Cheti Chand- A Sindhi New Year

A lot has changed over the years. 

Morning I called upon my neighbor to wish her ‘a Happy New Year’..Well! There was not much sign of the celebrations of Cheti Chand in a Sindhi house. Celebrating Sindhi festivals have narrowed down to attending a Sindhi Mela, (community festival) in the evening, where there are cultural shows and traditional food on sale, but other than that there is no sign of celebration in any homes.

Cheti Chand is the important festival in Sindhi home (or rather it used to be during my growing up days)

I used to wake up to the traditional hymn devoted to Lord JhuleLal during early hours. There used to be fragrance of sweetened rice and cooked Chana in the kitchen. Early morning Mom used to make preparation to go to temple and offer her prayers by making bharano Chej.

At the temple, she and other women would make molds from flour dough shaping one mold in round shaped base for large crystalized sugar, decorated with silver edible foil and dry fruits while another dough molded into a shape of lamp with the stuffing of cloves and cardamom on its side and pure ghee with a wick for used for lighting the lamp. These molds along with sweetened rice, cooked Chana, fruits, biscuits, flowers, vermillion and few coins were placed in a big tray. She would place the tray on her head and turn 360 degrees, offering her prayers to Jhulelal. Later she and other ladies would go to the seashore to feed the fishes. They would sing Lal Sain’s Panjaras and Palav to seek His grace

Not many youngsters do observe this ritual any more. Like Sindhi language, Sindhi traditions are gradually fading too. Not many are aware of the story behind it.

Cheti Chand is celebrated on the first day of Chaitra month known as Chet in Sindhi. It is celebrated in the honor of the birth of Ishtadeva Uderolal, popularly known as Jhulelal, the patron saint of Sindhis. On this day, people worship water- the elixir of life. Followers of Jhulelal observed Chaliho Sahab that meant that for forty long days and nights, they underwent rituals and vigil on the bank of Sindhu. Fasting meant, no new clothes, no shoes, no shaving, no use of soap. The clothes were just rinsed and worn. Days were spent offering prayers to God Varun seeking solace and salvation. After 40 days of Chaaliho, the followers of Jhulelal celebrated the occasion with festivity as ‘Thanks Giving Day’ During the festival there used to be long procession and Sindhi folk dance called ‘Chej’ was performed during the procession.

However, thanks to Sindhi community who do try their best to keep their culture and tradition alive. After 65 years of migrations, with Sindhis scattered all over the world, many communities around the world do make an effort to keep the tradition going. New ventures are started, children are encouraged to participate in the cultural shows and a special delicious traditional Sindhi Cuisine is cooked in some houses even till this day.

Wishing all my visitors a ‘Happy New Year’

Happy to share the recipe of ‘Sweetened Rice’ called ‘Tehri’ from page no 123 in my book on #SindhiCuisine

Ingredients:

2 cups rice

1cup sugar

2tbsp Ghee

A pinch of saffron thread

2green Cardamom

5Almonds

4-5 raisins

2tbsp fresh coconut, cut into strips

Salt to taste

Method:

1.   Cook rice in one cup of water and very little salt, cardamom and saffron. 

2.   When rice is half cooked, add sugar and ghee and cook till tender.

3.   Garnish with almonds, raisins and coconut strips.

4.   Serve hot with papad and yogurt.

5.   Alternatively you could also serve with spicy cooked Kara Chana.

Dessert Plating On The Table Top

At the party that I attended at Krabi, (in Thailand),the highlight of the evening was the dessert on a cold plate. Now this was the first time I was to witness the art with food on the table, a kind of Rangoli with different kinds of dessert plated on the table to be scooped off directly with a spoon.

The chef and his assistants started decorating the cold-plated table with desserts of different shapes and sizes making spectacular designs that didn’t bleed but remained fixed to that spot forming the most spectacular design on the table.

From a distance we could only see the black plate, but there has to be some kind of grid pattern on the plate for them to do so symmetrically.

 The chef came with a tray of different desserts in small bowls and started to drizzle the blobs on the cold plate 

He worked with much concentration, spooning the blobs forming the symmetrical design on the board.

 Everybody stood there transfixed, admiring his art

 there were nuts and pretzels, liquid nitrogen frozen mousse

It reminded me of the Rangoli, the only difference that this was the food and we could actually eat it…..

small glasses containing flavored desserts were placed in symmetrical pattern around the flat designs and that gave it 3d effect

Would I be able to make such dessert at home? I was not sure, because first, I should have a cold plate or a silicon mat and secondly, I need to learn the science behind molecular gastronomy.

 But the final effect was wonderful. Everybody rushed to table, especially children who were anxiously waiting for the chef to finish his art so that they could just try different combinations of such great variety of desserts.

Later, I learnt that the sauces are actually a gel of different agar concentrations that has been set into solids and then blended to form viscous fluid to form the required shapes.

 This dessert is never boring because everybody takes the spoonful with different combination and every bite has a different experience.

