This is a Guest post by Camellia.artisanal

(A home chef who organises lunch home tables at Gurgaon, where guests dine with strangers, are served homemade Bengali food  on traditional kansa ware, followed by home made mishti & darjeeling tea ceremony. The lunches are interspersed with stories from Bengal & kolkata)

Trip organised by – Samir Kher, founder of Deep Dive India (+919454272174). We paid to Deep Dive India by UPI. They in turn paid everyone we met.

Contents

1. Trip to a Mango orchard in Malihabad 
2. Kayasth Dinner at home of Ms. Chetna Srivastav, Lucknow
3. UP Nawabi food at home of Yousuf bhai, Malihabad
4. Rampuri dinner at home of Ms. Naheed

Part 1 – Trip to a Mango orchard in Malihabad 

Since our stay at mumbai between 2015 & 2019, I always wanted to do a mango trip to orchards in Maharashtra. However due to several reasons that did not take place. So when we returned to Delhi in 2019, I thought we should do a trip to Malihabad. Well, finally we were able to do the trip this summer & I am so so happy we were able to do it & how memorable it turned out to be. 

Over the years we have realized that if the number of leaves (at work) are restricted, it is best to take professional help from an expert to plan the trip. So for this trip we connected with Samir Kher, founder of Deep Dive India. 

Samir is a very knowledgeable person whom we enjoy talking to, at times for hours. He is extremely well read & we enjoy the depth & width of his knowledge & also his stories. 

On the decided day, Samir took us to a mango orchard situated inside a research institute on Mangoes – Central institute for sub tropical research. The Malihabad railway station was next to the orchard. 

We learnt that almost all research institutes lease the gardens by auction, to private farmers, who pay a sum of money & get to harvest the entire produce of the orchard. The plus point for the mango farmer is the expertise received from the experts on the field. 

The structure of orchard – a large open area had been planted with trees decades back. The arrangement of the trees was diagonal, linear. Now we see a dense forest of mango trees neatly lined up, covering the sky with their leaves. The soil below the mango trees is not good for growing other plants, we were told. 

The entire area of the orchard was naturally cooled by the shade of the trees. So we did not even realize that we spent almost 3 hours in the open in the hot summers of Uttar Pradesh. 

The fun part of walking around in an orchard was that every now & then we heard a thud & then we would see a freshly fallen mango, ripened on the tree!!! And yes we were asked to pick as many as we wanted & eat!!!

Throughout the garden there were many mangoes that had fallen & were being eaten by birds or animals in different stages.

Yousuf Bhai, who has been in mango farming from generations, showed us around the garden. 

We learnt from him that in Instagram age, everything, including mangoes need to ‘look’ perfect. So blemishes in a natural fruit, which is natural, are reasons for buyers of supermarkets in india & abroad to not accept shipments. 

To avoid natural blemishes, a person now climbs up trees & makes the mango fruit wear a paper bag called ‘The kavach’. These paper packs cost ₹2 a piece. It is claimed that the bags are:

• UV resistant 
• Water resistant 
• Bio degradable

We saw that these mangoes, still ripening on trees were actually pretty ‘perfect’ looking. What we realized is that this artificial process reduces the flavours & the sweetness of the mango, which, it seems many buyers are not bothered about, as big as they look good!!!

Since it’s a research institute, there were many different varieties of mangoes. We were impressed seeing a Purple mango called ‘Sensation’. 

We also got to know that if the mango is plucked with the stem on (like in litchis), they stay longer. 

We were offered about 15 different kinds of mangoes to taste – Johri safeda, Gulab khas, different kinds of Surkha (matiara, johribag) , dussheri, khas m khas, bhola etc.

We also saw karonda, fig , lichi & other plants in the orchard

We saw houses made by red ants on mango trees. They joined leaves by a body secretion

As we drove outside the orchard, we realized there were mangoes everywhere – loaded into huge trucks, smaller lorries, chhota hathis , e-rickshaws & also on cycles & mopeds. It was a mango world.  

WE ARE SO SO HAPPY THAT WE DID THIS TRIP. Thank you, Samir. 

Part 2 – Home chef Chetna Srivastav 

Cuisine – kayasth

Kayasth is a jati. The historical occupation of the kayasths was ‘scribe’ / writer (loosely finance, accounts, copying texts, writing letters, backend functions in current century business parlance). People from different varnas joined here.

We spent an incredible time at Mrs. Srivastav’s house not just because she cooks & serves great food but also because we bonded so well on food stories. She took great care in choosing dishes that stood out & had a story. The food was finger-licking good. We could feel that she had put humongous attention to detail in the ingredients & processes to ensure the best of taste, texture & flavours. 

Here is what we had:

Daal ke Farre – an outer layer made with rice paste, filling of daal & spices. It had a Good balance of taste. Soft enjoyable texture, not brittle. Not too hot (scoville factor). Spices were  not on the face. 

