Foraging: Amarnath yatra

Foraging is a new concept that has taken the culinary world by storm. And it’s not surprising as this is all about utilising the locally available resources and that too in that particular time and season. These humble ingredients when combined with the creativity of the chef can lead to amazing results. Chef Rene Rezdepi’s Noma restaurant, Magnus Nilsson of Faviken, Ben Shewry’s Attica — all of them have been proving the point.

However, foraging is nothing new to our country. My first conscious contact with it happened long ago, when I was in my culinary college and had come home for a vacation. I come from Jharkhand, a place of tribal culture that is deeply rooted in nature and seasons. As it happens during those short vacations, we all travel around to meet our relatives and attend social functions.

In a similar situation, I happened to go to Purulia, a small town in West Bengal, and on my way I happened to see tribal women picking up some leafy vegetable from their well-kept backyards. I saw the same activity more than twice at different places and it had me wondering — what are they plucking? Is it safe to just pluck anything that grows in the wild and eat it?

On reaching my destination, I checked with my aunt and was told the leafy vegetable is wild amaranth, a very close cousin of the chaulai. The only difference was that it had slightly shorter leaves and the plant was little more sturdy with green leaves instead of purple.

On checking about the preparations made using the wild amaranth, a list of dishes came up — it could be simply sautéed with garlic and mustard oil to make bhaji, cut and simmered with lentils to make dal, or cooked with other vegetables to make curry etc.

But my real adventure started with the vegetable when I found it growing in the backyard of my restaurant. Finding this vegetable gave me mixed feelings, as I was confused about the use of the same in a professional restaurant. Nevertheless, we harvested the entire plant, along with the thick woody stalk, and brought it in the kitchen. As we did not have much reference point to start with, we decided to treat it like spinach.

Another thing that we did to it was to blanch it and deep fry it. We also separated the tiny seeds and tried popping it. Not all the results were satisfactory but it definitely gave us a new insight about our abilities, the nature of wild amaranth and the possibilities associated with it.

The writer is a chef at Dramz Whisky Bar and Lounge, Qutub-Mehrauli

Sea bass with pureed wild amaranth

Ingredients

• Sea bass whole with skin 800 gm
• Sea salt 5 gm
• Chopped garlic 30 gm
• Vegetable oil 50 ml

Method

• Marinate the sea bass whole with sea salt, chopped garlic and vegetable oil and leave in the refrigerator for an hour.
• Heat a heavy bottom cast iron pan and put the fish in it. The skin side has to be cooked first.
• Lower the heat and let the fish get cooked slowly. This will make the skin crisp.
• After five minutes, shake the pan gently, if the skin has cooked, it will leave the pan easily.
• Once the side skin is cooked, flip the fish gently with the spatula and cook the other side.
• Check for the doneness of the fish. It should have a crisp skin and should have been cooked but should not get dry at all.

AMARANTH PUREE
Ingredients

• One onion, finely sliced
• Garlic chopped 10 gm
• Wild amaranth leaves, washed and chopped 700 gm
• Vegetable oil 70 gm
• Table salt 2 gm
• Green chilli, finely chopped 10 gm
• Thyme leaves 2 gm

Method

• Heat a pan and add vegetable oil to it. Once the oil is hot, add garlic and onion and sauté for a minute.
• Add green chilli, thyme and chopped amaranth leaves. Lower the heat.
• The amaranth leaves will start releasing moisture. Let the leaves cook in the same liquid.
• Once the leaves are cooked, which takes 10-15 minutes; take the pan off the flame.
• Let the cooked amaranth cool down; then make a fine puree of it and pass through a fine strainer.
• This should result in a very fine paste with consistency of a sauce. It can be thinned down with water or if it’s too thin then can be cooked further to adjust the consistency.
• Season with salt.

ASSEMBLY

• On a plate, spoon the hot wild amaranth puree.
• Place the fish skin side up, sprinkle some sea salt and it’s ready to be served.

Chicken stew with amaranth stalks and vegetables

Ingredients

• Olive oil 75 ml
• Mild red chilli powder 5 gm
• Salt to taste
• Onion cut into big dices
• Two carrots cut into big dices
• Garlic whole 10 cloves
• Tomato cut into big dices 1
• Amaranth stalks/stems (cut 3 cm in length) 100 gm
• Peppercorn whole 2 gm
• Chicken stock 700 ml
• Cloves 5
• Boneless leg of chicken, cubed 600 gm
• Tomato paste 100 gm
• Fresh chives (chopped) 20 gm

Method

• Marinate the chicken cubes in olive oil, salt, red chilli powder and tomato paste for two hours.
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and sauté the marinated chicken in it. Take it out and keep reserved.
• In the same pan, sauté onions, carrot, amaranth stalk, tomatoes and garlic cloves for five minutes.
• Add the sautéed chicken to the pot and add the chicken stock to it. Bring the pot to a boil and skim off all the froth from the surface.
• Keep simmering it for another twenty minutes and check if chicken cubes are cooked properly or not. Once done, check the seasoning and take it off the flame. Add chopped chives and serve the stew with toasted bread or rice.