Food Travel in Himachal Pradesh:
Upon setting foot in Shoghi, a little Suburb in Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), a thick blanket of trees surrounded me. It was an early January morning and colourful houses nestled amongst the hills were still covered in deep mist, even though the sun had shone its first rays.
I was observing this view from the window of one of those houses on the hills. In this tiny suburb, I chose to stay at a village homestay, to make my cooking experience more local and authentic.
Himachal Pradesh is a cold place year-round. All I could see around me were mountains and forests that make up most of the ground in the state; and then I observed that lifestyle of the people here is of course altered to the colds – be it warm clothes, or their warm dishes to keep one cozy during winters.
I noticed that most households there have grown their own vegetables and spices around their houses. That’s the reason why the ground in and around the village is full of plants with spices and lentils like red chili and red beans.
To start the day, my host (owner of the house), lit up the angeethi. Angeethi is a traditional stove made of mud that is used for cooking with coals. We started off to prepare one of the primary winter dishes in the hills – Sidu Bread. One of the villagers told me that though Sidu Bread can be consumed throughout the year, in Shoghi (and of course other areas in the state), it is especially savoured during special occasions, festivals and in winters to keep the body warm.
The main ingredients of the dish are fermented bread, ghee (clarified butter) and spices; and making it is short and easy. First, we knead soft dough adding dried yeast and warm water in plain flour. For the filling, we used ghee, onions, khus khus (poppy seeds) and spices like cumin and coriander powder. The stuffed balls are then put on direct flame and then steamed.
My host told me that though she prefers stuffing the bread with only these fillings, people also fill dry fruits and/or pulses right in the middle.
The best part about these bread balls is that they are dunked in ghee before being eaten, and are usually accompanied with rice, gur (jaggery) and ghee (clarified butter), which are traditionally consumed in hilly Indian villages before a meal.
“Don’t worry, this dish is heavy but easy to digest”, jokingly said a member of the family as I sat down to eat. Indeed, the dish might be made with ample of ingredients, but poppy seeds and jaggery help to easily digest it.
The one thing I observed about the cooking style in this part of the Indian hills is that most dishes have a dominant sweet or sweet-sour taste (made sweet with using jaggery and/or tamarind), which are used intensively in local food preparations.
We enjoyed our first meal in the village sitting on the grass, outside the house, with the views of mountains around us. Though the ingredients were not very different from those we use while cooking in our urban houses, the angeethi and home-grown spices gave the dish a refreshing and unique taste.
