FOODIE SPECIAL .....Care for some Chai-Nashta?

Care for some Chai-Nashta?

Odes have been sung to the pairing of cutting chai and the monsoons, almost rendering them a romantic couple. And then nashta joins in to remind us that three can also be great company. Here’s to celebrating tea snacks of communities all over India

Maharashtrian wadis & vadas Be it vegetarian or non vegetarian, we want our food to be just right—the right sweet, sour, spicy and fried. I remember snack boxes full of a variety of flavours and textures we'd wait to open at tea time. My favourite (but not popular among most) was kothimbir wadi. Chopped kothimbir (coriander), green chillies, salt, turmeric and red chilli powder beaten into a batter of gram flour and water, steam cooked and then shallow fried. Had with adrakwali chai, it's a perfect for the monsoons. Maharashtrian snacks wouldn't be complete without the mention of sabudana vada. You will have savoured it at 'typical' Maharastrian restaurants, but freshly homecooked ones with green chilli and peanut chutney are something else. There's no curry patta or red chilli powder like in ones found outside, just a simple mix of potatoes, sabudana, jeera, green chilli and peanuts. Sometimes it's also made with sweet potato. From sweet, crunchy shankarpalis, to savoury bhajnichi chakli (made with a flour mix of roasted channa dal, moong dal, urad dal, sabudana and rice, and sometimes even methi seeds) and sweet-tangy aru wadis (similar to Gujju patras, but fried after steaming)—all continue to be favourite snacks enjoyed with tea in most Maharastrian homes. –Gauri Rane Kerala In parts of Kerala, we wake up to black tea—that becomes a ‘sulaimani’ with a dash of lemon—and for breakfast around 8-9am it’s simple milk tea with ginger or cardamom. Piping hot it’s had with appams and vegetable stew, idlis or puttu (steamed cylindrical snack made of rice flour and coconut) accompanied by papad, banana, honey, or even kadala (channa) curry as per one’s preference. But evening tea with sughiyan—the cardamom-spiced, sweet besan-coated pakoras of moong dal, jaggery, coconut and atta—holds a special place in my memory. Dad introduced me to it on my first trip to one of the local tea shops, which abound in every neighbourhood. As I only visit every few months, staff at tea shops can easily tell I’m an outsider, but usually know what their regulars want. You can also get parippu (dal) vada, uzhunnu (medu) vadas, neyyappam (fluffy and fried, rice flour and gur snack) or achappams (rose cookies). Around 4.30 pm, tea shops are abuzz with college kids and office-goers, devouring the treats or reading the newspaper. At homes you’ll find people munching ariyunda (jaggery, coconut and rice flake laddus) and nenthrakai bananas batter-fried. In her childhood, mom would return from school to chakka or kappa puzhuku (jackfruit or tapioca in sabzi-like preparations) eaten with leftover fish or meat curry and tea. But now it’s a less frequent affair like various home snacks conveniently available in the market. —Meryl Sebastian (As told to Pooja Bhula) Bengali bhaja-bhuji Not all Bengalis may share the prime minister's political ideology, but we've long shared his weakness for ‘chai’ and ‘charcha’. Cha aar adda, if you would—aimless banter brewing into stormy debates over politics, arts, theology, as an army of bhaja-bhuji (fried titbits) are paraded out of the rannaghor (kitchen). Living alone, I sorely miss jhal muri—a fiery mix of puffed rice tossed in mustard oil, green chillies, chanachur and cucumber, sprouted black gram or coriander. It isn't unusual for the matriarch to bring together father-daughter-granny-house help over chai and an overflowing bowl of it on rainy days. Some snacks though, can’t be shared. One in every five Bengalis has, at some point, drilled out and licked clean the stuffing from phulkopir shingaras (stir-fried potato and cauliflower samosas, punctuated with nigella seeds) and eyed his sibling's. I, for one, wouldn’t offer you my greasy beguni, kumro phool bhaja, peyaji or phuluri (eggplant