biryani method, where the rice is pre-cooked, never cook the rice 100% as this will lead to lumpy and sticky rice in the end. Just remember how we make pasta al dente. Do the same for biryani rice. In the kacchi biryani method, rice is not cooked before hand—only rinsed and soaked before adding to the pot with other ingredients and is cooked along with them. Always add rinsed and soaked rice to a pot of water on roaring boil, not the other way around. This helps to elongate the grain of rice, giving it a fuller fluffier look. Add aromatics like bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and star anise to the water in which you boil the rice and salt it generously! Most of this water will go into the drain, so don't worry about the salt quotient. Caramelized onions are irreplaceable in any kind of biryani. So, make a good batch! Green chilies, ginger and garlic are key notes that you cannot miss. Don't overwhelm or underwhelm your biryani with whole spices. Be gentle, but creative. Use some of it in the water to boil rice, and for the rest that you use with the meat or vegetables, you can either dry roast and make a blend for a riot of flavours or simply coarse grind to keep it delicate, or even keep them whole. A few sprigs of mint or coriander, or both and a touch of some nuts adds a hue in the end. Awadhi versions usually do not have herbs in them, and spices alone do the magic. You must use a heavy bottom pan to make biryani, and one that has a lid that can be sealed to not let steam escape when you layer the rice and veggies/meat and do the final cooking. What are some tips to make a vegetarian biryani? There's no rule of thumb for the vegetables you may use. Feel free to experiment with one or a combination of cauliflower, peas, potatoes, beans, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, mushrooms and jackfruits. You can also add paneer if you like. If you love meaty textures, I highly recommend jackfruit and mushrooms. Since we don't marinate vegetables for a long time like meat (no tenderization of meat is involved), there are different ways of pre-cooking the vegetables. You can bake them or fry them, or cook them with yogurt or a nut paste (or both) to give the vegetables a more gravy-like consistency. You can marinate the vegetables in yogurt, and the benefit is a slight tanginess. This is how I make mushroom biryani at times. Some recipes may call upon tomatoes instead of yogurt, though it's a far cry from the traditional biryanis, righteous in merit and taste nonetheless. Many versions of the famous Dindigul Biryani use tomatoes and taste heavenly! To make it vegan, you can use coconut milk instead of yogurt. You can also add soya chunks, chickpeas or black lentils to give a thicker gravy like consistency and add lime juice for tanginess. What about this recipe? This recipe is a keeper. It brings together Awadhi and Hyderbadi styles of making biryani, and is neither too spicy nor too bland. It isn't greasy and doesn't leave you with a feeling of being too full, and is amazing enough to get yourself a second serving! In this recipe, I add a part of the aromatics in the water to boil the rice. I dry roast the rest and make a biryani masala, typical in the Hyderbadi method. The dry roasting gives the dish its quintessential spicy layers. Following the Dum Pukht style of Awadh, this recipe uses very few herbs, again classic Awadhi style. I have used only a handful of mint for mild flavour. A popular cooking technique in the Lucknow gharanas is to whisk spices in yogurt and adding into the gravy. This ensures that the spices don't burn on the hot pan, and while the yogurt gets cooked, the spices cook along with it. I use the same trick for my vegetarian pakki biryanis where the vegetables are pre-cooked and not previously marinated. Recipe Ingredients 2 cups of Basmati or any other long grain rice 2 tins of unripe jackfruit (or 2 cups unripe jackfruit cut into chunks) For the biryani masala: 1 bay leaf, 1-inch cinnamon stick, 4-5 green cardamoms, 1 black cardamom, 1 mace, 4-5 cloves, 2 star anise, 1 tsp cumin, 2 tsp coriander, 1 tsp fennel, 1 tsp peppercorns For boiling the rice: 1/4 tsp caraway seeds or cumin, 1 bay leaf, 1-inch cinnamon, 2 cloves, 1 black cardamom, 2-3 tbsp salt 3-4 tbsp oil 1 tbsp ghee (or vegan butter or use extra oil rather) 2 large red onions, 1 finely chopped and 1 julienne cut 2 tbsp ginger and garlic paste 1/2 cup yogurt 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp red chili powder 2-3 green chilies, slit vertically 1/2 cup mint leaves, few torn or chopped 1/2 cup milk (of any kind) 1 tsp saffron strands 1 tbsp flaked almonds 7-8 roasted cashews Salt to taste Method Soak rice: Wash rice in several changes of water and soak it for at least 30 minutes. Prepare the biryani masala: Dry roast/toast all the spices listed for the biryani masala for a few seconds without burning. Cool and grind in a spice mixer. Keep aside. Note: Roasting the masala gives a nice spicy kick, and highly recommended. Caramelize onions and soak the saffron: Heat a pan on medium heat and add oil. Add the julienne cut onions to it and fry until brown and crisp. It will take about 20 minutes. Keep aside. Soak the saffron strands in lukewarm milk. Keep aside. Cook the rice: Add about 4-5 cups of water along with the whole spices (mentioned for boiling rice) to a pot and bring it to a