It all started with me planning to go and see the Valley of Flowers. Located in Uttarakhand, it is known for its beautiful fauna and flora. I was first introduced to this valley about four years ago, as lots of my fellow chefs hailed from this region. I must admit that the inhabitants of the valley are talented, hardworking and beautiful.
On my way to the valley, I realised that I had underestimated the region completely. It was even more beautiful than what I had visualised and even more challenging than I had thought.
Narrow roadways overlooking deep and steep trenches, landslides, rains and unplanned halts made the trip adventurous, exciting and memorable.
It got extended way beyond my imagination and schedule because of the rains and frequent landslides. I had no choice but to spend a night in a village with the locals.
I was tired, hungry and frustrated, and what I got to eat was some kind of cereal, which was very similar to broken rice, along with some spiced lentils.
I instantly fell in love with sightly coarse yet gooey texture of the cereal and its nutty taste. I learnt that the cereal is locally called mundwa or popularly known as the Himalayan millet or the barnyard millet. It is grown in the Shivaliks and it’s a staple of people there.
The real fun started when my team and I decided to use it in our kitchen. We checked its flavour profile, cooking methods and other ingredients that could go well with it and came up with some innovative dishes using the millet.
The writer is a chef at Dramz Whisky Bar and Lounge, Mehrauli
Himalayan millet, Bamboo rice and sticky rice pudding
The addition of Himalayan millets gives this dish the desired nutty flavour and an aftertaste. The taste of burnt sugar and reduced milk goes well with the taste of millets.
Ingredients
- Bamboo rice, soaked in water for 2 and 1/2 hours
- Himalayan millet 50 gm
- Sticky rice 30 gm
- One vanilla bean, scraped
- Toned milk 1.25 litre
- Condensed milk 30 gm
- Heavy cream 400 ml
- Brown sugar 50 gm
Method
- In a heavy bottom pan, boil bamboo rice and sticky rice in toned milk for 20 minutes.
- Once it has become soft, blend it for 30 seconds with a hand blender. This is to break the rice and to give a fuller texture to the pudding.
- To this, add the Himalayan millet and scrapings of the vanilla bean and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Now, add condensed milk and cream to the above mixture. Cook till it becomes thick. To check, see if the liquid coats the back of the spoon evenly or not.
- Take it off the heat and leave in the refrigerator to chill.
- Brown sugar will be used at a later stage.
TART SHELL FOR THE PUDDING
- Refined flour 300 gm
- Icing sugar 100 gm
- Butter 200 gm
- Two beaten eggs
- Kidney beans 50 gm
Method
- Cream butter, sugar and egg together.
- Sift in the flour to it, knead briefly so that it becomes a cohesive mass.
- Leave in the refrigerator to chill for two hours.
- Take it out from the refrigerator and roll into thin sheets.
- Line tart moulds of your choice and insert the sheets properly. Once the tart moulds are lined, keep them for chilling once again for an hour.
- Take out the moulds and line it with aluminium foil. Pour in some kidney beans in the tart moulds and bake in the oven at 180ºC for 15 minutes. The beans are used for putting pressure on the moulds. This helps in maintaining the shape of the tart.
- Remove the kidney beans and the aluminium foil and bake it for another five minutes at the same temperature. The tart mould should get a nice golden colour, that’s the key.
- Remove the tarts from the mould and allow them to cool at room temperature.
Assembly
- Take out the rice and millet pudding from the refrigerator and fill it in the tart moulds.
- Even out the surface with a palate knife.
- Sprinkle brown sugar on top and caramelise the sugar with a blow torch.
- It’s ready to be served.
Stewed lamb with root vegetables and Himalayan Millet
This is a hearty dish, which takes its own sweet time before it is ready to be served. It is often served as a one-pot meal. The presence of the millets breaks the monotony of the dish, gives additional texture and eliminates the need of any other accompaniment like rice or bread with the dish.
Ingredients
- Olive oil 75 ml
- Mild red chilli powder 5 gm
- Salt to taste
- Two onions cut into big dices
- Two carrots cut into big dices
- Garlic 10 cloves (whole)
- One turnip, cut into big dices
- Himalayan millet 50 gm
- Peppercorn 2 gm (whole)
- Lamb stock 700 ml
- Cloves 5
- Boneless leg of lamb, cubed 600 gm
- Tomato paste 100 gm
- Fresh cilantro, roughly chopped 20 gm
Method
- Make a marinade by mixing together olive oil, chilli powder, salt, clove and peppercorn. Marinate the lamb cubes and leave in a refrigerator for 3 hours.
- In a heavy bottom pan, heat 50 ml of olive oil and put 1/3rd of the marinated lamb. Keep cooking till the lamb cubes turn brown. Keep the browned lamb aside. Similarly, to the oil in the pan add and cook till browned the remaining marinated lamb in two batches, and keep aside.
- In the same pan, sauté onions, carrot, turnip and garlic cloves for 5 minutes.
- Add tomato paste to it and cook for additional 5 minutes.
- Add the browned lamb to the pot and add the lamb stock to it.
- Stir in the Himalayan millets now and bring everything to a boil. Let it simmer and skim off all the froth.
- Keep simmering it for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours and check the lamb for softness. If the lamb is not tender enough, then simmer till it becomes tender.
- Once done, check the seasonings and take it off the flame. Add the chopped cilantro and serve.
