Grow local, eat local

F arm-to-fork maybe so 2016 in the world of culinary trends, but with entire cities running out of water, and food shortage soon to follow, it is the order of the day, for those who have access to fresh produce, grown nearby, and sourced locally.

A meal at a decadent Delhi farmhouse is usually known for throwing outlandish parties that make it to celebrity pages next day. So we were a bit surprised, since this was perhaps the first time someone had invited us over for a farm lunch on a winter afternoon. The catch? Everything on that table had been grown within the walls of the farm that supplied to the hotel.

A giant cart full of the farm produce was arranged on the side — for clever photo ops in our pictures-or-it-didn’t-happen times. The Rajokri Farmhouse produces cauliflowers, greens and a variety of radishes all of which spilt out from the cart, freshly plucked from the lands behind us. We live in the technological age, where genetically modified vegetables do not raise eyebrows anymore, and simple country pleasures have indeed become a luxury. This meal was however, an occasion to live in the ‘good old days’ of slow food, served right from the fields behind our white linen covered lunch table, and cooked on a simmering clay oven in front of us. Eating local and seasonal is an essential part of responsible luxury, after all. For company, there were media persons from all around the world who were taking part in an event organised by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The farm, where we had assembled, had coconut water on the ready. We sipped on coconut water as our guide for the evening, food historian Pushpesh Pant, held forth on the many advantages of eating local and seasonal. The lunch, as we waited for the rest of the party to arrive, began with fritters made of the agastya flower. A flower considered important by practisers of Ayurveda, it is named after a star, its namesake, and thrives in winter. Mirch ke pakode, a local delicacy, was served with mooli and akhrot ki chutney, a popular Kashmiri recipe. Flowers are a strong culinary trend in 2018, and many traditional Indian recipes use flowers in a variety of ways. Agastya flowers are a common side in Bengali cuisine.

Once all guests had arrived, fresh cauliflower from the field behind us that had been pureed and coaxed into a most delicious soup was served in beautiful shallow bowls, providing essential warmth on a cloudy day with feeble sunlight.

The table had been decorated with baby methi , growing out of miniature pots, with leaves so tiny that some mistook it for watercress.

Mains arrived in beautiful brass thalis: brass is considered a good metal to serve food in.

The dishes enticing me included: cauliflower keema - I was informed by the good chef that keema meant mince, not necessarily of meat and dal, cooked laboriously over coal till it had yielded its richness to the dish. Khichda , a local delicacy, had been cooked without salt throughout the night (a variant of khichdi , a mix of rice and lentils, it is cooked over coal embers). Salt is added to the dish later, to avoid the release of water when cooked together.

Eggplant was served two ways: with curd , and fried in roundels, with a bit of mustard raita , a fusion of Kumaoni and Bengali cuisine. Purple carrots were roasted in ghee till tender. Rotis were aplenty and varied, there was besan and sarson ki roti , bajra and methi rotis , apart from the regular ones.

Accompaniments to the meal were as appealing as the mains. The salad on the side, a customary concept in Indian thalis, as opposed to the course-by-course routine in which Western meals are served, had black radish, cherry tomato and garden greens, in a pomegranate jus. The achaars , kept on the table in glass jars, were covered in muslin cloth.

There was amla , mooli , safed haldi (or amba haldi ) and mirchi ka achaar to choose from. The meal ended with thin jalebis, doused in a good helping of rabri, a seasonal favourite. Masala chai with jaggery, and fan, a locally-made biscuit that’s usually an accompaniment with chai, rounded up the lovely afternoon.

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