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Jack of fruits
The delicious kathal ki dum ki kaleji is flaky and juicy at the same time  WE
have a friend in Lucknow, one Srivastava Sahib, who is very
fond of mimicking non-vegetarian delicacies with pure-veg ingredients.
He once treated us to a delectable shakahari kaleji fashioned
with kachnar ki kali. (Yes the same flower that is celebrated
in a Hindi film song that expresses yearning for ‘Kacchi kali
Kachnar ki!’ However, his friendship stopped far short of
sharing recipes. The gentleman puts to shame khandani bawarchi
when it comes to guarding ‘trade secrets’ and that’s the end of
that story.
This one we owe to our
beloved cousin Binu jijji — a fabulous cook — who prepared
for us kathal ki dum ki kaleji in Dehradun recently. We
returned to Delhi to discover that the kathal tree in the compound was
overladen with small tempting jackfruits. Passers by and neighbours
were eying them greedily and advising us to get rid of them before
they toughened so we decided to taste their succulence before any
sharing. This is when this recipe was tried out.
To be honest, Jijji’s
rendering is more seductive — flaky and juicy at the same time but
we are quite happy with the outcome. And, you don’t need`A0to have a
kathal tree within reach. Most grocers these days sell cleaned and cut
kathal saving you the trouble of oiling the palms and knife etc. Go
ahead and try this dum delight.
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Kathal
ki dum ki kaleji
Ingredients
 Kathal
(net weight after skinning and cutting) 250 g
Rice flour 2 tbsp
Onion
(medium-sized, sliced very fine) one
Garlic-ginger
paste 1 tsp
Cloves two
Cinnamon stick 1
inch
Brown cardamom one
Green cardamoms
two
Dhania powder 1
tsp
Jeera powder 1 tsp
Haldi powder ¼
tsp
Lal mirchi powder ¼
tsp
Dahi 2 tbsp
Oil ¼ cup
Salt to taste
Method
Cut kathal into cubes
resembling bite-sized chunks of kaleji. Wash and steam for about
20 minutes. Prepare a batter of rice flour with sufficient water
that isn’t too thick or watery. Coat the kathal pieces with
this. Heat oil in a pan and first put in the whole spices and
when these begin to change colour, put in the kathal cubes.
Stir-fry on medium high heat for about two minutes. Now add the
onions, garlic ginger paste and the powdered spices dissolved in
a little water to avoid burning along with the salt. Keep
stirring briskly and don’t let the garlic ginger paste stick
to bottom. Sprinkle a few drops of water if needed. Reduce heat
to low and slowly stir in the dahi. Cook covered on low heat for
about 15 minutes, or done to taste. Garnish with green chilli
and fresh hara dhania. Best with phulka but can be
relished as a satisfying snack also.
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