boil. Generously add salt and when the water is in a roaring boil, add the rice to it. Note: I usually pack the whole spices (except caraway seeds/cumin) in a drawstring and that it to water, so I don't have to pick them out later. Add a few drops of ghee or vegan butter to the pot and gently stir. Cook the rice until it's 70% done and then turn off the heat. It will take about 7 minutes. Basically, ensure that the rice still isn't completely tender and cooked. Drain the rice, keeping some of the water in a separate bowl. Use a fork to fluff the rice on a plate. Take out the spices, except the caraway seeds/cumin. Cook the jackfruit: Note: To save a bit of time, you can boil the jackfruit in a pressure cooker for about 2 whistles before you start the following process. Heat a pan or wok on medium heat and add oil. Next, add the chopped onions. Fry till the onions are pink and then add ginger-garlic paste. Once the mixture turns brown, add turmeric and red chili powder. Once turmeric and red chili are cooked (in about 5 mins), add the jackfruit chunks. Lightly roast the jackfruit with the spice coated onions till everything is well combined. Reduce the heat slightly. Beat 2-3 heaped tsp of the biryani masala into the yogurt with some salt and pour it into the pan. Mix to coat the spiced yogurt onto the jackfruit. Let it simmer for about 4-5 minutes and then add the slit chilies and salt. Mix again, cover and cook till the gravy appears slightly thick and the jackfruit is tender, and just about to be fully cooked. You can also add some hot water to adjust consistency. Once happy, turn off the heat. Layer the biryani: Grease a heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven with oil or ghee, add a layer of the semi-cooked rice in a circular motion through the vessel. This bottom layer will turn crisp and caramelize to give a good crunch to the biryani. You can start with a layer of jackfruit instead if you prefer. Add a layer of the jackfruit gravy, again in a circular motion, covering the layer of rice. Add another layer of rice on top and some caramelized onions and some mint leaves. Repeat the layers of rice, jackfruit and onions so that the top layer is rice. Using the back of a ladle, make a hole in the center of the layers and add some of the saffron milk and some of the drained water from the rice into it, and the rest on the top layer. Add some ghee/vegan butter, chopped almonds, roasted cashews and caramelized onions. Sprinkle some mint leaves. Seal the top of the pot with aluminum foil and place the lid over it, ensuring the steam stays inside. Cook on very low heat for 20-25 minutes and then turn off heat. Let the pot sit on the counter for the next 7 minutes before you open it. Top the biryani with few fresh mint leaves before serving. When you open the pot, you will be engulfed in a world of utmost delight. It makes you so hungry that you can't wait to lay your hands on a plate, grab a serving spoon, take some raita (yogurt whisked with cumin powder, salt and sliced onions) and dive into it! I find it very hard to photograph it because I want to eat it as soon as I smell the waft of fragrances floating at the tip of the biryani. Gathering around the table and sharing some mirth is one of my most favourite feelings in this world, and a biryani is a stellar dish to dine with your loved ones. The degh or the pot sits at the center of the table, and as everyone has a ladle or two heaped onto their plates, conversations begin. Glasses tinkle, pickles and salads are passed around and the bowls of sides—raitas, salans and chutneys—are emptied and refilled amidst laughter and jest. Perfect for any celebration or a hearty get-together, biryanis are always a special reminder of what food really means in a familial and social setting. If you make this treat, tag me on Instagram and share your love! I'll be glad to hear from you!

Jump to Recipe | Watch The history of stuffing vegetables is old, and not limited to the Indian sub-continent. From cabbage to artichokes, peppers to gourds, vegetables that can be scooped and carved, can be stuffed with some sort of filling, which has a wide spectrum of choices. From vegetarian to meat, from simple combination of spices to meticulous makings, the fillings for stuffed vegetables are numerous as the vegetables themselves, or perhaps more. The vegetable itself, the shell that holds the filling, can be cooked and then stuffed or can be stuffed and cooked later. There's no rule of thumb here. Different recipes call for distinct ways of creating stuffed vegetables based on regional, cultural and lifestyle variations. In the face of all variability, one thing remains common—stuffing vegetables or even meat is labour-intensive. Think prepping banana flowers or taking peas out of their pods. For me, this usually calls for ample time at hand in the morning or leisurely afternoons, and some good company, no? And, several nibbles and favourite drinks on the side with music of some form playing in the background. Cool sherbets in summer (if it's my husband then it will be bottles of kombucha!) and many cups of chai in winter, what say? At the heart of it, preparing such dishes has an undertone of a joint undertaking with an opportunity to nourish friendships and mend broken bonds. At home, mom prepared stuffed vegetables from A to Z, but I or my sisters or my father were never her