Jain karampodi meets handvo at this Gujarati household in Begumpet

On a blazing hot Sunday afternoon, we made the trip to Jignya Shah’s home in

Begumpet

. As we walked up the stairs to her second-floor apartment, we were worried whether our Hyderabadi Hindi would hold up while asking her all the questions we were bursting with. Born in Gujarat, Jignya moved to Hyderabad 26 years ago when she married

Shreyas Shah

, who is a thoroughbred Hyderabadi. When Jignya first came here, she could not imagine what she would do without her midnight sandwich from Manek Chowk or the Kesar mangoes that were the essence of summer in her childhood home of Ahmedabad. Hailing from a Jain family, she has never eaten onion or garlic, and loves her food tinged with sweetness. She wondered how she would cope with Hyderabad where onion is used as generously as the red chilli powder and where she could never get besan ki chutney (chickpea flour dipping sauce) with her fafda. “Aapko idli bina coconut chutney ke diye to kaisa lagega? (How would you feel if you were given idli without coconut chutney?)” she asks us, to clarify that besan ki chutney is as essential to the enjoyment of fafda as coconut chutney is to idli!

What started as a tumultuous relationship with Hyderabad, is now one of fondness for the culture and delight in the wonderful foods that this city offers. “What is your favourite thing to eat in Hyderabad?” we ask her, and pat comes the reply with no hesitation — “idli and chutney”.

Every weekend

Jignya and her family get idli-chutney from a street vendor in Nallagutta, the same place they have been going to for almost two decades. “Our weekends are not complete without idli for breakfast and dosa for lunch”, her daughter Anoli chimes in. Even in their weekday breakfasts, idli, dosa, and upma make regular appearances alongside the khakra, fafda and gathiya that are the more traditional Gujarati staples. “We will go mad if we don’t eat South Indian breakfasts three times a week”, she says.

The Shah family’s lunches have also been influenced by Hyderabad in that they now eat more rice than any of their relatives in Gujarat. “Jitna chawal hum ek meal mein khaate hain utna Gujarat mein teen din chalega (The quantity of rice we eat in one meal will last people three days in Gujarat)”, Jignya mentions with a giggle,
remembering how every time her family goes to Ahmedabad, her relatives ensure there is always a lot of rice made as part of lunch. As we talk about lunch, Jignya leads us to the kitchen where she is going to show us how to make khandvi (a Gujarati snack, served as bite-sized rolls) and handvo (a multigrain and vegetable savoury cake). We walk into her kitchen bathed in beautiful natural light, and she shows us all the pulses and grains that were soaked and ground together into a thick batter for the handvo. While Jignya stirs vegetables and spices into the batter, she reminisces about the first time she met her husband, Shreyas, while visiting her cousin here in Hyderabad. She shares shyly how he took her out shopping on his scooter even though it was not common in their families for young men and women to interact in this way. She recalls with fondness the lovely experience it was and how she knew then that this was the man she wanted to marry. They never discussed it with each other, but when the match was proposed by Jignya’s parents, Shreyas accepted immediately. “Ek din ke liye bhi nahi socha (He did not even take a day to think about it)”, she exclaims, still shocked that he knew with such certainty that they were meant to be together.

As my cynical heart melts into a puddle, Jignya has now moved on to greasing and flouring the special handvo cooker, which will have sand in the bottom of the container and the batter poured into ring mould and placed above the sand and covered to be cooked in the gentle heat released as the sand heats up. While we wait for the handvo to cook, we begin to prep for the khandvi and Jignya’s daughters open various boxes in the kitchen and have us sample homemade thepla and khakrathat are a revelation to our taste buds, which have been numbed by the insipid store-bought versions of these scrumptious snacks. They also introduce us to their treasure chest of jain masalas, everything from pasta and pizza seasoning to sizzler spices and even a masala for Maggi; all prepared without onion or garlic!

