Rajmah Chawal: The Unforgettable Food Plate From Jammu
There are dishes you eat, and there are dishes that eat into your memory. Rajmah Chawal in Jammu belongs to the second kind. It does not arrive quietly. It arrives steaming, in a steel plate , the white basmati rice still breathing, the red Rajma gravy thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and not let go.
It is Not Just Lunch. It is a Ritual.
The magic begins long before the first bite, in the high valleys of Marwah and Bhaderwah. These are not ordinary beans. Bhaderwahi and Marwah Rajma are high in demand across North India for reasons you understand only when you see them raw and then cooked. Small, blood-red or mixed light red like tiny rubies, they carry within them the cold air of the mountains, the mineral of the hill soil, and a protein density that has made the kidney bean the king of pulses.
A good Rajma shopkeeper in Jammu will tell you, without pride, that his Rajma is from Bhaderwah or Marwah. That is his certificate. These beans do not need soda or too much pressure to become tender. Soaked overnight in cold water, they swell slowly, patiently. Next morning they are cooked on a low wood fire, or on a slow simmering gas for hours, until they are soft but not broken, each bean holding its shape, each bean melting on the tongue. The gravy is not watery. It is thick, almost buttery, dark red in colour, its aroma built from a simple trinity of onions, tomatoes and ginger, but dominated by the earthy perfume of the bean itself. No cream, no cashew, no pretence. The thickness comes from the bean starch itself, from mashing a few beans into the gravy and letting time do the rest.
Then comes the rice. Not any rice. Only Basmati, ideally grown in R.S. Pura, long-grained and aged. Cooked so that each grain stands separate, white as fresh snow, fluffy, not sticky. The rice is the throne. The Rajma is the King who sits upon it.
Once the plate is filled with steaming Basmati rice,then comes the final act, the act that makes a Jammu Rajma Chawal shop different from any Rajma chawal in Delhi or Chandigarh. The shop owner usually with thin polythene glove on one hand, takes a large steel ladle, scoops that thick, blood-red gravy with at least twenty beans in it, and pours it generously over the mountain of white rice in the steel plate. The red bleeds into the white. The steam rises.
With a small spoon, he adds a spoon of desi ghee. Pure cow ghee, melted. It hits the hot gravy and sizzles, not loudly, but with a quiet hiss. The aroma changes instantly. The earthy, spicy smell of rajma now gets a nutty, rich top note. That one spoon of ghee is what converts a protein meal into a feast. It is what makes children lick their fingers and grown men forget their office files.
On the side, he places two things, without which the plate is incomplete.
First, the Anardana onion chutney. Anardana is dried pomegranate seeds, pounded with fresh red onions, green chillies, mint and rock salt. It is tangy, slightly smoky, crunchy and sharp. It cuts through the richness of the ghee and the heaviness of the rajma like a hill breeze. Every good Peerah or Baggar Wala shop in Jammu has its own secret ratio of anardana to onion. But all of them know that without this chutney, Rajma Chawal is a body without a soul.
The finest anardana, or dried wild pomegranate seeds, in the Jammu region is cultivated not on the plains but in the high-altitude forests. The most prized variety comes from the Doda–Bhadarwah valley, celebrated as Bhadarwahi Anardana for its intense sour flavour and deep crimson colour. Excellent quality is also found in Kishtwar, Ramban, Rajouri and Poonch, where wild Daruni trees flourish naturally between 3,000 and 5,000 feet.
In Dogra and Kashmiri cuisine, its uses are extensive. It is ground to add a tangy flavour to Rajma, Chole, chutneys and anardana keema, used as a souring agent in place of tamarind, and valued in Ayurvedic medicine for improving digestion.
In this Rajma Chawal plate you have sliced onions soaked in vinegar, a small piece of fried paneer , and a green chilli slit from the middle. That chilli is not for decoration. You take a bite of rice, a bean, a touch of chutney, and then a tiny bite of the raw chilli. The heat lifts the whole combination.
This is why you see queues at 1 p.m. outside Sharma Ji Baggar Wale in Channi Himmat or Near Press Club ,at Khajuria Dhaba near Akhnoor Road,at Raghunath Bazaar , ar Banwari Lal Ji's Gumat shop , at the nameless cart near Hari Singh Park or at many food carts on Gandhi nagar Road or at Pahalwan's shop. Office workers, college students, drivers, lawyers, grandmothers, all stand together, plates in hand, eating standing, heads bent, spoons moving fast. No one talks much. The food does not allow conversation in the first five minutes.
Rajma chawal is the great equaliser. It is vegetarian, high in protein, complete food, rich in iron and fibre, but it does not advertise itself as healthy. It advertises itself as satisfying. It makes you feel warm even on a cold January afternoon when the fog from the Tawi refuses to lift.
There is a deeper story too. In Dogra homes, Rajma chawal is Sunday lunch. Mothers soak Rajma on Saturday night. Every Dogra family keeps a stock of Basmati and Anardana. Children wait for that first pressure cooker whistle. It is the taste of home for every Jammuite who has moved to Delhi, Mumbai or abroad. In the high mountains of Marwah and Bhaderwah, where the bean is born, families still grow it in small terraced fields, harvesting by hand, drying on rooftops. Their hard work is what gives Jammu its most famous plate.
Some call Biryani the King. Some call butter chicken the emperor. In Jammu, we smile and disagree. The King of pulses sits quietly on a bed of white rice, with a spoon of ghee melting on its crown . And when you eat it with that sharp anardana onion chutney, you know why an entire city stops every afternoon for this red, thick, fragrant gravy.
It is not just food. It is Jammu on a plate.
( Avtar Mota )
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.