sous chefs, especially me who was usually an onlooker, her silent company by the table finishing that last bit of homework and dreaming of that delicious stuffed vegetable dish I'd get to eat later. She sometimes had some company in such work from the house helps. When we lived in small towns, there were aunties in the neighbourhood who would join her with their bags of vegetables which needed long-drawn-out prep. When my cooking journey burgeoned at Auntie A's house, I got to play the role of a sous chef. Now that I was leaning to make decent meals for myself, and for auntie and me on days when her senile self needed to take a break from the kitchen, I was getting into more demanding endeavors in the kitchen. I mention in my previous post on bitter gourd, We both shared our love for bitter gourd. I have spent many Sunday mornings stuffing spicy onion fillings inside baby bitter gourds while I listened to her stories or one of the many Mohammad Rafi songs on her age-old radio. Bombay summers are brutally sticky, and the only respite while working in the humid kitchen were endless glasses of aam panna (drink made with raw mango) and Auntie's rib-ticklers. Mom made stuffed karela too, a much different version than Auntie's. I make both, and then a third version that's my own, a discovery, or rather a hankering to make the process of making stuffed karela faster and yet tasty. Mom's stuffed bitter gourds Stuffed bitter gourds weren't always regular at my place or my grandmothers' home. At home, bitter gourds are usually made as sautéed rings, kalara bhaja or chopped fine and cooked with potatoes with or without hints of mustard, kalara chadchadi more. But occasionally we made gota kalara bhaja, an Odia style stuffed bitter gourd preparation with a mustard based filling. But my mother is someone who always tries out recipes from other cultures as well, adopting methods of cooking food across the board while adding her personal touch. She makes three kinds of fillings for bitter gourd: Odia style recipe calls for a paste made of mustard, garlic, cumin and chilies along with salt. Sweet potatoes boiled and mashed to a paste, cooked in oil tempered with mustard cumin and asafoetida, then flavoured with good amount of red chili, cumin, coriander and turmeric powders, and finished with freshly crushed peppercorns, nutmeg and cinnamon. A squeeze of lime and salt to balance everything. Telugu style recipe of stir frying equal quantities of Bengal gram and Urad dal, more coriander and less cumin seeds, sesame seeds, curry leaves, dry red chillies, dry grated coconut (or desiccated) and a ball of tamarind, and then cooling and grinding with jaggery powder to make a paste has also been constant in my house. For the Odia style gota kalara bhaja, which is also called puraw dia kalara, a small fragrant lighter green bitter gourd with thin skin is preferred. It appears like a baby bitter gourd, and cooks much faster and tastes slightly less bitter than the bigger ones. These are locally called thusi kalara. However, medium sized bitter gourds can also be used for the same recipe. A note on the seasonal aspect of bitter gourds Bitter gourds are quite readily available throughout summers in Odisha, and preferred a lot for their bitterness as bitter tasting things are good for a spring-summer diet. In fact, throughout India bitter vegetables and greens are cooked and eaten in different ways during the spring season. The primary action associated with bitter taste is detoxification, which is crucial to spring season, a transition from winter to summer, a time which triggers coughs, colds and other illnesses. Bitter greens and vegetables help fortify our bodies, and as they're associated with a clearing or drying effect, they help remove excessive fluids and mucus, thus reducing toxins. For this reason, bitter foods are an important part of many cuisines during transitional seasons. Auntie A's stuffed bitter gourds What Auntie A did to make stuffed bitter gourds was completely new to me. My mother never peeled a bitter gourd or scale its skin. Auntie on the other hand would peel it, and then stuff the gourd with its own peels along with caramelized onions and some spices. This style of making bitter gourds goes back in the culinary history of undivided Punjab, a time when districts in the Punjab area were named after the rivers which encompassed them, auntie had described. Satluj, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum flow through Punjab, forming a major part of the left-bank tributaries of the Indus river. The area between Satluj and Beas was called Bist Doab, Beas and Ravi was called Bari Doab, between Ravi and Chenab was called Rechna Doab, between Chenab and Jhelum was called Jech Doab, and between Jhelum and Indus was called Sind Sagar Doab, where do means two and ab means water in Punjabi. As there weren't bridges then, people usually did not cross the rivers, and the land was divided in this manner for administration. An interesting thread on an internet forum throws more light into this. Present day Punjab in India, which is largely the former East Punjab, is divided into Majha (part of the old Bari and Rechna Doab) where majha in Punjabi means middle, and as this region was in the center of erstwhile Punjab, Doaba (Bist Doab) and Malwa (south of Satluj) regions while Jech Doab, Sind Sagar Doab and parts of Rechna