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Here's how you can make your Navratri thali special

NavRatri, also known as Navratra, literally translates as nine nights.

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Pushpesh Pant

NavRatri, also known as Navratra, literally translates as nine nights. This period is observed by many for ritual fasting. Many eateries eschew flesh, fish and fowl during these days. Fine dining restaurants, too, exert to offer guests special Navratri thali. Not to be left behind, fast food outlets have started serving navratra pizzas sans garlic and onion. What intrigues us is that even the most innovative cooks in homes and hotels don’t look beyond traditional cereal substitutes like singhada (water chestnut) and kuttu (buckwheat) atta, sabudana, peanuts, makhana (lotus puffs). Seldom do we pause to ponder over the original inspiration for ‘fasts and feasts’.

We believe the nine-day respite from gluttony gives us an excellent opportunity to give the overburdened stomach a well-deserved rest. This is in anticipation of the irresistible goodies that are going to come our way in the festive season that stretches from Dasehra to Diwali and beyond.

Ironically most of the delicacies prepared are rich, deep-fried pakwaan and sugary desserts. Potatoes are considered kosher, though the fact is that these were brought to this land by the Portuguese, and couldn’t have been part of the original list of ritual foods in India. But we digress.

Much more fruitful will be to dwell on the number nine. In Natya Shastra, seminal work on Indian aesthetics, sage Bharat enumerates nine rasas or moods that are correlated with sense perception and our enjoyment of arts, literature, music and dance. Food, many believe, is akin to music and painting. It uses basic tastes and flavours, instead of notes or colours. Presentation of well-wrought delicacies is often dramatic. To us, it seems logical to suggest that maybe the seeds of this ritual diet were sown to allow the diner to break the shackles of monotony of everyday fare. Salt and refined sugar combined with cliché spices chillies, coriander and cumin plus turmeric dominate our palate. When we undertake a fast, renouncing salt and ‘dark’ tamasic ingredients, we refresh the jaded palate and expand the range of enjoyable, hitherto overpowered, tastes. Satvik foods were not meant to be insipid or lacking in excitement. Satva, the root word, translates as essence. So Satvik food means essential nutritious food, not devoid of power to titillate our tastebuds. 

The real challenge of creating a genuinely different Navratri thali lies in using nine different ingredients, nine sweeteners and souring agents, arranging nine different hues on the platter and playing around with nine alluring aromas. Of course, this has to be done without violating the condition that the meal has to be strictly vegetarian and must eschew all prohibited tamasik ingredients. 

The challenge appears daunting till you begin to look around. Ours is a land of  diversity. Different states have ingredients, recipes and cooking styles, sweetening and souring agents that remain unknown beyond their confines. We see no reason why the satvik platter of assorted delicacies cannot include a few exotic, purely vegetarian, celebratory dishes from other countries far and near. 

Nor do all main course items have to be deep-fried. Steaming, baking, grilling, slow-cooking, stir-frying, all present great options. No one is likely to complain if water chestnuts appear in a Thai avatar or sago pudding prepared with coconut milk replaces samakh ke chawal ki kheer. There is increasing interest and awareness about superfoods, and healthy alternatives to sugar and salt. There is no reason why one should follow the line of least resistance and continue to bear the burden of kachche kele ki tikki, Brindabani ghuiyan and Sitaphal ki subzi. What’s wrong with Kashmiri kaddu roghanjosh or dum ki lauki? Both recipes, redolent of fennel, dried ginger and  are cooked without onions and garlic. 

You don’t have to depend on deghi mirch to see red! Delicate shades of violet, pink, orange or yellow can be obtained using kokum, popular in coastal India and in the Northeast. Palm jaggery, honey, sultanas and raisins can be deployed to dispense with sugar. And, believe us, you will not miss the salt at all if you rely on long-forgotten friends like allspice, star anise, javitri and jaipal, even good old cinnamon, clove, and the cardamom twins go a long way, if given due individual respect. We are so oppressed by the tyranny of mass-produced pre-packaged garam masala, chat masala, etc. that we are most of the time oblivious of their existence. Thank God, black peppercorns have fared a little better but poor peepli languishes unlamented. Rose, kewra, khas, sandal are known to the present generation only in their synthetically recreated forms. 