Jignya sets out a heavy aluminium pan on the stove and pours in the chickpea flour and buttermilk slurry that will become the khandvi. For the next 20 minutes, she stirs the pot patiently with a whisk to prevent lumps from forming, and won’t allow us to take over despite our persistent requests to let us lend a hand. It’s a process that requires care and attention to detail, and we haven’t done enough to be worthy of her trust just yet. There is a steady rhythmic clinking of the whisk against the pan as Jignya stirs and we take the conversation back to her early days in Hyderabad and the places here that made her feel at home. She speaks fondly of Asrani Hotel on MG Road, which was one of the only places to serve Jain food in the early 90s; she mentions Mamta Sweet house in Sindhi colony where her favourite snacks are made fresh every Sunday, and the canteen in the

Kulpakji

temple in Aler that makes a karampodi (spiced lentil powder) without onion and garlic. Karampodi holds a special pride of place on the Shah family dining table. Shreyas says his comfort meal is plain rice, ghee and karampodi and on some days when nothing else will do! The spicy, tangy lentil powder is so beloved by the entire family that instead of chunda (sweet mango pickle), which is the traditional accompaniment to the handvo, we are presented with a small cup of karampodi with a generous spoonful of ghee drizzled over it. “Bhook lagi hai? (Hungry?)”, Jignya asks as the khandvi batter has now thickened to her satisfaction and she ladles it carefully on greased steel plates, lets it set for a few minutes and skillfully rolls the set batter into glossy rolls! We cut these rolls into bite sized pieces and arrange them in tight concentric circles, ready to be showered with a tempering of mustard and sesame seeds and sprinkled with chilli powder. We can hardly wait to seat ourselves at the table, before we reach out and grab some khandvi to pop into our mouths greedily. The luscious silkiness of the rolls perfectly complements the crunch of the sesame seeds and the gentle chilli hit. As we devour our wedges of handvo dunked in the karampodi and ghee, we revel in the textural party that this deceptively simple dish brings to our palates. Crunchy, soft, nutty, tangy; the handvo has it all.

We round off our meal with a bowl of curd rice and chilled mango custard made with Jignya’s favourite Kesar mangoes. As we are about to sink into a food coma Shreyas reminisces about his first home in Hyderabad; Laxmi Building in Ramgopalpet where families from different parts of India lived together and shared their culture and cuisine. It was here that he was introduced to delightful dishes from all their homes. “Everyone was so welcoming and made sure we never felt left out, it is this feeling that symbolised Hyderabad for me,” Shreyas says, and there could not have been a better way for us to end this delightful meal.

Handvo

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• ½ cup toor dal
• ¼ cup chana dal
• ¼ cup urad dal +1 tsp for tempering
• 7 tomatoes
• 4 green chillies
• 2 inch piece ginger
• 1 cup boiled vegetables
• (carrot, beans, peas, sweetcorn)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 10 curry leaves
• 1 pinch asafoetida
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt and sugar, to taste

Method:

• Prepare the batter by soaking the pulses and rice for an hour and then grinding them together. The batter should be thick
• Grind the tomatoes, green chillies, ginger and add this paste to the batter. At this stage you can also add a few spoons of curd, if your batter is too thick
• Now add boiled vegetables, season with salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala and sugar.
• Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard, sesame seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and asafoetida
• and pour this into the batter
• and mix well
• Grease the dish you will be cooking the handvo in and transfer the batter into it and cook on a low flame for about 40 minutes.
• If using the oven, grease and flour a bundt pan, spoon the batter into it and cook at 170 degrees for 40 minutes.
• In both cooking methods, test with a skewer. if it comes out clean, it is ready.

Khandvi

Ingredients

• 1 cup besan (chickpea flour)
• 7 cups buttermilk
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp oil
• 1 pinch asafoetida
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• Salt, to taste

Method:

• Make a smooth paste out of the besan, turmeric, asafoetida and half the buttermilk. There should be no lumps in the paste
• Now, gently heat up the remaining buttermilk just till it is warm in a heavy-bottomed pan and pour in the paste. Stir continuously on a low flame to prevent lumps from forming
• As the flour cooks in the buttermilk it slowly starts bubbling, changes colour and acquires a sheen.
• Continue stirring for 15-20 minutes till the batter thickens. To test for readiness, dollop a spoon of the batter on a plate, let it rest for a minute or two and try rolling it. If it comes away from the plate cleanly then the batter is ready.
• Pour a small quantity on to a greased plate, smoothen out into a thin pancake that is translucent. Allow to cool and dry for a few minutes, then gently roll into tight rolls.
• Cut the rolls into bite sized pieces and arrange in a plate so that there is not gap between the pieces.
• Repeat the last two steps till all the batter is used up.
• Now heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds in it, then add the sesame seeds and gently pour this tempering over the rolls arranged in the plate.
• Finally sprinkle the chilli powder over the khandvi and its ready to serve.