Women’s Day Celebration at MiaCucina At 'A Perfect ParTea'

  When I self-invited myself to my cousin’s home for lunch last Saturday, I was not in the know that his wife was not in the town. He answered the doorbell, gave me a quick hug and rushed to the kitchen to complete the task. He had prepared Italian Cannoli for lunch. Not an easy recipe, mind you. He had cooked soya-beans filling, rolled it in garlic flavored tomato paste and layered with cheese. It was a delicious dish.

So who says Kitchen is women’s domain?

No, my cousin is not a chef, and not even a house-husband, its just that when is wife is away, he can cook a decent meal for himself and his guests.

But yes, food is the favorite topic of conversation amongst women. So that afternoon, he drove me to my venue at 'Mia Cucina' (Powai) for the celebration of women’s day hosted by Rushina of APBCook Studio fame.

The room was vibrant with excited murmurs of women from different walks of life, Chefs, entrepreneurs, house-wives, all with a common interest- Food!

The session started with Ashwin Rodrigues talking about ‘CasablancaWines’. It was an interactive session, wine-tasting event of white sparking wine and rose colored fruity wine.

This was then paired with different flavored cheese. Mansi Jasani introduced cheese as ‘just a controlled spoilage of milk’. There were different flavored cheese, some melt-in-the-mouth feta cheese and some aged and smoked cheese. A special mention can be made for the curry leaves flavored ‘Le Pondicheri’ cheese that won the brownie points.

Chef Sunjay Kotian rocked the stage with his delish fig salad, introducing the use of Olive oil in his specialty dishes pointing to the fact that virgin oil be used solely for salads and other olive oil to be used for normal cooking. Four different types of Salad leaves were tossed with dressing of fig sauce, topped with feta cheese, garlic flavored croutons and grated beetroot. He also cooked Spanish Chicken Paella.

Time tickled quickly, but Chef Kainez of TheobromaIndia was quite efficient. She prepared soft, vegetarian green mango and ginger tea cakes in jiffy, each bite so delicious that just one cake was not enough.

While we feasted on Teacakes, we watched short clips from the latest documentary film  ‘India’s Daughter’ Highlight of this event was the beautiful poem on ‘being a woman’ recited by Tess Joseph who had worked on this project along with Leslee Udwin.

This was a fun event; the room was packed with more than 50women. There is always something new to learn from such kind of events. My sincere thanks to Rushina, who takes so much effort to bring women together from all walks of life

Like all food events, the take-away food-gifts are always trendy. The loot that I brought back home

‘Old monk salted caramel sauce’ and ‘Arugul almonds pesto’ by Amrita’s Life ki recipe

‘Madelienes’ by Anurita’s Eighth

‘Cinnamon cookie’ and ‘Nutella sea salt cookie’

by Ruchika’s House of Cookies

‘Organic chai masala’ by Roweena’s Fatfree Almost

‘Tropical nut mix’ from APB Cook Studio’s lust Pantry

‘Classico olive oil’ from Bertolli

‘Feta’ from The Cheese Collective

‘Cooking sheets and frying pan foil’ from Asahi Kasei

Okay, I am thinking of feasting on those Cinnamon cookies and make some fresh salad with tropical nut mix and Feta cheese…and maybe later, try that Chai masala too…..

Assam Tea Party

When friends come home to spend a day, most of the time is spent chatting and eating. This Holi festival, when my friends came home for lunch, we had karaoke afternoon. This is a fun activity, much better than board games or poker. Believe me! We let our hair loose and sang songs like there was no tomorrow. Who cares if there is talent or not? The words flash on the screen with background music and all we have to do is read the words in musical tone. Some of us were reading in poetry form and that was the fun part because most of the songs are popular for their lyrics. This is one group activity where the singer is so engrossed in singing that they don’t care if friends laugh when they sing off tune. It was the afternoon of pure fun and laughter.

The hours ticked quickly and soon it was teatime.

A box of ‘assam1860’ had arrived by courier some days ago, there were about one dozen tea pouches and a small sachet with a zip lock of loose tea leaves (fine round pebbles, black and smooth). I was asked to give my feedback.

What is the fun of trying out a new brand of tea all alone? I found an opportunity to try this brand that afternoon with my group of friends.

Here is what assam1860 has to say about this:

Assam1860 is the single origin and unblended tea sourced from a family-owned tea estate of James Warren in the South Bank of Assam. All leaves are carefully handpicked, lightly cut and allowed to ferment before being dried. Unlike other teas, this tea reaches the market almost as soon as it is plucked, so it remains fresh and juicy.

Normally, when I make tea, I also add ginger and cardamom, but this time, we decided to taste the tea in its unblended form. I just added milk and sugar. Friends loved it. It is robust, flavored, refreshing, strong, it has good aroma. We didn’t miss the regular spices, it had rich taste of its own.

Some of my friends tried the tea pouches

“The teabags need not be kept in the hot cup of water too long, dip it and remove it, because it is quite strong’ said my friend who tried the tea pouch “It is not a green tea, mind you, its black.” It is different in the sense that most of the teas available in market are multi-origins.

If you are a tea person and like to taste the different brands do try this one too, you might adopt it.

This product was sent to me complimentary from assam1860. I have shared an honest and unbiased account of my experience.

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