Doab and Bari Doab are now in Pakistan and comprise West Punjab. An understanding of this geography helps in comprehending the cultural foundations in Punjabi cuisine. Punjab has been a fertile and prosperous land, and homestyle Punjabi cooking is rich in fresh seasonal produce with no wastage of any part of the vegetables and greens and an emphasis on dairy like milk, curd and ghee. I talk more about this in my post on Saag Chole and my introduction into Punjabi home cooking through Auntie A. Auntie A made a typical filling for bitter gourds: Peels of the bitter gourd were sautéed in oil before finely chopped onions were added and caramelized to lend sweetness. The dry masalas comprising of coriander, fennel, turmeric and red chilli were added along with ginger and garlic paste and cooked to a paste like consistency. Amchur, dry mango powder, is a must to lend sourness along with salt to balance all the flavours. Peeling bitter gourds and giving them a salt rub helps bring down their bitterness. However, peels have all the good nutrients! When cooked with onions and spices, and stuffed inside the gourds, the peels' bitterness is not dominant but spurts between the sweet caramelized onions and sour amchur and the spicy masalas. After filling the bitter gourds with the stuffing, auntie tied them with threads to close them and prevent the masala from oozing out. A hankering for a facile process I'm all in for slow cooking, and love to get lost in the magic of the process and ingredients. But, there are days when things have to be sorted out quickly in the kitchen. I love all stuffed vegetables, especially bitter gourds. So for days that demand whistle-stop cooking, I had to find a median between mom's and auntie's fillings. For this quick-fix filling: I borrow mom's Telugu inspired tamarind and jaggery combination for that sweet and sour punch, auntie's bitter gourd peels for the texture and bitter flavour with lots of coriander and fennel for citrusy notes and heavenly fragrance, and add a nutty flavour from roasted and powdered peanuts or sesame seeds, or roasted besan (chickpea flour). The powdered nuts or the chickpea flour also help bind the spices with the peels and create a fillable texture for the stuffing. Pro Tip No matter which way you choose to make your filling, give your bitter gourds some time to sit with salted rubbed onto their skin. People who are usually not fond of the bitterness get thrown off with that first bite. So, definitely do the salt rub. You may or may not peel the bitter gourd, or peel it just slightly. It depends on how fond you are of the bitter flavour. If you peel them, use the peels for the stuffing—I can't recommend this enough! I don't cook bitter gourds first. I prepare the filling, stuff the gourds and then pan fry them with a lid on. You may stir fry your gourds while your filling is getting ready on the side or make slits and pressure cook them for 1-2 whistles. You can then stuff the filling and cover and cook the stuffed gourds for a few minutes to ensure doneness. Recipe Did you check the pro tip? Ingredients 5-7 small bitter gourds or 4-5 medium sized ones 1 -2 tbsp oil to fry 1-2 tsp salt for rubbing For the Odia style filling: 1 tbsp mustard seeds (black or yellow, black mustard is more pungent) 6-7 cloves of garlic 1 tsp cumin 2-3 dry red chilies or fresh green chilies depending on how much spice you can tolerate 1 medium onion finely chopped 1 medium tomato finely chopped 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp salt, or to taste For the sweet potato filling: 1-2 small slender sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed (about 1/2 cup) 1 tbsp oil 1/2 tsp cumin + 1/2 tsp mustard 1/4 tsp asafoetida 1 tsp each of red chili, cumin, coriander and turmeric powders 1 tsp freshly crushed peppercorns and cinnamon + gated nutmeg 1/2 a lime 1 tsp salt, or to taste For Telugu style coconut filling: 1 tbsp oil 1 and 1/2 tbsp chana dal 1 and 1/2 tbsp urad dal 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1 and 1/2 tsp coriander seeds 1 tbsp sesame seeds 10-15 curry leaves 1/2 tsp turmeric 1-inch tamarind ball soaked and water extracted 6-8 dry whole red chilies 1/4 cup grated or desiccated coconut 1-2 tsp jaggery powder or grated jaggery 1-2 tsp salt, or to taste For Punjabi style onion and bitter peels filling: 1 tbsp oil peels of the bitter gourd 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste 1/4 tsp asafoetida 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 2 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp fennel seed powder (optional) 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp red chili powder 1 tsp amchur or dry mango powder 1-2 tsp salt, or to taste For no onion-garlic filling: 1 tbsp oil peels of the bitter gourd (if choosing to peel bitter gourd) 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/4 tsp asafoetida 2 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp fennel seed powder (optional) 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp red chili powder 4-5 tbsp (or more depending on how much filling you need and how much binding is required) roasted peanut or sesame seed powder or roasted gram flour (besan) 1-inch tamarind ball soaked and water extracted 1-2 tsp jaggery powder or grated jaggery 1 tsp salt, or to taste Method Wash the bitter gourds. Roughly peel them (optional), clear the pith, rub salt both inside and outside, and keep them aside. Prepare the filling. For the Odia style filling: Soak mustard seeds, garlic, cumin and chilies in lukewarm water for at least an hour. Drain the water and then grind into a fine paste along with salt and by adding water as required. Make sure to not add too much water which will result in a runny paste. Add water in small quantities and grind, and then add more if required. