Warm up to these

Amidst the sev-sprinkled savouries that we call 'chaat', lies daulat ki chaat – a milk-based dessert with a cloud-like texture. Years before the likes of Heston Blumenthal made it fashionable to spoon on edible air, pots of daulat ki chaat have been churned on the streets of northern India.

Our first local experiment with molecular gastronomy, the technique of making this dessert is like poetry. Think of cold winter nights, possibly full moon evenings when milk is whisked with cream until it turns into a puff. The cloud is allowed to set with the help of morning dew and by dawn it is ready to be flavoured with saffron and savoured. Once in the mouth the wispy foam melts into nothingness leaving behind creamy overtones on the palate.

In puraani Delhi, the chaatwallas selling daulat make their appearance as soon as winter sets in. Today, due to refrigerators and ice blocks, the romance might have gone from its preperation, but it is very much a winter-time delight. Once reserved for aristocrats, daulat ki chaat is now sold at rickety khopchas in crowded, dusty streets of old Delhi and that's just one example of typical Indian winter fare.

An equivalent in Gujarat is oondhiyu. As nip begins to fill the air, pots and pots of oondhiyo are doled out by Suratis and Ahemdabadis in their backyards or terraces. For those unaware, oodhiyo is a hotch-potch of several winter vegetables such as papdi, purple yam, elephant yam, brinjal, raw banana and other ingredients cooked together with spices, abudant chillies, tender coconut and coriander.

"The word 'undhu' in Gujarati means reversed, which is how this dish is cooked," says Pinky Chandan Dixit, owner of Gujarati restaurant Soam. According to her, all the ingredients are mixed in an earthen pot, which is sealed and pushed inside a dug-up ground. Fire is lit on top of this and the oondhiyo is allowed bake inside this natural oven.
While within Gujarat, preparing oondhiyu in this style is a common, in Mumbai the dish is served in a no-fuss avatar with piping hot puris by several oondhiyu vendors. One such is Hiralal Kashidas Bhajiawala, a whole-in-the-wall eatery situated in the buzzing C.P tank area of Mumbai. The store is a show-stealer among the many versions available in the city, so much so that getting your hands on a kilo of this dish is a mean feat on Sunday mornings because of the serpentine queues outside their door.

"Our speciality is that we get all our ingredients fresh each day from Surat via Flying Rani. So everything from the kela to kand comes from the homes ground," says Gaurang Shah from the restaurant. Apart from authenticity, Shah says that his recipe has been consistent since the restaurant opened in 1936. "During peak season, we make up to 50-100 kilo on a single day and the dish is available only during these few cold months," he adds.

In northern Maharastra, a dish that holds similar prestige is bhaarit. "It is a version of baigan ka bharta – a mush of roasted brinjals spiced with ample garlic, green chillies and salt," says Hemlata Kolhe, owner of Hari Om Bharit Center, a popular restaurant in the Jalgoan district of Maharashtra. The restaurant specialises in bhaarit making and while they sell it throughout the year, Kolhe admits that winter's yield is the most potent as the quality of brinjals is the best.

Bhaarit is a dish that is commonly eaten during hurda parties, winter's family get togethers that happen on farms and involve a whole lot of bhaarit-eating along with other foods such as roasted corn, bajra and jowar kernels. Tradition-wise these soirees are similar to American barbeque parties, just that they happen only in winters.
For the Parsi community in India, vasaanu (also known as Parsi chyawanpransh) is winter's hero. "Made using more than 30 ingredients including lotus root, ginger, clove and some complex ones such as gokhuru, salampanja and nagkesar, vasanu is tedious to make. Therefore, many prefer buying it off the shelf from traditional Parsi stores," says Parsi food caterer and blogger Perzen Patel from www.bawibride.com. According to her vasaanu is eaten for it body warming properties and immunity building capability.

Apart from dishes, ingredients such as ponkh (sorghum), green garlic, amba haldi, turiya, red gajar and green garbanzo or hara chaana, ratadu or sweet potato are also at their peak during this time of the year. Consequently dishes made using them like turiya subji, paneer cholia (cottage cheese and hara chaana subji), green garlic chutney, ponkh bhel and gajar ka halwa also gain strength during the winter.

Inputs by Gargi Gupta; sonal.ved@dnaindia.net; @dna