Locomotoring

Two summers ago, I grew a bunch of vegetables in my front yard. Outcome – I ended up with way more than I could eat, so I was drying. Mostly herbs. But that got me curious about dried vegetables. About the same time, I had learned about Kashmiri dried vegetables, Hokh Syun (link). For Kashmiris, it used to be necessity back in the days when snow would isolate villages and homes. Now it is a childhood memory food for most. For me, it is curiosity. So I dried some in my trusty dehydrator – eggplant and bottle gourd. Both were store bought but the vegetables were unusually tender, so I could pretend that they were from my kitchen garden.

I have been meaning to cook these dried vegetables for a while, and I finally got around to making the dried eggplants, wangan hachi, earlier this week. I rehydrated the dried eggplants in salted boiling water – they were nearly cooked in the process. Like Bengali cooking, Kashmiri cooking starts with heating mustard oil to smoking point and then cooling down to normal heat. I dropped a couple red chilis, a generous pinch of cumin seeds and let them splutter. Then I added sliced onion and minced garlic and let them soften. To that I added the powdered spices (turmeric, kashmiri chili pepper, fennel) and let them lose their raw aroma. And to all that I added the rehydrated eggplants and a splash of hot water. The eggplants were so soft that the vegetable took on a bhartha consistency. Once the liquid cooked down, I added a bit of milk and let the vegetable medley reach a consistency I wanted. And finally, I acknowledged that I had run out of cilantro leaves.

I paired the sabzi with a ragi (finger millet) roti and yogurt raita.

I have been trying flatbreads with a variety of gluten free grains. One of my prized possession is a countertop mill. It allows me to buy grains and mill on demand, it lengthens the freezer free shelf life compared to buying whole grain flour. Ragi roti is wonderful when you add a bunch of onion and make a super soft dough. I used cooked leek tops instead of raw onion. I flattened the soft dough on a hot griddle with wet hands to shape a rough flatbread – I call it roti, but flatbread is more appropriate. These flatbreads are thicker than roti and take some time to cook. I don’t use ghee when making flatbread, but I imagine what it would taste like if I added ghee instead of neutral oil.

Again, I have never eaten Hokh Syun before, so I only had my imagination to rely on. The eggplant had a strong eggplant flavor. The mustard oil had given it a desirable pungency. It reminded me of bhartha without the smokiness.

The vegetable was great with the flatbread.