Suhaal was like the Nimki of Bengal. Crisp fried maida based savoury snack. Perfectly fried, perfect seasoning. 

Chauritha – thinly sliced vegetables like lauki OR aloo OR kathal are dipped in rice & garlic paste & then deep fried. So they become like a thin crisp fry with a thin soft mid area. We could not stop munching on this. 

Phalse chutney – made with phalsey fruit. 

Angoor chutney – made with grapes. Traditional method to store excess fruit production. 

Green chutney – the classic executed with perfection. 

Jamoon pana – a sweet salt drink made from jamun fruit. A bit more sweet for my taste but this is what most guests would like, I believe. 

Kamal kakdi ke kabab was a lovely meat substitute to galawati kabab of Lucknow. 

Daal ki kaleji – a preparation that was a meat substitute of the past – prepared in the same way as a kaleji (mutton liver) is, the dish has dumplings made of daal in place of kaleji. Reminded me faintly of the dhokhar dalna that the Bengalis eat (somewhat similar but different otherwise). 

6 hours slow cooked mutton – wow. We were super excited to hear this. And yes the final dish came out to be that good. Mutton as soft as marshmallow. Intense meaty flavours beautifully complimented by spice flavours. 

Khuli moong ki daal – Chetana poured a mix of deep fried onions (in ghee) & the daal became magical. 

Karele ka bharwa – we have had this in many places & have always felt that the character of karela is almost always throttled. Chetana managed to retain the flavour & taste of karela while making it very enjoyable. 

Kathal stew was seasonal & really good. 

Ajwain ki arbi was a dry preparation of arbi with ajwain. Cooked just right. 

Raita was pure love. Can’t describe how good it was. We kept on pouring more of this. 

Home-made Gond ki laddoo was fabulous. 

Kharchey ki mithai is a concept – use leftovers to make a sweet that the whole family & eat & enjoy. Zero wastage concept.  

We had two varieties. One of them was flavoured with mango. Loved both. New for us. Optimally sweet & very enjoyable. 

Part 3 – UP Nawabi food at home of Yousuf bhai, Malihabad 

After the mango orchard tour at Nalihavad, we went to eat lunch at Yousuf bhai’s home. We met his brother, bhabhi & mother as well. 

The family had cooked a beautiful meal for us. 

The highlight was rumali roti made from chakki atta made at home!!! The atta was coarse, had a lovely texture & did a lot of justice to the gravies.  

Mutton Qorma was लाज़वाब outstanding. We could not stop eating this unbelievably good gravy. The rumali roti worked very well. This is a family recipe, we were told.  

The Paneer curry was very very good but it was made because guests are coming. It’s not what is a traditional heirloom recipe of the family. Loved it. 

Chicken biryani had subtle flavours, super soft independent grains of long, aromatic rice. The chicken pieces were very soft & tasty. The biryani stood out due to presence of large pickle peppers. 

We also enjoyed the raita. 

For dessert we had more mangoes. 

Part 4 – Rampuri dinner at home of Ms. Naheed

Cuisine Rampuri

Mrs Naheed stays in her beautiful, decades old family home. 

Their ancestors were Rohilla afghans, who initially came as mercenaries & later were rulers of vast stretches of land in Northern India. 

We remembered reading about the Rohilla wars of mid 1700s. 

The interiors are special due to period furniture, some inherited & some collected by Mrs. Naheed.

We could not stop talking about her woven Rattan chairs. 

Her Porcelain collection is ace – from beautiful crockery  from different countries,  to the unusual pieces like a double layered hot plate with warm water in middle. 

She has a lovely Owl collection & a lot of very interesting books. 

We engaged in conversations about her family history, afghans in India to food & finally we good down to purest form of adda (unplanned conversations on any & every topic). 

Mrs. Nahid explained to us the concept of Rampuri food (food from Rampur, modern day UP) – the Essence of the cuisine is meat. Almost every savoury dish has meat.,

Meat is eaten with different things – Different spices, Different vegetables, pulses etc. 

This is what we had –  

Kacche keeme ke kabab – marinated raw keema , cooked to a kabab on tawa. We were bowled over by this dish. 

Shami kabab was very good too. Like they are at homes – great taste, great flavours, a lot more meat, not necessarily Instagram friendly. 

Murg qorma was excellent. We enjoyed a lot of the gravy just like that – sipped with spoon. 

Keema kairi – minced mutton cooked with raw mangoes. The raw mangoes gave a very unusual twist to the taste of the keema curry. 

Turai gosht was super fun – large pieces of turai (sponge gourd) felt buttery in the mouth. Wow. 

 

Yakhni pulao looked so pristine- no colours added. The meat was supple & just too good. 

We had the gravies with Sheermal (I guess from the market ) & home made rotis 

Mango phirni was made with kala jeera aromatic rice from Bangladesh – we had 2-3 helpings. That rice is just too good. It did magic to the dish. 

We of course met Mrs Naheed for the first time in life but by the time we left, we felt like we had known each other for long.