As delightful as it gets: Bhojpuri cuisine
Indian cuisine and the traditional way of eating is sort of having a comeback.
Thanks to a better understanding of all that is good with it, it is again being considered being cool — even by those thoroughly enchanted with everything exotic and alien.
One cuisine though that still needs to be brought more into the spotlight is the Bhojpuri style of cooking, from the northern agricultural lands of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh.
Chicken, lamb, seasonal vegetables, wheat, rice, and sattu are the main pillars of this flavourful cuisine that is high energy, rich in calories and carbohydrates.
There’s much more to this cuisine than just the litti choka (rustic fried wheat ball, stuffed with roasted gram flour, usually accompanied by a tangy dip made of charred eggplants, tomatoes or mashed potatoes mixed with spices and herbs called chokha).
I realised this when I met Pallavi Nigam Sahay — the author of The Bhojpuri Kitchen — and went through her book that details the nuances of little-known food culture. Sahay, a former insurance professional who trained as a chef in Italy, has painstakingly curated she known and some lesser known Bihari recipes like the baingan badi ki sabzi (aubergine curry with black gram fritters), dhuska (rice and Bengal gram pancakes), sattu ki kachodi, Bihari halwai style mutton, and laukiwali geeli khichdi (my personal favourite) in the book.
As I researched, I realised that while on the face of it this is a cuisine heavy on calories and carbs, there is a lot of good in this way of eating. For starters, they use mustard oil extensively and this heart-healthy oil helps to raise the good HDL cholesterol, and being a natural stimulant it also enhances digestion and improves the appetite. Not many know that the oil's high selenium content also helps reduce inflammation in the body.
Then there is the fragrant "tadka" they use in this cuisine (it is well-known for its unique combinations of spices), and the characteristic “panchphoran“ — a mix of cumin, fenugreek, mustard, caraway and nigella seeds. All the spices up the health benefits of the food.
They also use garlic (raw and cooked) and mustard (as a paste and to drizzle raw) in leafy greens and chutneys generously. This too bodes well for our health. While garlic is high in antioxidants, a brilliant detoxifier and helps keep our blood pressure in check, mustard helps improve our heart's health, the high selenium content boosts bone health and the magnesium content helps one sleep better.
The health conscious can also do well to discover the delights of makhana and sattu — both staples of this cuisine. Sattu ka sherbet (a drink made from roasted gram powder flavored with cumin powder and black salt) is the perfect way to boost your protein intake and stay cool from inside. This home-grown sattu sherbet can keep you going the entire morning. Sattu ka paratha, roti made of sattu again is a great way to cut down wheat from the diet and have a higher protein grain instead. And makhana — a low glycemic index, gluten-free seed — is a good source of protein and fibre, besides controlling the BP owing to their low-sodium, high-potassium composition. They also deliver the rare-to-find vitamin B1 (thiamine) — that plays a key role in nerve, muscle and heart function, and is the key to converting the carbohydrates we eat to energy in the body.
The Dal Pithi — a comforting dish made of wheat dumplings drowned in tangy lentil soup, is a great combination of fibre and proteins and makes for a filling lunch or dinner.
The desserts in this cuisine are also very interesting and healthy.
Be it tilkut — the nutty sweetness that is a crunchy snack bar made of sesame seeds and sugar — often eaten for breakfast, or the dahi chura — the sweet yoghurt fare with rice flakes. These desserts are nutritious beyond doubt and are effortless owing to minimal cooking involved.
Then there are the chana dal laddoo and parwal ki mithai (sweetened and stuffed pointed gourd) which according to Sahay, are jaw-dropping and mind-blowing delicacies.
I am absolutely certain that we include more of this cuisine in our dietary regimen. With convincing spokespersons like Sahay, it is only a matter of time before it enters more kitchens and woos more palates.