fritters, pumpkin-blossom tempura, onion fritter or fluffy besan nuggets). It may be a good idea to give your Bengali friend that family doctor's contact. He'll be grateful for an anti-acidity prescription to beat Dygene, but will feast on mochar chop (banana-flower patties) as soon as he recovers. —Sohini Das Gupta Punjab de poore ‘Garam samose aur chai’ is just a stereotype of Punjabi snacking habits. We have our gur ke mithe poore (thin crepes made with a fermented batter of jaggery, saunf, atta and milk), giant size mathris with aam ka kala achar or in winter shalgam-gobi ka achar (turnip-cauliflower pickle) as well as sugar-coated shakkar pare or pepper-spiced namkeen pare. In fact, during weddings, we give guests a box full of pare to munch with tea. For those with a sweet tooth, in the cold months, there's nothing like energy-loaded pinnis (laddus made of atta, bran, rava, cinnamon, ginger, ghee and pepper) found on counter tops of most kitchens. But a special tea-time treat is the nut-crusted desi gur that friends having ganne ke khet prepare at home and send over. As jaggery-making reaches its last stage pista, kaju and dry fruits are added. As no tempering is done, it lacks the sheen of chikki, but is simply delicious. —Amrita Kaur (As told to Pooja Bhula) Gujarati nasto Steamed, roasted, fried...sweet, spicy, savoury...you name it, the Gujarati nasto eaten with masala cha has it all. Everytime mom fills big barnis (glass jars) of tikkhi puri or tikkha sakkar para, my resolve to stick to fruit for breakfast or nuts for evening snack goes for a toss. I crack the crust of the puris and paras, like you'd do for pani puri, scoop hot tea in it and oooomm, it's heavenly. But especially with morning tea, my grandparents like to break pieces of bhakri or khakhra, or eat handfuls of papdi gaathiya and sev mumra (sev and puffed rice) as they slurp on the tea after it cools in the saucer. On special occassions, it's jalebi-gaathiya (papdi) and in winters it's dadi's special deep fried bajri na vada (bajra atta mixed with garlic, chopped methi leaves, sugar, curd, red chilli powder, salt, dhaniya powder and oil). Vadas though can be of many kinds, dense with a mix of white sesame seeds and wheat flour or hollow inside like puris. The fried list ranges from various dals on their own to featuring in mixes like chavanu (fried channa dal, moong dal, sev gaanthia, papdi gaanthia, vatana and dal muth). Then there’s Nadiyadi bhusu (fried poha, corn flakes, chickpea, peanuts, sev) and chevdas aka chivda that can be roasted or fried (our native place Patan is famed for the sweet and spicy fried salli potato and peanut one). A must try is the poha, papad and sev one. Healthy offerings include bafelu (simply plain flour added to boiled water, with jeera, salt and green chilli paste), lentil dhoklas and muthias made of rice or various lentils. The list of Gujarati tea snacks is endless, no wonder people say we live to eat. —Pooja Bhula With Kashmiri kehwa In our beautiful distressed valley of Kashmir, it's the chai that's mithi or namkeen, while the nashta is fairly bland. Though the morning routine involves having roti with pink namkeen chai (tea leaves are boiled in water till it goes red and a little milk and salt is added, making it pink) it's also about thronging local kandurs (bakeries), which open by 4am, to take back baskets full of goodies—chochworu (burger or bagel-like hard buns prepared with skimmed milk, water and maida), katlams, lavaas and the multilayered, ghee-laden bakerkhwanis to go with the afternoon and evening sessions of tea or kehwa. While saffron kehwa (made of water, sugar and saffron strands)is more popular, chai kehwa, to which cinnamon and almonds are added, is equally delicious. On holidays that's what I do, laze and have tea and bakes through the day. Special occassions call for a separate set of bakes and breads to go with tea. —Anees Zagar (As told to Pooja Bhula) Odiya jalakhia Evenings often remind me of the sweet, earthy nadia muri (puffed rice with grated coconut) that I would tuck into my mouth in generous