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Thank you for the wishes, Wisu. 😊 So how did your fast go?
@bold: Koi shaque? 😆😆 It would appear so! 🤗Seriously, this is such a pleasant discovery! 😊My dad is very attached to his native place and he keeps travelling back to Almora 3-4 times in a year. His elder brother stays in Almora and his cousins are in Nainital...so we have been to both these places. In fact, he is leaving next week again as it is Tauji's 75th birthday. Have you visited any of these towns..you must have...Of course, I know what singhals are. Indian festival/pooja food is the best. When we were young and my father used to go to his native village or Almora..we used to eagerly wait for the baal-mithai and the singauri...are you familiar with them? Yummm...it's been years since I had these sweets..and my mouth is watering right now.☺️😛Yes, Kashmiri food is delectable and uses generous amounts of oil.😆 The roth is deep-fried in ghee 😳(anything else would be a sacrilege, I tell you...😆)...but I have tried baking them in the oven and they come out just fine, though obviously the deep-fried one is tastier. It is rolled into thick rotis of around 1/4 inch thickness...you can see it here...You have tried the pulao and kheer, which is nice. There are some really amazing vegetarian dishes too...like dum aloo, haak saag (a variety of spinach), khatta baingan...which use spices like fennel powder, cardamom/cinnamon/clove powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder..and of course, oil.Sure, I will share the recipes of the pulao and kheer soon.
@Fast: It went off well... I'm fasted again today. I have been eating a small meal every night - just some home baked bread with some salad; but I guess, eating once per day is permitted. 😛😆😆
@Bold: 🤗 🤗 🤗
It is funny though that hamaarey yeh raaz kitney dheerey-dheerey khul rahey hain. 😆😆
My mother was born and raised in Delhi, and spent one school vacation (exactly one!) visiting her parent's ancestral homes. But if she sees someone who looks like s/he could be a country cousin, she will stop and make small talk with that person, confirm that they are indeed from Kumaon, and then proceed to tell them of her own family's homes in Almora and Nainital. "Meri eeja ka ghar bhi Almora mein hai...," she'll tell them, often following that with a very precise description of the house. It happened once that she even randomly met someone who knew her family that still lives there...😆😆
When I was very young, during one of my school vacations (like my mother, exactly one vacation), my grandmother took me to see our family. That was the only time I have been in that region, but that singular visit also made a very deep impression in my mind... I remember visiting Poornagiri and Jageshwar (aah, Jageshwar; aren't those temples just stunning). I only just remember slipping and falling all the time (because of the pine needles) when we were in Ranikhet... I remember trekking to a huge Hanuman temple when we were in Nainital, and a temple of Golu Devtaa (this was in Nainitaal proper)... and then another one in Chetai... There was a temple full of bells (somewhere)... [I was with my grandmother, we only just went to temples. 😆]
And yeah - the only reason we'd look forward to anybody coming back from Almora was because we knew that we'll be getting some of the singauri and baal mithai. (I like singauri much more than baal mithai.) And I hate singhals, BTW. They're awful, nahin? 😳😳😳
Occasionally, people returning from Almora would bring back some gahaut and bhat - which we'd receive with enormous gratitude... No other daal comes close to replacing them... Merey muh mein bhi paani aa gayaa hai... 😳
@Kashmiri food: Thank you for the link. I love food blogs - I will spend some time reading through this one... (You know, of my intention to write one myself... 😳)
"Roth" seems to be quite like a cookie... or rather a sweet matthi... I'll try to bake it once. They bake cookies in Sweden with a lot of cardamom (the green one)... To make it like "Roth", I will replace it with moti elaichi...
My mother makes really nice "dum aaloo", but it is probably not the traditional kashmiri recipe.
@Pulao & Kheer: Haan, please. Whenever you have the time... And if I may, I want to additionally request, Dum Aaloo and khatta baingan ki bhi recipe. (But, don't let this be any inconvenience - jab time miley, tab bataana please...)
I looked for Dum Aaloo recipes, and have already found a number of different recipes - and I guess, they'll all taste just fine, but from just a google search, I will never know which one is the authentic one made in Kashmiri homes... 😃 .. which is where, you will step in. 😃😃
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