The nine days are dedicated one each to the worship of mother goddesses personifying various manifestations of energy some tranquil others terrifying. Food that nourishes and sustains us too is stored energy that can heal as well as harm.


Chhena ke dahi vade

Ingredients

  • Chhena or paneer (fresh & crumbled) 250gm
  • Khoya (crumbled) 100gm
  • Boil potatoes (boiled and peeled, then mashed) medium sized 
  • Araharot powder 1 tbsp
  • Clotted cream 1 tbsp
  • Cardamom powder 1/4 tsp
  • Cinnamon powder 1/4 tsp
  • Clove powder 1/4 tsp
  • Royal cumin powder 1/5 tsp
  • Black rock salt or sendha namak 1/4 tsp  
  • Curds (thick whisked) 400ml
  • Ghee 1/4 tsp

Method

Place the paneer, khoya and araharot powder, along with the potato if using in a large bowl need to blend well. Now add powdered spices, along with salt and clotted cream, to moisten the mixture. Shape into lemon-sized balls. Press these to flatten in vada-like patties. Heat ghee in a non-stick pan. Pan-grill the vada till these are golden brown. Turn carefully once to ensure that these are cooked evenly. Remove and place on kitchen towels to drain excess fat, place the vada on another platter and drape generously with whisked yogurt. Garnish with raisins, pistachios slivers and serve with green mint chutney or sweet and sour saunth.


Khajoor ka halwa

Ingredients

  • Khajoor (seedless soft) 1 cup 
  • Khoya 100gm
  • Ghee 1/3 cup
  • Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
  • Almonds (soaked in water and peeled ) 10-12

Method

Chop the dates into small pieces, and place in a blender, along with the khoya and clotted cream. Blend to a smooth paste. Remove and place in a bowl. Grease a tray with a thin film of ghee. Place a pan on medium-low flame. Heat the ghee in it, and add the date-khoya mixture. Stir continuously to avoid the sticking of halwa at the bottom of the pan and getting burnt when the ghee leaves aside and the halwa thickens to a soft toffee-like consistency. Spread it on greased tray and flatten with the spatula. Sprinkle cardamom powder on top and garnish with almonds. Cut into diamond or square before serving. 

   


Lauki ke chhalle

Ingredients

  • Bottle gourd (small, peeled, cut in half, cored, blanched in boiling water for 2-3 minutes) one   
  • Paneer (crumbled) 100 g 
  • Butter/ghee 3 tbsp 
  • Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp 
  • Cumin powder 1/4 tsp 
  • Red chilli powder 1/4 tsp 
  • Garam masala 1/4 tsp 
  • Rock salt to taste

Method 

Heat butter in a pan. Put in the cumin seeds. When these crackle, add paneer, along with all powdered spices and salt. Stir-fry on high flame for a minute to blend well. Remove from flame. When cool, pack the hollowed gourd with this mixture, tightly ensuring not to crack the gourd. Place the gourd in the pan in which paneer was stir-fried. Glaze the lauki slightly, cover and cook on sum on low flame for 10 minutes. Remove from stove and slice in round discs when cool. Some call this musallam as lauki ke chhalle!  


Papaya mango smoothie

Ingredients 

  • Papaya (sliced, small) 1 cup  
  • Mango      1/2 cup 
  • Banana (peeked & chopped) one 
  • Honey      2 tbsp 
  • Milk      1 cup 
  • Yogurt (whisked)      1/4 cup 

Method

Put everything in a mixer. Blend till smooth and frothy. Serve chilled, garnished with sliced mango and papaya.

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