The Indian subcontinent · Volume 15, The Trami, the Boti and a Kitchen Split Three Ways
Nadru yakhni
Kashmir Valley, Kashmiri Pandit tradition
Illustration
- Time
- 40 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 145 sources in the brief
A Kashmiri Pandit dish built from lotus stem, described by several sources as unusually plain even by Pandit standards, made without onion, garlic, gram flour or cashew, which makes it a clean demonstration of rung two above.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 400 g lotus stem (nadru), peeled and sliced into rounds
- 300 g yoghurt
- 150 ml water
- 2 tbsp mustard oil
- a pinch asafoetida (hing), a pinch
- 1 tsp sonth (dried ginger powder)
- 1 tsp ground fennel
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1 bay leaf
- to taste salt
Method
- Parboil the lotus stem for 10 minutes until just tender, then drain.
- Whisk the yoghurt smooth with the water.
- Warm the mustard oil in a pan, add the asafoetida, sonth, ground fennel, cardamom and bay leaf, then add the lotus stem and stir briefly.
- Add the whisked yoghurt gradually, a spoonful at a time, stirring continuously over low heat so it does not split.
- Simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until the gravy thickens and the lotus stem is fully tender.
- Season with salt and serve with plain rice.
What a modern chef changes
A frozen-lotus workaround, a sous vide gravy and a fennel oil
Builds on rung 2
Method
- Use frozen lotus root where fresh is unavailable. Frozen sliced lotus root from a Southeast Asian grocer, rather than an Indian one, is the honest sourcing route this chapter found, a real, usable substitute rather than a compromise, since lotus stem's crunch survives freezing well.
- Hold the gravy sous vide. Keep the yoghurt gravy in a sous vide bath at a fixed low temperature while it is whisked in, for a more reliable emulsion than an open flame gives.
- Blend the aromatics to a paste. Blend the fennel and asafoetida into a fine paste in a high-power blender before it goes into the pan, releasing more of their aromatic oil than whole or roughly ground spice would.
- Finish with a fennel oil. Dry fennel seed in a dehydrator, grind it fresh and infuse it briefly in warm mustard oil, drizzled over at the table.