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Learn Bhatia cooking

Bhatia cooks have always learnt by watching. This path puts it in order, from the everyday meal to festival sweets: cook each dish, tick it off, and learn the kitchen’s own word for each skill as you go.

Kaabil bano, kaamyabi jhak maar ke peeche aayegi.

The path

Start with the first dish: Choka. Tick each dish off when you’ve cooked it.

  1. Stage 1

    The everyday meal

    Choka, a poath, a dry saag and phulko. Cook these four and you can put a whole everyday Bhatia meal on the table.

    0 of 4 cooked

    1. ChokaPlain boiled riceYou’ll learn: Cooking choka, Boil, then simmer
    2. Tuvar ji PoathPigeon pea (toor dal) curryYou’ll learn: Dals and pulses, Vaghar, Sour and sweet
    3. SaluraSpiced dry potato vegetableYou’ll learn: Vaghar
    4. PhulkoEveryday puffed whole-wheat flatbreadYou’ll learn: Kneading dough, Rolling, Roasting on the tawa

  2. Stage 2

    Sakhree classics

    Khichadi, maghamethi, and kadi with tuk: the lunches Bhatia homes are known for. Kadi needs planning: the grams soak overnight.

    0 of 4 cooked

    1. Naram KhichadiSoft rice & split green gram porridgeYou’ll learn: Dals and pulses, Vaghar, Boil, then simmer
    2. MaghamethiWhole green gram & fenugreek curryYou’ll learn: Dals and pulses, Sour and sweet
    3. KadiThathai Bhatia vegetable curryYou’ll learn: Thickening with besan, Boil, then simmer, Sour and sweet
    4. TukDouble-fried potatoes (Batatay ja Tuk)You’ll learn: Frying

  3. Stage 3

    Dinner saags

    The lighter evening meal: vegetables tempered and cooked dry, cooked under a plate of water, or roasted on the tawa or over the flame.

    0 of 4 cooked

    1. Pan Gobi jo SaagDry cabbage vegetableYou’ll learn: Vaghar
    2. Methi Batatay jo SaagFenugreek with potatoYou’ll learn: Vaghar, Sour and sweet
    3. Bhindan jo SaagOkra with potatoesYou’ll learn: Cooking under a plate of water, Boil, then simmer
    4. Vanghar jo BhartoSmoked aubergine mashYou’ll learn: Roasting on the tawa

  4. Stage 4

    Nashto and breads

    Thepla and koki on the tawa, puris that puff in hot oil, and dhokra steamed from a batter fermented overnight.

    0 of 4 cooked

    1. TheplaThin spiced fenugreek flatbreadYou’ll learn: Kneading dough, Rolling, Roasting on the tawa
    2. KokiThick, slow-cooked ghee unleavened breadYou’ll learn: Kneading dough, Roasting on the tawa
    3. PuriPlain whole-wheat puri, deep-friedYou’ll learn: Rolling, Frying
    4. DhokraSteamed rice and lentil cakesYou’ll learn: Steaming, Vaghar

  5. Stage 5

    Sweets and festival food

    Roasting flour in ghee and getting the syrup right: the two skills behind most Bhatia sweets.

    0 of 4 cooked

    1. ChurmoRoasted wheat-flour sweetYou’ll learn: Roasting flour in ghee
    2. Aatey jo SeeroWheat flour puddingYou’ll learn: Roasting flour in ghee
    3. MohanthalRoasted gram flour fudge (Mohan Thal)You’ll learn: Roasting flour in ghee, Sugar syrup
    4. Boondi ja LadooSweet gram flour dumpling ballsYou’ll learn: Frying, Sugar syrup

Kitchen skills

The Bhatia kitchen has a word for each of its skills. Each lesson has the steps, how to tell it’s right, and the recipes that use it.

Andaz and measuresAndaz · measuring by eyeHeaped spoons and brim-full cups: how the recipes here measure.VagharVagharnu · temperingSpices sizzled in hot ghee or oil: how almost every savoury dish begins.Cooking chokaChoka · plain riceSoaked, boiled and drained, then finished on the tawa with ghee.Dals and pulsesVilowrunoo · churningSoak, cook until soft, then mash or churn to the right texture.Kneading doughMoar · fat rubbed into the flourSemi-soft dough for phulko, firm dough for koki, and what moar does.RollingVaylaroo · rollingEven discs on the chaklo: what makes a phulko puff.Roasting on the tawaSekaru · roastingBreads on the hot tawa, puffed over the flame; aubergines charred for bharto.Boil, then simmerVisamaru · simmering on slow heatBoil hard, cook steadily, then finish slowly with the pot on a tawa.Thickening with besanMay’r · thickening pasteA thin paste of besan and water that gives the lunch curries body.Cooking under a plate of waterSeejairu · inverse steamingDry vegetables cooked gently under a thali of water.SteamingBafaru · steamingCooking over boiling water: dhokra and muthia.FryingTaranu · fryingHot enough to puff, slow enough to cook through.Roasting flour in gheeSekaru · roastingStir, scrape and watch the colour: the start of churmo, seero and mohanthal.Sugar syrupEk tar, bha tar · one-string, two-stringThe finger-and-thumb test for one-, two- and three-string syrup.Sour and sweetKhatto · sourKokum, tamarind, ambeli and amchur, balanced with a little jaggery.