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Journalism of Courage
In defence of the rajma chawal
Just down the road from where I,a harmless drudge,produce these columns for your edification and amusement,is an Udupi restaurant. Like all its fraternity,it produces hurried dosas and conveyor-belt sambhar,but I try to have their thali instead because the thali comes with two veggies of the day,and an unconfirmed rumour has it that veggies are good for you. The chosen veggies vary: potatoes,tinda,arbi,and so on,but they mostly taste of coconut,for this is,after all,one of the outposts of South Indian cultural imperialism. One day,however,something was more than normally murky and brown with an unrecognisable taste and one or two unrecognisable beans. Driven by dauntless curiosity,I demanded to know what it was.
Yes,North Indian conceptions of South Indian cooking stop at the idea that they do 17 million different things with rice,if quickly and cheaply enough to make a good weekday lunch,or possibly a large dinner with your extended family on Sunday night. But South Indians trying to figure out North Indian staples dont do the best of jobs either. A friend of mine who has recently returned from years in the pepper-and-crab heaven that is the Tamil Nadu coast just wanted to eat copious amounts of dal makhani,insisting that he hadnt had a decent dal in months.
But rajma is even more impossible to explain.
Perhaps thats because it cannot really be treated as a dal like other dals; you really should pressure-cook beans that have been soaked overnight,and then make a curry of the soaked beans,rather than using the usual dal-making methods. But there is something more to it,an unschooled heartiness perhaps,which makes one think of the North Indian countryside more than anything else you can imagine. We all eat dal-chawal of one kind or another. For few of us is it a treat. But rajma chawal very definitely is. We know it is,because many outlets of the great pure veg chains Nathus in Delhi,for example will list rajma chawal separately,not with their regular food,but as specials along with delights such as chhole bhature. Even for those of us who grew up feeling mildly meat-deprived its called the pre-liberalisation era,kids,Google it rajma,chawal,dahi and a spot of UP-style mango pickle was always an acceptable substitute.
Rajma beans lend themselves to stewing particularly well,and exude a certain robustness wherever theyre popular. In Mexico,and now the United States,the suburban-dad meal of choice is chili con carne,made often with rajmas red kidney beans,a spicy,meaty,warming pot of goodness. In Louisiana,rajma chawal is central to Creole identity; Louis Armstrong got that size through tucking into New Orleans beloved red beans and rice. Chili spread north from Mexico through Texas and has now conquered all of North America. But,for some reason,I dont see a similar thing happening with rajma chawal here. It remains a very North Indian treat,and the joy with which those whove grown up north of the Vindhyas greet it is something that brings puzzled frowns to people whove never seen it steam up on childhood winter mornings. Winter. We have that up here,or we used to till last week.
There are few tips that anyone could share about rajma. The simplest,best,most comforting foods are like that. Add complexity and they lose their charm. The most important tip,perhaps,is this one: remember what I said about how you should pressure-cook rajma,or boil it first? Dont skip that part. Turns out slow cooked rajma can lead to a nasty bout of food poisoning. Yup,up North their staples are like that,murderous if you dont do them just right.
The other one: try having it with zeera rice,like I did growing up,instead of plain rice. Adds just a little extra. And finally,and this I address to ambitious South Indian restaurants in particular: dont add coconut.
mihir.sharmaexpressindia.com