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onions and fry until pink. Add salt, turmeric and tomatoes and continue frying till tomatoes are soft. Next add the mustard paste and mix once, and cook till the masala releases oil. For sweet potato filling: Heat oil in a pan, and add cumin + mustard seeds. Once they pop, add asafoetida. Now add the mashed sweet potatoes, and sauté for a few seconds. Next add turmeric, red chili, cumin and coriander powders and sauté till the spices are cooked. Add salt and mix. Top the mixture with crushed peppercorns and cinnamon and grated nutmeg and stir to combine. Squeeze a lime and take off heat. For Telugu style coconut filling: Heat oil in a pan on low flame, then add chana dal and fry till it changes colour. Then add urad dal and fry for 1-2 minutes until urad dal also changes colour. Next add cumin, coriander and sesame seeds and fry them until aromatic taking care nothing burns. Add curry leaves and sauté followed by dry red chilies and turmeric that you must stir until chilies puff up. Add coconut, stir and turn off heat before coconut changes colour. Add tamarind and jaggery and mix. Allow to cool and then grind to make a paste. For Punjabi style onion and bitter peels filling: Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, asafoetida and then add the peels. Fry them for 3-4 minutes, and then add onions. Fry the onions until pink, and then add ginger-garlic paste and cook till the paste doesn't smell raw. Add rest of the spices except amchur. Keep stirring and mixing until onions turn brown and caramelize, roughly 20 minutes. Add salt and amchur and mix again. Turn off heat and keep aside. For no-onion-garlic filling: Heat oil in a pan, and add cumin seeds followed by asafoetida. Add all the spices and sauté with splashes of water if required. Once spices are cooked, keep the heat low and the roasted and powdered peanuts and sesame seeds and/or roasted gram flour. Mix so that everything combines well and then add jaggery. Add spoons of tamarind water so that the mixture becomes sticky but not watery. Add salt, mix and turn off heat. Keep aside. Squeeze the salt-rubbed bitter gourds to discard any water. With a spoon, stuff the hollow gourds with the fillings. Pack them well and tie a string if needed to prevent the stuffing from falling out. If using baby bitter gourds, you would not need to tie them. Stir fry the stuffed bitter gourds in a pan heated with oil. Add any remaining filling to the pan as well and mix. Cover and cook at medium heat to ensure cooking is thorough. Open in between and turn the gourds. Check doneness, and turn off the heat.

#polesapart series Jump to Recipes In the previous post, we familiarized ourselves with the concept of the mustard based spice paste in both Odia and Bengali cuisines, and understood how a single masala paste can be coated onto a variety of ingredients, which are then wrapped up in leaves and just roasted or steamed as-is to cook some wholesome dishes. Through this post, I want to deep dive into the Odia version of the mustard paste and show you how we use it to make sauces of variable consistencies and flavours which become the base layers of so many Odia dishes. This fact comes quite handy when I am cooking a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian dish at the same time. Mustard, and Anga, Banga, Kalinga When regions have connected histories and intertwining pasts, there are bound to be elements of commonality. Mustard is one such element in the culinary story of Anga, Banga and Kalinga — three bordering regions in the eastern part of ancient India, which roughly map to present day Bihar and Jharkhand, most parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh, and Odisha respectively. Mustard seeds in these parts of the country are used in a number of ways such as a tempering agent, a masala paste, a condiment, a pickling agent, a flavour enhancer, and a source of cooking oil. Mustard seeds are an important spice in this part of the country, and as they between ancient Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bengal, their identity took different forms, inculcating variations in the spice paste, changing and attaining a flavour profile unique to the specific region. There are of course other favourites, like the poppy seeds, which gained popularity as a thickener as well as a spice and condiment owing to its nutty flavour profile, following the surplus generated after extracting opium from the poppy flowers — a byproduct of forced cultivation by the British in colonial Bengal. And, there's the famous five, pancha phutana or paanch phoron or panch phoran, a combination of equal parts of cumin, fenugreek, nigella, fennel and radhuni (in the Bengali version) and mustard (in the Odia version). Rituparna Roy quotes author Chitrita Banerji in this article mentioning that in some Bengali homes, radhuni or wild celery seeds are substituted with mustard seeds in paanch