A Nearly-Forgotten Kayastha Recipe for Khus Khus ki Sookhi Subzi

Priti Saxena shares a recipe that has all but disappeared, even within her own family. Using poppy seeds, this is a pebbly, textural dish that pairs perfectly with puris.

I shocked my mother when I went into raptures over the nuttiness of khus ki subzi, and how it perfectly complemented the day-old puris. I was just four years old at the time, and had just moved cities with my family, from Jabalpur to Delhi. The memory of eating khus ki subzi on a charpoy with my father and mother is still vivid in my mind. Khus khus subzi does not spoil, even in the hot summers of the north. And since poppy was not so expensive in the late 70s, she had packed it for our long railway journey.

Unlike the vanity and symbolism inspired by the beautiful poppy flower, the poppy seed is insignificant: tiny, coloured either black or white. They are even bereft of the flower’s legendary narcotic effect. And though it was primarily sourced from areas around Banaras and Patna, it was referred to as Bengal Opium because Calcutta was the port of export. Forced by the East India Company to cultivate opium, farmers of the Bengal presidency saw poppy seeds as nothing more than by-products. It was the ingenuity of the womenfolk in these areas, who concocted recipes from this ‘waste’ that carved out a special in Bengali cuisine, for posto.

But in the Rohilkhand and Malwa regions, poppy seeds are referred to as khus khus. Their role in food is certainly not elevated, like the posto dishes of Bengal. Studies from the time he quantity of morphine is lowest in Bengal opium, but still, it served as the primary contributor to EIC's trade with China. Assumptions are that poppy was introduced experimentally in the Rohilkhand area, and explains the negligible use of khus in the cuisine of this region.

This particular dish is probably confined to a small area, more likely just a few Kayastha families – something which I am unable to confirm, given that no one in family makes it anymore. My mother comes from a small Qasba called Khudaganj, which was interestingly the ancestral home of legendary writer Dharamveer Bharti, also a Kayastha, in the Shahjahanpur district.

My mother tells me this khus ki subzi was traditionally made on Janmashtami, when the entire family fasted until midnight. Midnight pooja was followed by a partaking of panchamrit and kasaar (made with roasted wheat and semolina). Then came the pukka khana, much like a birthday feast! Along with the puris-kachoris, subzi like colocasia, made with a paste of green chillies and ajwain, this khus dish was always part of the festive spread. I presume this dish, heavy on oil and spices, added a zing to the vegetarian fare. Besides, the seeds have a thandi taseer or cooling effect on the body. These reasons make it ideal for the summer.

Khus khus as food can be traced to the Mediterranean, from where it spread to the Balkan peninsula and then to Asia minor. As a food, it found favour with the physicians of Greece - Hippocrates recommends a diet of white poppy seeds as a meal with honey for ailing patients; Galen considers the poppy seeds as a seasoning for bread. There was a significant nutritional element since half the weight of the seed is oil.

One can only speculate that poppy piggybacked its way to India, with travellers or invading armies. By the 16th century, substantial tracts of the Malwa area were under poppy cultivation, but the role of poppy seeds in regional food remains unclear. In elite Awadhi or Rampuri cuisine, it was used as a thickening agent for the base of kormas, and imparted a distinctive aroma and richness. The seeds have nutritive properties too, so they are used extensively in Unani and Ayurvedic medicine.

This dry khus khus subzi, from my mother’s kitchen, close to disappearing within our own community, tastes best when cooked in a heavy iron kadai, which retains and distributes heat well, and imparts a distinctive dark brown, almost a black hue to the dish.

Recipe for Khus Khus ki Sookhi Subzi

Ingredients
1 cup/120 g khus khus seeds
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1/3 cup raw chana dal
1 large onion
1 tbsp of garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 and 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp of coriander powder
4 tbsp of mustard oil
Salt, to taste  

Method
Soak (in separate bowls) the khus khus, rice and chana dal for at least 4 hours.

Then make a paste with each ingredient on a silbatta (grindstone) or in a mixie. The khus khus is not easy to grind in a mixie, and one can, for the sake of convenience, mix the ingredients to make a coarse paste. The silbatta paste yields a more grainy texture than the mixie. Set this aside.  

Make a paste with the onion and garlic too. You 2-3 dry red chillies to the garlic paste to make it spicier.

In a medium-sized wok, pour in the mustard oil. When it starts smoking, lower the heat. Now add in turmeric, followed by the onion and garlic paste in quick succession so that the turmeric doesn't burn.

Add the other dry masala and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

Now, pour the paste of rice, dal and khus khus one after another. Use a spatula to combine the ingredients well, and keep stirring until the entire mix turns dark and aromatic.

The finished product is a pebbly mixture that smells wonderful.

Note, this dish tastes significantly better the next day, most likely because the oil from khus khus seeds is released. Best paired with puris.

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