Gamda nu khavaanu

I seldom hesitate in telling people of the non-Indian credentials of the Chicken Tikka Masala or the Balti. Indian food is more than that. It's about marrying countless spices in accordance to timeless recipes, about impart flavours through patience and pain. It's about serving up rich portions of food in generous proportions. Food fit for kings. Or is it?

These ideas of extravagance are most certainly not false. But, there is another India. If Indian food is what most Indians eat on a daily basis then this is it.

I have been working on 'The Land' for the past few days, coming home in the afternoon for lunch, and to get out of the blistering mid-day sun. Its been a while since I ate there, with the care-taker and his wife, and some good gamda nu khavaanu (village food in Gujarati) was long over due. Cooking in rural India is no easy feat. The wood has to be foraged and prepared, the fire tended to with great care and, in the case of dinner, the setting sun to race.

Sunita cooking the potatoes and eggplant

The village spread

The food can best be described as functional. Wheat is not on the menu of most rural households. Coarse grain such as corn, jowar (sorghum) and bajra (pearl millet) are the order of the day and the bread is unlike the rotis or the naans served up in restaurants. The 'roti' (called rotla in Gujarati when made from these coarse grain) are heafty, dense and on most occasions eaten cold. They taste great hot with some melted butter on the top but labourers working in the farms do not have that luxury, and nor did I.

The bajra was cultivated on The Land itself and the veg was picked from neighbouring farms. Debts are settled in kind. The eggplant was paid for in grass for the farmers buffalo. I think the potatoes were too. It's all done on good faith. That afternoon only a handful of ingredients went into everything. Garlic, chilli, turmeric, and salt and lots of oil. Without non-stick cookware the copious amounts of oil is a necessity. The oil also helps prevent the food  drying up as left overs are consumed at the next meal and are stored in a cool place without refrigeration.

This is great food. Hardy and whole. Only one complaint though. No meat?