phoron as many Bengali households employed Odia cooks, and mustard in paanch phoron came naturally to these migrant cooks. Sorisa Bata and Besara First thing first. Let us get the sound of the words right. So, bata (paste) is pronounced as 'baw-taa', sorisa (mustard) is pronounced as 'so-ree-saw' and besara as 'bae-saw-raw.' The sorisa bata is a cornerstone of a number of dishes in the Odia cuisine, sometimes striking and prominent like its pungency, and at other times, subtle and layered in the depths of accompanying flavours. Odia cooks have an emotional connect with the sorisa bata, a spice paste they rely on quite often to stir things up in the kitchen, and find interesting ways to use it in sagacious ways in a variety of dishes. When you google sorisa bata, the internet will tell you it's besara although we use the term besara to denote the dishes that strongly and majorly incorporate the sorisa bata, and have gravy in some form, or have a semi-wet in consistency. The most famous being the maccha (fish) besara, chhatu (mushrooms) besara, chingudi (prawns or shrimps) besara, pariba (vegetables) besara, poee (malabar spinach) besara which uses other vegetables like pumpkin, eggplant, potato, ridge gourd, and often is made with chingudi (prawns or shrimps) or maccha munda (fish head), chhuin aloo (moringa drumsticks and potatoes) besara, and some newer innovations like chicken besara. The homestyle preparation of the Odia mustard paste usually includes some amount of cumin, red or green chilies and garlic along with mustard. These accompaniments help in getting a smooth consistency of the paste, balance the pungency, and improve the overall flavour. Apart from the obvious mustard paste or sorisa bata, a besara also needs a good souring agent to balance the flavours. Ambula, or dried green mango, is the unequivocal favourite in this regard. For instance, a thinnish yellowish jholo (gravy) of a macha besara with an ambula or two floating in it is a typical food memory of every Odia. Tart red tomatoes are also favoured as a souring agent, sometimes in addition to ambula. Tamarind is also used in many households to get the much desired sourness and tang in the spicy besara, which especially works quite well in the vegetarian pariba besara. Sour curd can also work wonders in combination with mustard paste, such as this dahi maccha besara. All of these besara preparations have mustard as their flavour leader, and the gravy in whatsoever consistency isn't dependent on onions as one would think. In fact the Puri temple besara, which is of course vegetarian, doesn't have any onions in the curry nor garlic in the mustard paste. Cumin, fennel, peppercorns and ginger are used along with mustard to make the paste. A tinge of jaggery and a sprinkling of grated coconut imparts a sweet balance to the sharp mustard notes. It is this temple version of besara which is more popular with people outside Odisha, mostly because they aren't well aware of the versions made in Odia homes or local eateries. Other than Besara Other than the besara, the raees — semi-wet or semi-dry preparations of vegetables — use mustard paste as the main flavouring agent. For instance, ambula raee, poee raee, kakharu dunka raee, kadali bhanda raee, lau raee, janhi raee, to name a few. Unlike the besara, a raee has a milder touch of the mustard paste, hence less pungent, and may or may not use a souring agent. There are myriad of other recipes in the Odia kitchen which call for a hint of the sorisa bata here and there. For example, the bhendi sorisa khatta or the amba sorisa khatta or any other khattas which employ a smidgen of the mustard paste. Even some bhajas (stir fires or pan fries) use this bata to alleviate the preparation. For instance, the chuin aloo besara bhaja which pan fries mustard paste battered pieces of drumsticks or moringa stems and potatoes until crisp. And, then there are a plethora of jholo dishes or tarkari which use the sorisa bata incognito. They may not have the term besara in their name but incorporate a mustard paste to enhance flavours. For example, this saaru patra tarkari, which also goes by the name saaru magura, has colocasia leaves which are stuffed, rolled, steamed, stir-fried and finally added to a mustard based gravy. A non-mustard version also exists for this tarkari. The Jagannatha Connection, or not By now, we understand that sorisa is mustard and besara is the dish that has mustard paste in it. I have been intrigued with these names for a while, and contemplated on how they are connected, or not. An enthusiast of etymology that I am, food names always prod me to know their origins. So, I ended up asking my parents, as I usually do for most things Odia, why are dishes that incorporate the sorisa bata called besara? My mother who finds answers to most questions that come her way somewhere between the pages of the puranas or the Bhagwat Gita, or amidst stories of her favourite lord, Jagannatha, supposed that the term has connections with the culinary traditions of the Puri temple perhaps. I shake my head, unsatisfied with the inadequacy of a literal connection. There must be more, no? I pester. In the quest to find the divine link between mustard seeds and Jagannatha, my father retells the story of Indradyumna and his chief brahmin minister, Bidyapati. There lived a King Indradyumna, who ruled from his capital in Avantipura. One