City Food – Julia Child Cooks Litti Chokha in Mayur Vihar-I

The great chef’s life in Delhi.

[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Meet the Julia Child of Mayur Vihar, Phase-I, a neighborhood near Akshardham Temple in east Delhi. A graduate in science from Bihar’s Ranchi Women’s College, Ms Child came to Delhi in 1982 following her marriage to Madhurendra Prasad Sinha, a journalist. For three years, the couple lived in a one-room apartment in Malviya Nagar, south Delhi. It was through her husband’s books that Ms Child was introduced to Russian authors such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Maxim Gorky. After the family increased and she moved across the Yamuna to a duplex apartment, her present house, Ms Child discovered children’s writer Enid Blyton – in the bookshelf of her daughters, Nimisha and Namya. “My daughters are caring,” she told The Delhi Walla. “One morning my younger one spotted an injured hariyal (yellow-footed green pigeon) on the pavement. She immediately carried it to the bird’s hospital in Chandni Chowk.” Mother-like to Romeo, the family’s three-year-old golden retriever, Ms Child is currently reading Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. And yes, she cooks. Here is the recipe of her ‘litti chokha’.

Living away from Bihar for so many years, I rarely speak in Magahi, my region’s dialect. The daughters grew up in Delhi and they talk in Hindi and English. But the family remains wedded to its traditions – on the dining table. I make litti chokha at least once a month in summer and every week in winter. If Bihar were a country, this two-dish combination would be its national food. Originating as a cheap meal for travellers, it can be rustled up quickly. Cooking it is an excuse to connect to Bihar.

Litti

½ kg atta flour
½ kg sattu (flour made of roasted chickpeas)
1tbsp carom seeds
1tbsp black salt
Salt to taste
Chopped green chillies (optional)
I ginger root, peeled and sliced into julienne pieces
2 whole garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp coriander leaves
250 gm ghee
½ tea cup water

Pour sattu flour in a bowl. Put in all ingredients – except atta – into the bowl and mix. Add enough water to make the mixture just sticky. Cover the bowl with a lid and keep it aside. Pour atta on a platter, add 1 tbsp ghee and knead a firm dough. Make thick round patties from the dough. Press each patty at its center to make a deep depression. Scoop in the sattu mixture and seal it by pressing in the dough. Cook the patties in the tandoor, or bake them in the oven (200 degree Celsius for 45 minutes) till golden brown. Heat ghee in karahi. Dip litti in ghee before serving. (Since it is very crumbly inside, you may break each itti in halves and add more ghee.)

Chokha

½ kg aubergines
250 gm tomatoes
250 gm potatoes
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
Chopped green chillies (optional)
Salt to taste
1tbsp mustard oil
4-5 garlic cloves
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Boil potatoes. Roast them straight on the flame, one at a time. Remove the potato from the burner when its skin starts to turn black and crackle. Repeat the process with aubergines and tomatoes, except you don’t have to boil them. Just one twist before you roast aubergines: use knife to make half a dozen slits into each aubergine, and stuff the slits with garlic cloves. Once the roasted vegetables have cooled, peel off the skin and mash their flesh together. Use your hand. Add the rest of the ingredients, including oil. Mix well. Serve with litti.

Julia’s empire