Food in gaons

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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There was never much variety. Chicken was a rare treat. We mostly just had gosht ka salan, especially aloo gosht, with patla shorba. Never ever was gosht bhunna huwa. Sometimes, mostly on Fridays or when guests came over, we had palao with chawal that were alost pichkoo, definitely not kharay huway like my mom makes now.

Roti was never made at home but gotten from a tandoor run by a woman from her house I think. It was thick rotis, the inside was dense and almost kacha, the outside would flake off. God how I hated those.

I don’t recall deserts. Just laddoos that I avoided. And kheer that I hate.

Anyway, I thought it would be nice to share gaon kee recipes. I will share the palao one and the gosht ka salan.

Gosht ka salan (my twist on it, I don’t like patla shorba)
Clean beef and cut into medium small pieces
Heat up oil, throw in the beef with some coarse namak and ginger-garlic and fry on full heat. I usually make sure that it’s a quarter-to half cooked
Take out the gosht and in the same teil, fry piyaz
Put the gosht back in and put in red mirch, roughy chopped tamatar, green chillies, more namak
Let it cook on medium heat, the tomatoes should have become pasty now
When its cooked, put in kaali mirch (black pepper loses its taste if cooked) and bring to a simmer, oil should have separated

Chicken Palao
Best made with desi murghee!
Heat up water and bring to a brisk boil, meanwhile make a potli (malmal ka dupatta) of lassan and mota garam masala (i.e. not ground up), throw in the murghi pieces with the potli ino the water
Let it cook 3/4
Take the chicken out and discard “potli” (god I hate this word, it feels like a bad word)
Throw in chawal into yakhni paani
In a separate frying pan, brown piyaaz and put the chicken in with whatever masalay you like (food in my gaon was never spicy), cook on high heat quickly
When chawal are nearly done, put the chicken in there and let it finish cooking

Serve with lumpy dahi, pull up manjis, place food on rickety table, turn on the fan and enjoy (import machar for authentic gaon experience)

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Re: Food in gaons

Oh man, this is making me so nostalgic. We always ate at night as an entire khandan, on those manjis with the gnarly rassi poking us in the butt (cotton shalwar kameez is so patli, everything grates against skin). This was in the khulla verandah, only one light on. Haddian would be not so discreetly thrown at the billis poking around near the charpais. Kabhi kabhi hawa ka jhonka aata tha, har tharaf logoN kee awazein, gossip, oopar khulla asmaaN, sitaray aur chaand, mill kee awaz haweli mein. Baad mein lassi aur hukkah. The highlight of the night was the phanka that would turn toward me kabhi kabhi.

Aur bas, yeh tha gaon ka experience. Who here has spent a lot of good times in gaons?

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Re: Food in gaons

my mom's whole family comes from the gaon, and one of my mamoon's still lives there. so i used to go a lot there. though now the gaon is more like a small city, meaning there are tall pakki buildings, and bazaars and such. but when i used to be a kid it used to be fun. and then you hear what the khalas tell you about it.

at all the meal times, you would gather around the little choolha, and as the rotis would come off the tawa, you would take it and eat it. i remember that once my mamoon killed a murghi in front of us, and showed us the immature eggs. i know it sounds gross...but it was soo fascinating to us city kids. :p and the chhat and the people and discussions and the nights and all the stuff sigh good memories.

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Re: Food in gaons

Damn you Sarah!! I'm so nostalgic now. Will write later.

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Re: Food in gaons

You forgot breakie with no eggs.

We just had parathas with desi ghee and left over salan from the night before
Eggs was a rare treat.

You dun ever get any of the daals over there too.
Like haleem was unknown and the only daal they'd cook was mash and thats it.
No patli daal with tarka.

Everything was sabzi.

My favourite treat was churi
Plain roti with desi ghee and cheeni crumpled up and broken into tiny pieces.

:( My khala makes the best churi :(

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Re: Food in gaons

Gaon food....

My mom told me they learned how to make palau from my dada who got the recipe about 30 years ago.

Food we have...

Moti ke daal-kidney bean daal..YUM
soak kidney beans over night
add onions, tomatoe and spices to taste to kidney beans and water. Slow cook. Till soft. As it is softening mix and slightly mash some beans. this will thicken your water. Then do tharka and it's so yummy with yogurt, rice or roti

Kadhi
The type we all do and then this version with spinach that I do not know how to make.

Vegetables when in season based on my aunt's gardens and what was available.

Chicken.

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Re: Food in gaons

I don’t think I have even ever been to a village :bummer: Every summer we used to argue with our parents why we didn;t have a village, all the kids used to go back to their villages, all we ever went to was Rawalpindi to my naani’s house that too just for a couple of days and back home again.

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Re: Food in gaons

Oh I loved visiting my abaa-ee gaon for delicious foods.

Mitti ki haandi may pakki huee maa di daal and they used to have a tandoor inside the house!

Also jawar ki roti and gandloN ka saag , the khattay waala. Lassi too!

And chapli kabab made in a big karrahi.

My relatives in the gaon were like the wealthiest people and they lived like royalty, I tell you. They never worked and spent the day eating, resting, looking out in the sky and talking.

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Re: Food in gaons

I want churi :(

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Re: Food in gaons

Are you a Churra?

countdown
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Re: Food in gaons

Hmmmm… l always had my suspicion, allahditta.

:cool:

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Re: Food in gaons

I loved Pakistani village food.

I had some cousins who would whinge and whine like a big girls blouse like you guys, maybe you think it makes you look more posher and spoilt to turn your nose up at everything, I had no problems I ate whatever I was given and happily went “camping” on the roof top or on the outskirts of the village and sleep on those uncomfortable Charpai beds.

I loved all the foods except :yukh: Lassi :yukh:.

Best for snacks is having a fire in the fields and roasting corns on them :yummy: and also hunting Bateyr, Teetar and Kapootar and then cooking them outside and then eating them in the fields.

You know what, these memories which make me smile even now and fill me with heartwarming joy just make me realise our country is the best in the whole wide world, there’s so much happiness and serneity, fair enough, it’s dirty and it’s smelly and there’s no law and order and the women dancing are actually hermaphrodites buttttt I’d not have it any other way.

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Re: Food in gaons

We had the same in our village, this dirty looking woman use to run the local tandoor and we took the flour and she baked the bread for us but when we went to Pak my mom said “my kids are not eating that stuff, I’m not proud to bake myself, we’ll use the tandoor at home” and then theyy tasted fine, a bit thicker than pan roti but nice and soft and thoroughly cooked. :yummy:

Me Myself & Hum
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Re: Food in gaons

Anyone know how to get that patla shorba, the perfect taste and texture would be important. I know, I know I am asking too much :)
When we used to go the gaon every year, I hated that stuff, but now, I miss it.

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Re: Food in gaons

Some people blend onions after they are cooked to get smooth texture to curry.