day a traveler appeared in his court and sang praises of Nila Madhaba, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu whose deity made of nīlamaṇi (sapphire) was being worshipped in the distant land of Puruṣottama Kṣetra (present day Puri), atop the remote mountain Niladri in Odra Desha (present day Odisha). Indradyumna wasted no time to dispatch Bidyapati to find the deity and confirm if the traveler was indeed telling the truth. For a long time Bidyapati wandered but to no avail, only to be found tired and hungry by a group of sabaras and their chief, Biswabasu. Bidyapati who now lived amidst the sabaras, soon notices Biswabasu's daily trips to the forest but never gets to know of his whereabouts. With time, Bidyapati marries Lalita, Biswabasu's daughter and after many attempts of cajoling, Lalita tells him that her father goes to worship Nila Madhaba in a secret place. Biswabasu had been worshipping Nila Madhaba clandestinely for years and did not want to disclose it to Bidyapati. There was a prophecy, you see. A prophecy which dictated the disappearance of the deity upon Indradyumna's arrival. Biswabasu could not risk it. After all, he was deeply committed to the wellbeing of his community which rested upon the prayers and offerings to Lord Nila Madhaba. Bidyapati was disappointed. Lalita felt her husband's sadness and kept pleading her father. At last, Biswabasu agreed to take Bidyapati along with him to see Nila Madhaba under the condition that Bidyapati would be blindfolded for the entire journey. Bidyapati agreed but also managed to tie a handful of mustard seeds in the folds of his dhoti, snug around his waist. My mother exclaims, ବିଦ୍ୟାପତି ରାସ୍ତାରେ ଯିବାବେଳେ ସୋରିଷ ମଞ୍ଜି ବୁଣି-ବୁଣି ଗଲେ —As Bidyapati walked the path, the rhythm of his walk kept sowing the mustard seeds — my father repeats. What happens after Bidyapati sees the deity and how he returns to Avantipura is another stretched tale, a time lapse in which the mustard seeds grow into plants and forge the mustard trail that Indradyumna follows and arrives at Niladri mountain only to find that the deity had disappeared.  It would take several aswamedha jagyans and the passage of an entire yuga before Indradyumna has a celestial vision, finds the log of wood from which the deity of Lord Jagannatha is carved and the original Puri temple is built. Much later in the 10th century, King Anantavarman Chodaganga of the Eastern Ganga dynasty will start rebuilding the temple, and the present day Puri temple periphery would evolve from thereon. This narration is to elucidate those mustard seeds and their sowing, a spice that wasn't just masala but the linchpin that bridged the path between man and god, changing the course of history. Note the root alphabet ବ in the word ବୁଣିବା meaning sowing, and the middle alphabets ସ and ର in ସୋରିଷ meaning mustard. Upon joining, ବ,ସ and ର, the term ବେସର or besara does not seem so alien after all. My father's theory on besara's name may be far fetched and my mother's belief is perhaps just that — her faith that every genesis, including besara's denomination, is somehow connected with Jagannatha. But their candid hypothesis on the alphabets ବ, ସ and ର from the words ବୁଣିବା and ସୋରିଷ mysteriously conjoining into ବେସର shows the pull of the Jagannatha veneration. Poles Apart with Besara When cooking both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, making a besara saves a lot of time in the kitchen while producing two lip smacking versions of a dish. The machcha (fish) besara, chingudi (prawns) besara and chattu (mushroom) besara use an onion, tomato and mustard paste based gravy. All these preparations typically also use ambula which renders a unique tanginess and any other substitute will not do justice. If you don't have access to ambula, you can still make this gravy. The taste will be slightly less sour. When I make a maccha or chingudi besara for myself, I make a chhatu (mushrooms) or pariba (vegetables) or anda (egg) besara for the husband. A besara gravy for eggs is not common in Odia cooking but I find that the Odia mustard paste works rather well with eggs. The pariba and anda besara taste even better with tamarind instead of ambula, and can also be made simply with tomatoes and mustard paste without any onions or extra souring agents. The Puri temple version of besara, which is vegetarian, uses lots of coconut and a hint of jaggery to balance the fieriness of mustard. The mustard paste remains standard to both preparations, and I vary the souring agents for the vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions according to availability of ingredients but mostly depending on my mood! Recipe Maccha Besara/Chingudi Besara/Anda Besara/Chattu Besara Ingredients 250-350 grams fish for maccha besara/small prawns for chingudi besara/2-4 hard boiled eggs for anda besara or 200-300 grams mushrooms of your choice 1 medium sized potato, cut into big chunks, if using for chattu besara then cut into smaller chunks similar to the size of mushrooms 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped fine (optional for prawns/shrimps) 1 small onion, chopped fine 1-2 green chillies 4-5 tsp mustard oil 1 tsp turmeric powder 1/4 tsp red chilli powder for eggs Salt to taste 1 piece of ambula (dried green mango) for fish and prawns, 1tsp tamarind paste for eggs For the mustard paste: 2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 