Born in a Kerala Iyer family, brought up by men in blue (IAF, Not the Indian cricket team) and wedded to the olive green I encountered cuisines from the length and breadth of india. While the heart is still with the sambhar, my taste buds are loyal to Ma ki dal and Rajmah chawal with bhaingan ka bharta..So much so that I even ate some at Osaka, Tokyo and Zurich!
Eating was fine but cooking was NOT; A decade into trying recipes after recipes, I still am searching for the perfect fool proof recipe for rajma. Reason is each time I try making it, something goes wrong...colour (sad brown instead of fiery red), consistency (water over uncooked beans or totally mashed) or taste (overpowered by spices or insipid)..All the more an embarassment because of my better half being from Jammu ! The seasoned army wives gave me this- commonly.."yaaar, kuch nahin, yoon hin pyaz tamatar, adrak lasan aur normal masala..ban jaata hai;" Our Commanding officers cook told me to roast the tomatoes to get the red colour, others told me to import some rajma across the border! Some said cook the beans first and then add the masala, others said to cook the masalas and the uncooked rajmah in the pressure cooker; Alas! All in vain..
Mirror, Mirror on the wall; tell me the tastiest Rajmah of all!
Punjabi Rajmah (smothered with lasoon adrak and garam masala), the south Indian variety complete with kari patta, the sweet gujrati version at Rajdhani restaurants in Mumbai, or the Kashmiri version..My fondest memory of Rajmah was the one served during a ceremony at our home in Jammu- Rajmah, chawal with ambal- traditional dogra cuisine. It was cooked by maharaj's on a pandal on our rooftop..To date the taste is fixed in my mind- I actually sent my BIL to figure out the recipe..it was tangy (?amchur), sweetish (saunf), pungent..whatever..
Over the years, thanks to google, I have done my share of research on Rajma and there are two items that every rajma lover must read
one a great recipe at http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/ and the other a recipe with a greater dollop of humor @ http://blog.cygopinath.com/foodblog/?s=rajma
Good Night and sweet dreams
Thumbelina
Eating was fine but cooking was NOT; A decade into trying recipes after recipes, I still am searching for the perfect fool proof recipe for rajma. Reason is each time I try making it, something goes wrong...colour (sad brown instead of fiery red), consistency (water over uncooked beans or totally mashed) or taste (overpowered by spices or insipid)..All the more an embarassment because of my better half being from Jammu ! The seasoned army wives gave me this- commonly.."yaaar, kuch nahin, yoon hin pyaz tamatar, adrak lasan aur normal masala..ban jaata hai;" Our Commanding officers cook told me to roast the tomatoes to get the red colour, others told me to import some rajma across the border! Some said cook the beans first and then add the masala, others said to cook the masalas and the uncooked rajmah in the pressure cooker; Alas! All in vain..
Mirror, Mirror on the wall; tell me the tastiest Rajmah of all!
Punjabi Rajmah (smothered with lasoon adrak and garam masala), the south Indian variety complete with kari patta, the sweet gujrati version at Rajdhani restaurants in Mumbai, or the Kashmiri version..My fondest memory of Rajmah was the one served during a ceremony at our home in Jammu- Rajmah, chawal with ambal- traditional dogra cuisine. It was cooked by maharaj's on a pandal on our rooftop..To date the taste is fixed in my mind- I actually sent my BIL to figure out the recipe..it was tangy (?amchur), sweetish (saunf), pungent..whatever..
Over the years, thanks to google, I have done my share of research on Rajma and there are two items that every rajma lover must read
one a great recipe at http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/ and the other a recipe with a greater dollop of humor @ http://blog.cygopinath.com/foodblog/?s=rajma
Good Night and sweet dreams
Thumbelina
