Food and drink of Kayasthas 09: Those kitchens where the stoves used to stop only for a few hours.

After the instant Maggi revolution that started in the country in the 80s, the definition of snack, breakfast and breakfast in homes has changed. The new culture of fast food has started liking people’s tongue. Even when Maggi was not introduced, there were snacks in homes. We also had our own fast food. What kind of breakfast or fast food was prepared in Kayastha food and was liked very much.

Before moving ahead, let us take a look at how Maggi was launched in the country. Sangeeta Talwar, a graduate of IIM Kolkata, wrote a book, The Two Minute Revolution. When the Nestle team launched Maggi in the 80s, a lot of data was collected on the eating habits and breakfast habits of people across the country. After this Maggi was launched in the domestic market.

Before the 80s, the popularity of noodles was very less in the country. Most people did not even know about it. At that time, when the children came from school, the biggest problem the mother faced was what to cook for them immediately. If a guest came, there would be a limited number of things to serve him. At that time, the fast food prepared in homes included limited breakfasts like paratha, idli, dosa, eggs, bread pakodas, poha, fried chips. South Indian style dishes had to be prepared in advance.

In such a situation, even Kayastha houses were no different in terms of breakfast in the 70s and 80s. I remember well that we used to have limited breakfast in the morning. In this, mustard oil was spread on the stale bread of the night along with salt and special spices. Then it was rolled and given to eat. Often this roti was baked with ghee or oil and the dried vegetables left over from the night before were also stuffed inside it. We used to call it Kattu. However, now this role has started being called that.

Our modern breakfast has become more elaborate and diverse. Then the black gram soaked at night was fried with chopped onion and spices in the morning. For breakfast, dishes like potato parathas, cheela, pakodas, fried chips, papad, sago khichdi, halwa or puri-kachori were available. Often poha, semolina or flour pudding was also available for breakfast.

In the homes of North India, a delicious breakfast was prepared in the morning by frying gram-lai with onion or directly frying it in mustard oil. Another paratha-like thing was available to eat, it was called Dosti in homes. A round ball of dough was taken in it, a little ghee was applied on it, another ball of dough was stuck on it, it was rolled into a round and the paratha was baked on the tawa with oil or ghee. Now it seems that it might have been named Dosti because two dough balls were joined together and rolled out.

various types of dumplings
There were many types of pakodas. Gram flour pakodas are popular in every house. When pakodas were made by cutting potatoes, onions, chillies in flour and adding celery, cumin and coriander spices and eating it with pickles or chutney, it was a pleasure. Many other types of pakodas were made. Moong pakoda or moongodi was always soft, whereas if gram dal was soaked and made into pakodas, it always had some crunch.

Cheela was also made in different ways using gram flour, flour, moong or rice flour. You can say that all these dishes were prepared continuously in the kitchen of Kayasthas. There was often a special breakfast in the evening, which included kebabs, potato tikkis, vada, matar chaat, gram flour gattas or faras. Yes, if it was winter season, the variety of breakfast would have become more rich.

Ghugni of green peas and fresh corn kernels
During the season of green peas and corn, a delicious dish was prepared almost every day in the morning or evening by frying Ghugni or soft corn grains with spices and cumin seeds for breakfast. A lot of peas are snatched in Ghugni and fried in mustard oil along with cumin seeds. If you want, add thinly cut potatoes and fry them, add black pepper and salt as per taste. If peas are fresh and ghugni is available in morning or evening breakfast, then it is fine.

There was little use of cheese.
However, at that time neither paneer, chickpeas nor kidney beans were used much in the kitchen of Kayastha house. Sometimes chhena was made by curdling the milk. His dishes were definitely cooked. South Indian dishes, which have now become popular as breakfast in our homes, were rarely prepared in North Indian homes at that time. These came into our kitchens during the 90s. Till then soybean nuggets were also not sold in the market, they started coming in the Indian market in the mid-80s.

