Colours of flavours

Holi, the festival of colours, is almost at our doors and it is natural for our thoughts to turn to foods that are associated with this festival.

For most of the revelers, the major culinary attraction on this day is gujia alogn with thandai. Gujia are crescent shaped pastries packed with milky sweetness of mawa (enriched with raisins and nuts); those who prefer a lighter sweet, use desiccated coconut and suji filling. To wash down the gujia and other savouries is thandai, milk thickened with almond paste, sultanas, ground melon seeds and enriched with cardamom, saffron and pistachio slivers.

There are some for whom the real thandai must be laced with a good dose of bhaang. But let us not get distracted. We were struck dumb recently when a foreigner friend asked us, “You call this a festival of colours but then why is all food prepared and served on this day lacking in colours?”

We could only mumble that after frolicking with abeer and gulal, we do eat yellow kadhi with chawal with a splash of red or green contributed by pickles or chutney. We knew this was a feeble response. Ever since, we have been busy thinking about the colours of food in Indian cuisines.

Our everyday thali at home is never monochromatic. Different katories represent colours from green to red and brown, yellow and white. Green leafy vegetable, lentils and seasonal vegetables, like carrots and brinjals, of different hues, delight the eye. It is surprising that people have not experimented with colours for a holi meal. The only reason we can think of is that holi is a boisterous festival and one is not inclined to labour in the kitchen for long hours composing a platter mimicking the rainbow.

The bawarchis of Awadh were adept at creating delicacies that pleasantly surprise their patrons and guests. They had improvised on the pulav theme by unveiling a Sheehranga Pulav were the grains of rice were naturally coloured — green, yellow, pink and orange with natural edible ingredients commonly used.

The colouring agents were saffron/turmeric, spinach, beetroot, carrots/tomatoes, etc. when the deg was uncovered one could see the ‘discs’ divided like segments in a pie, each reflecting a different colour. The art was to not let the colours mingle, each spoonful registering a different flavour on the palate. For us this was a much more delicate performance of virtuosity in the kitchen then dishing out multi-coloured biryani tinted (tainted?) with artificial colours, even if edible.

What we invite our dear readers to do is to treat family and friends to a simpler version of this Awadhi classic. The cheat sheet allows using moulds and partitions in the of the pot middle to offer a multi-colour pulav. The challenge still remains to cook small portions of differently coloured rice imbued with the flavour of colourful ingredients — turmeric beetroot, spinach/ coriander/green chilies — are not too difficult to manage and master. Creativity and skill are tested in spicing that matches the colour. In the end, do not forget the white!

If you are not inclined to exert even this much, you may use a rice cooker to cook the rice and then divide it into equal portions, place in separate bowls, mix with different hued purees, season them separately before reassembling in serving a deg with edible partitions of paparh!