bulks as the rain drummed against our window back home. And it's best enjoyed with cups—the plurality is of great significance here—of steaming cha. For those who like their jalakhia (snack) fried and spicy, aloo chop (potato croquette) will leave you licking your fingers. Whether smuggled home from roadside stalls (it’s not the healthiest of snacks, you see) or fried in a family-size karahi at home, this fairly easy-to-make snack is basically mashed potato, spiced with turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and garam masala, and deep-fried in besan. To watch the besan splutter and take shape in the oil, a warm golden at first, and then blushing in delectable shades of brown, is a delight in itself. Some also like filling tumblers of tea with sev, till it settles, and spooning it. —Uday Naik (As told to Sohini Das Gupta) Mithi SindhI Treats Sindhis, who migrated from across the border of Rajasthan, favour food that is fried. So anything from vegetables to even breads become conduits for ‘pakodas’ and fries. I’ve grown up on lunch boxes of bread rolls, bread pakodas, aloo tikki and mithi (sweet) bread — the last one being an indulgence of my childhood days (much to my adulthood horror). To make it, slices of bread are fried till they turn crispy brown and then dipped in chashni or sugar syrup. Served hot, my brother and I would devour this artery-clogging agent with condensed milk! Other tea-time snacks that would come out of mom’s frying pan included potato pakodas, mirchi pakodas and sana pakodas (literally meaning thin, and called for the finely chopped onions used). Apart from onions, coriander seeds, chillies and salt are added to gram flour and water; portions of the batter are semi-fried, broken into halves or smaller portions and fried again. Accompanied with green chutney, these are rainy day treats!—Marisha Karwa From Rajasthan's rasoi The desert state of Rajasthan may not be blessed in terms of natural produce, but its culinary treats, largely comprising cereal/grain-based food, is as varied as it is delightful. The famous battis of the dal-batti-churma fame, made of ordinary wheat flour, are but a mere example. To go with tea, there's the concoction of gul-gule. It’s wheat flour kneaded with water and grated jaggery, which gives the dough a shiny and somewhat sticky consistency, and then rolled into bite-sized balls and deep fried to a brown hue. Also a popular snack, atte ka seera is eaten with papad for a sweet-savoury balance. Use of besan (gram flour) to make pakodis is common. For palak pakodis, each spinach leaf is dipped in batter (made by adding water, salt, red chilli and turmeric powder to gram flour) and fried. A perennial favourite is the bada or dal ki pakodi—split green gram is soaked and peeled off its green cover, then blitzed with roasted coriander seeds, fennel, asafoetida, salt and water to form a thick batter (urban dwellers also add green chillies and ginger) and deep fried in tiny portions till golden-yellow. Served hot, they are perfect pairings for a late afternoon cuppa! —Marisha Karwa Assamese jolpan When I was a kid, tea time often felt like a mini party. Neighbours and relatives would stream in to join our big joint family gorging on pithas (coconut, jaggery, roasted rice and black sesame laddus), luchi (poori) with aloo dum or bhaji (sabzi of long potato slices, sprinkled with haldi and green chillies, and fried in mustard oil), and the occassional seera (a sweet of poha, milk and jaggery), while sipping on fragrant Ahomiya saah (Assamese tea). Milk and sugar aren’t boiled while making tea, but served separately. In fact on holidays, we would also hire a CD player and play movies at tea time and get aloo chop from outside. Now, near and dear ones make it just once a week rather than daily and few use the traditional, heavy, bell metal crockery, but saah and jolpan (snacks) remain quite the love affair with cups being refilled almost endlessly. It’s only befitting as we belong to the tea state of India. —Joydeepa Sarma (As told to Pooja Bhula) pooja.bhula@dnaindia.net;