Dhabas of Amritsar, Yashbir Sharma. NAS Publication Pages: 120 Rs. 295. Appetising entrée to the land of butter chicken Yashbir sharma writes about the dhabas of Amritsar with the ease of a local boy, and his recipes do a great job of introducing the rudiments of Punjabi cuisine, says Rini Barman. Bharawan Da Dhaba, one of the Amritsar eateries that the author writes about. No visit to the Golden Temple is complete till you visit the Guru Ram Das Langar, says the opening chapter of Yashbir Sharmas book The Dhabas of Amritsar. For the lakhs of devotees who come here every year to have a taste of sacred food, every step possible is taken to ensure that food in Gurus langar is served with the utmost care and attention to detail. It is said that to have food in Gods kitchen is one of the most tranquil experiences you can have. Young girls (and volunteers) engrossed in making rotis are a common scene here; they help in the preparation of a bewildering quantity of Punjabi food that serves about 1,50,000 people every day. Community cooking — and eating — is a phenomenon that is adequately, if somewhat crudely, explained in Sharmas book. The Golden Temple langar is just one example of how community feasts bind cultures together. Moreover, in his own way (a photographic exploration of popular tea-stalls in Amritsar), Sharma also investigates the legendary Bengali concept of the adda. Actually, there is no Bengali hegemony here, come to think of it; the culture of having tea by the roadside (Copper Road, Amritsar) is just as strong in rural Assam. But pan-national homilies aside, Sharmas book, for me, was a way of unlocking the secrets of Punjabi food. When I first came to Delhi in July 2009, I thoroughly enjoyed the greasy food at Kake-da Dhaba (Connaught Place). However, Id be lying if I said that my body took the spice and oil levels in its stride. It was only later that I realised that Punjabi food, with its abundance of desi ghee and butter, can only be someones staple diet under certain climatic conditions. If you came from a land with radically different weather, caution and moderation are your best friends. (Theres simply no way you can scarf down parantha after buttery parantha, for instance, if youve been brought up on Assamese food, which errs on the side of blandness.) After this realisation, my relationship with North Indian (and more specifically, Punjabi) cuisine developed rather smoothly. I graduated from dhabas to slightly more upmarket places and finally to posh-looking joints that indulged in a different kind of pan-nationalism; for them, everything under Indian Cuisine had to be more Punjabi than Yash Chopra. Hence the almost blood-red curries; behold the miracle of food colour. Sharma’s recipe for Shahi Paneer has some very helpful explanatory notes about the garlic-ginger-chilli-sauté, a staple amongst Punjabi curries. This time-saving dish is as old as, well, paneer, and as the name suggests, it is royal in every way. This was also why Sharmas book was a heartening read; I learnt that theres more to Punjabi food than dash and sparkle and sinful quantities of butter and ghee. I learnt that dishes dripping with opulence can be tweaked (and sometimes, transformed) with simple cooking, that you can always opt for healthier (at least in comparison) substitutes, and that you can maintain a Punjabi flavour while doing all of this. I began to mix-and match freely after reading Yashbirs recipes, using less oil and tomatoes for the sake of my poor stomach. I found his recipes to be simple, accessible and quite delicious. I would never, of course, attain the chromatic brilliance that Happy Singh, my friendly neighbourhood dhabawallah is so proud of. But I would satiate my newfound Punjabi food cravings all the same. hahi Paneer is the simplest curry to start with. Importantly, Sharmas recipe for Shahi Paneer has some very helpful explanatory notes about the garlic-ginger-chilli-sauté, a staple amongst Punjabi curries. This time-saving dish is as old as, well, paneer, and as the name suggests, it is royal in every way. For non-vegetarians, this book has a sumptuous layout of kebab and pakora recipes. But the big guns, clearly, are the old Punjabi favourites: Amritsari kulcha, chini-da-parantha, makki-di-roti, laccha parantha and so on. One can increase the amount of curd to give dishes a more tangy flavour and to ease digestion. Also, the prices of tomatoes and onions have increased steeply, so you can cut down on those while youre making the delicious baingan-ka-bharta that Sharma describes. A couple of generations ago, people were sturdy enough to consume ghee and yet be fit, but with the rise of the sedentary lifestyle in big cities, it has become tough to savour pure desi ghee on a daily basis, hence my concerns. His next project is supposed to be a compilation of the secret recipes of old Delhi, or Delhi-6 as its often called. Having lived in this, my adopted city, for five years, I cannot wait to see what Sharma has in his locker this time.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 10:00:00 +0000
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