In today's episode we bring you a soulful gastronomic experience from the village of Sariyana that is perched in the lap of the majestic mountains of Jaunsar Bawar region. After celebrating the Maroj festival in the village of Oli we reached this village. It is the native place of our host Khusboo Chauhan, who is a young and dynamic food blogger from this part of the state.
We arrived there late afternoon and received a hearty welcome from the Chauhan family. They are a big family who have gathered together for the Maroj festival. That evening they treated us to bhadyaien meat, churude, mosuwe and sur for snacks and roti, matar paneer, rajma, charbi wala moso and chopad for dinner. The most intriguing dishes in the above lot were the bhadyaien meat or the char grilled meat and charbi wala moso or no-oil, no onion-ginger-garlic mutton curry made of rendered goat fat. The food was rustic and soulful. It was followed by insightful and amusing conversations with the family members whose genial presence made us feel at home.
The following morning we the womenfolk- from kids to grannies - assembled in the huge kitchen space to oversee the food preparations for the day. At one end fresh butter was being churned out in the traditional manner while at the other just beside the woodfire oven rice flour and whole wheat flour dough were being kneaded to make an array of festive snacks. Peppered with laughter, general conversations and folk song the spirited ladies of the house doled out large batches of fascinating snacks like panwe, pinwe, misiyari poori, ulwe etc. The team effort made the task look effortless but it was not. Another fascinating thing was their incredible mastery in preparing these inviting fares.
Our favourite was the misiyari poori that was made with spiced horse gram mixture and walnuts based mixture. After that we joined the family in the courtyard to relish some local orange based creamy sweet salad called chukh and also to witness some folk dance. The final meal over here was simple rajma, chawal and ghee combo. We were totally overwhelmed with the love and warmth of the family.