Use of Amiya in pulses
The colors of different types of pulses were also unique. Often, with the arrival of summer, green amiya (small green mango) was chopped and mixed with arhar dal. Then the dal would have become more delicious with the sourness. When mango season came, raw mangoes were cut and dried on the terrace. It was used as sour throughout the year. Many times, potatoes were cleaned and washed and added to these pulses. So that they would boil along with it and their bhurta would be made along with the food.

ongoing pickle business
This was also the season for making mango pickles. Mango pickles were seen being made in big ceramic jars during the summer season. Other pickles in the second season. In different seasons, different vegetables were mixed with mustard oil, spices and salt and kept in the sun for several days. It mainly contained pickles of mango, jackfruit, lemon, cabbage and chilli. These were in such numbers that they could be eaten comfortably throughout the year.

drying vegetables and saving them for the next season
Similarly, with every season, the work of cutting and drying the vegetables of that season also went on, so that they could be tasted anytime. Many vegetables ranging from cabbage to jackfruit were cut, made into garlands and hung on nails on the ceiling walls. They were also dried on sheets. The work of drying vegetables and using them throughout the season is done extensively in Rajasthan also. Once when I went to Nathdwara, I saw all kinds of dried vegetables being sold in the shops in the market.

Spicy Mugondis and Badis
Apart from drying pickles and vegetables, many types of spicy mungodis and badiyas were also prepared and brought to the rooftops to dry. After the potato harvest, the work of making chips and papad started. If we go to the old houses of Kayasthas, it seems as if the food business was always going on there. Now this tradition has almost ended.

The stove would stop only for a few hours at night.
Often people were found saying that brother, if food is cooked then it is only in the homes of Kayasthas. Well, it is true that in big traditional Kayastha families, the home stove used to burn almost throughout the day. If it stops then only for a few hours at night.

Now a special wheat dish
Now ending with a special wheat dish. Which was sometimes specially prepared in the homes of Kayasthas and used to beat meat. It is also called wheat protein vegetable or wheat extract vegetable.

Before that there should be some discussion about wheat. According to Devendra Mewari’s book Faslein Kahen Kahani, the ancestors of wheat were a wild grass species 12-14,000 years ago. Then, through the play of nature, edible wheat was born. Its oldest remains are found in a place called Jarmo in Iraq. Remains of wheat seeds about 6700 years old before Christ were found in Jarmo. The wheatgrass found in Mohenjodaro is 5000 years old. Wheat bread is considered very sacred in all religions. Wheat is called the “king of grains”.

If wheat is soaked for two-three days and ground, a white sticky paste is obtained. It is called wheat extract. If it is separated from water then this essence can be of many uses. From its vegetable to halwa and small papdi, it can be dried. Well, we are talking about the delicious vegetable made from wheat essence. This essence is fried in the form of small balls. Then when it is made into a vegetable with ground onion and spices, its taste and style surpasses that of meat. Its halwa is also equally delicious.

read this also
Food and drink of Kayasthas1: How is the kitchen of Lalas decorated, what is cooked in it
Food of Kayasthas 02: From kebabs to new style of biryani which came out of their kitchen
Food and drink of Kayasthas 03: Shab Degh meat which was very tasty and liver of lentils
Food and drink of Kayasthas 04: If there is no Shami Kebab and Seenk Kebab, then what kind of food will the Lalas of Lucknow have?
Food and drink of Kayasthas 05: Meat utensils were never mixed in the main kitchen utensils, wonderful Nimona was prepared in winters.
Food and drink of Kayasthas 06: Lalakat Tahari i.e. delicious dish with divine taste.
Food and drink of Kayasthas 07 – Dal bhare which after frying will beat any fast food, what used to happen in the kitchen then?
Food and drink of Kayasthas 08: Khichdi which was liked by everyone, everyone prepared it in their own way.

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Tags: food, food 18, food diet, Food Recipe, Prayagraj cuisine