5-6 garlic cloves, 1 dry red chilli, soaked in warm water for about an hour, drained and ground to a fine paste Method Wash and marinate the fish/prawns/shrimp in salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric. Set aside. For eggs, coat with salt, turmeric and red chili powder, and set aside. Wash and clean the mushrooms. In an iron wok or any other kadhai, heat about 3 tsp mustard oil, let it smoke, and then add the fish slowly one by one or all the shrimps/prawns/eggs. Fry until light brown on both sides in case of fish, for prawns/shrimps until they turn a perfect C, slightly scorched for eggs and slightly roasted and lose all water for mushrooms. Remove and keep aside. Add the remaining oil, fry the potatoes until slightly browned on the sides. Remove and keep aside. Add the chopped onions and green chilies, and sauté till onions are translucent or pinkish. Add turmeric and the chopped tomatoes, sauté and mix. Cover and cook till tomatoes are soft and incorporated with onions to form a masala. Dilute the mustard paste in about 1/2 cup water, and slowly add to the wok, gently mixing everything. Add salt and give it a good mix. Add about 1 and 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook covered until potatoes are mostly done. At this stage, add the fish/prawns/shrimps/mushrooms and the dried mango or eggs and tamarind paste and let the gravy simmer. Mash some of the potato to help thicken the gravy. Taste and adjust salt if needed. Drizzle about 1/2 tsp mustard oil if you like the taste and smell of raw mustard oil. This is optional. Turn off the heat and it rest for a couple of minutes. Garnish with fresh green coriander leaves and serve with pipping hot rice. Home Style Pariba (Vegetable) Besara Ingredients 1/2 cup each of vegetables like pumpkin, eggplant and potato, chopped into small chunks 1/4 cup pointed or spine gourd, chopped 1/4 cup okra or long/flat beans, chopped 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped 4 slit green chillies, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 4 tsp oil Salt to taste, 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 or 2 ambula (dried mangoes slices) soaked in 1/2 cup water or 1 tsp tamarind pulp/paste diluted in 1/2 cup water A handful of badis (urad dal dumplings) - optional For the mustard paste - 2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 5-7 garlic cloves, 1 dry red chilli, soaked in warm water for about an hour, drained and ground to a fine paste Method Heat 3 tsp of oil in a kadhai or deep pan. Add the chopped okra/beans and sauté on high heat for 2-3 mins. Reduce heat to medium, add pumpkin, potato, eggplant and pointed/spine gourd and sauté for 3 minutes. Remove and keep aside. Add 1 tsp of oil, and as the oil heats up, add the mustard seeds and green chilies, and then add the tomatoes. Sauté, cover and cook until tomatoes are soft. Open the kadhai and add the mustard paste, and lightly sauté for a few seconds. Add salt and turmeric and mix. Next, add 4-5 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Add the sautéed vegetables and continue boiling for 10-12 minutes or until vegetables are cooked. Add the ambula/tamarind and boil for 3-4 minutes. If using badis, lightly fry and add on top now. Turn off the heat and let the ensemble settle. Serve hot with white rice. Puri Temple Style Besara This version of the mixed vegetable besara is inspired from the Puri temple cooking where only seasonal indigenous vegetables are permitted, and there is no use of chilies, garlic or onions. Additionally, the temple cooking practices don't allow much stirring of the pots, neither extensive tempering nor tasting of ingredients. This recipe is a nod to this exceptional cooking style, which is almost meditative and demands a certain level of mindfulness which we may not always cater to in our usual kitchens. Ingredients 1/2 cup each of vegetables like diced pumpkin, spine gourd, pointed gourd, long or flat beans and 1/4 cup each of vegetables like raw banana or plantain, taro, white radish, yam, sweet potato: About 3 cups of vegetables in total 1/3 cup overnight soaked kala chana For bata masala or spice paste: 4 tsp mustard seeds, 4 tsp fennel seeds, 2 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsp peppercorns, 1 inch ginger soaked for 1-2 hours, drained and made into a fine paste Ratio of mustard, fennel, cumin and peppercorns is 2:2:1:1 3/4 cup grated coconut 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp salt or based on your estimation 1 pinch asafoetida dissolved in water 1 tbsp jaggery 1/3 cup fried nadi badi 2 tbsp ghee 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp mustard seeds Method In a tall deep pot, add the vegetables, kala chana, bata masala, 1/2 cup coconut, turmeric and salt, and then add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water. Mix well and then cover and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables are half cooked. Next add the asafoetida dissolved in water, jaggery and nadi badi, and continue cooking till vegetables are mushy. At this point turn off the heat. Heat the ghee in a tadka pan, add the mustard and cumin seeds and pour this over the cooked vegetables. Cover and let it rest. Upon opening, mix, add the remaining grated coconut and serve with ghee rice.

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