Culinary Chronicles
By Yasmin Rahul Bakshi
“Try once at least, they taste quite similar to asparagus,” said my father.
After residing for decades in the highlands and with versatile palates, my parents also adapted to the local gastronomic traditions. Mussoorie has been a town woven from a rich tapestry of cultures – “Pahadi, Baniya / Marwari, Punjabi et cetera” with an influence of the British, American and Tibetan.
The sight of fiddle head ferns or ”linguda” as termed in the local vernacular on the vegetable stands was uninviting. Reminded me of the serpentine coils. A wild imaginative leap of a child from a modest plant to a lurking predator!
They were often presented on our dining table during the summer months in the regional style. While the curled ferns were the lone exception for me to my household’s strict culinary mandate, I was permitted to refuse.
It wasn’t until I grew up and finally tasted them on my father’s insistence that I realised I had been avoiding a true delicacy. Immediately, I offered a spoonful to my daughter while withholding the name of the ingredient.
Instantly she developed a liking for “linguda” to the extent that when she visited her grandparents from her boarding at Woodstock School on any weekend, she specifically requested the same.
My mother maintained a frozen reserve of “linguda” with a tempering of the “jakhiya” (wild mustard) ensuring the delicacy remained available for my daughter even when they were out of season. She mandatorily incorporated curd while cooking to balance the vegetable’s tannins and cut through the bitter after taste.
During my recent journey to the Dhauladhar mountains, I spotted these with a roadside vendor and bought a kilo of them to anchor a classic Himalayan meal of “gahat ki dal, pahadi raita and Kumaoni bada.”
Perhaps a culinary treasure I once overlooked, now eventually cherished.
Ingredients:
- Linguda – ½ kg
- Curd – ½ cup (whipped)
- Mustard oil – 3 Tbsp
- Jakhia – ½ tsp
- Asafoetida – 2 pinch
- Onions – 1 (finely chopped)
- Tomatoes – 2 medium sized (finely chopped)
- Garlic – 1 tsp (chopped)
- Salt – according to taste
- Red chili powder – ½ tsp
- Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Method:
- Wash the linguda and scrape off its hair with a knife.
- Cut them into ½ inch pieces.
- Heat the mustard oil in a pan. Add the jakhiya and asafoetida.
- Now add the chopped garlic and onions and sauté until golden.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and saute until they get tender.
- Mix well.
- Now add the whipped curd. Stir well.
- Add the chopped linguda.
- Add the salt, red chili powder and turmeric powder. Mix well.
- Cover and cook on slow flame until tender yet firm.
(Yasmin Rahul Bakshi is an accomplished senior consultant Chef and a food historian. A widely travelled Army wife from the Mussoorie hills with exposure to international cuisines & preserving recipes with the medium of food photography and digital content creation in the form of stories.)
