A Recipe for Khandeshi Shev Bhaji
When vegetables are scare, sundried foods from summer come to the rescue. Gujarati and Konkani influences come together to make this delightfully textured dish which is a staple in central India.
Summers in the Khandesh region of central India, encompassing some of Maharashtra’s north, are spent preparing for the oncoming monsoons. There is a flurry of groundwork for the sowing season of Kharif crops, but on the food front, it is all about processing and preserving non-perishable items for the rainy season. The blazing heat in the month of May comes to good use for sun-drying different kinds of papads, wadis and kurdais, where spiced lentil-rice-paste blobs are spread out on sheets across rooftops, till they harden perfectly for roasting, frying or currying at a later date.
The main bread of Khandesh is the ubiquitous bhakri, eaten mostly with gravy dishes, and in the monsoon — when vegetables are scarce because they’re still growing — the dried fare comes to the rescue, bulking up onion and spice-based gravies.
In this region, an extension of the papad, wadi and kurdai tradition is shev or gathiya. Made of chickpea flour and varied seasoning, this ready-to-eat snack originally hails from Gujarat. According to archaeologist and culinary anthropologist Dr Kurush Dalal, it was due to the contact the people of Khandesh had with the Gujarati trading community that gathiya or shev first came to Khandesh.
Along with shev, they also brought to Khandesh their sev tamatar ni bhaji — a piquant, spiced tomato gravy peppered with the rich crunch of the fried shev. Interestingly, the Khandeshi shev bhaji does not just use tomatoes, and calls for coconut. Dr Dalal believes this latter influence comes from the coastal region of Konkan, whose people brought coconut here with them, eventually giving the Khandeshi shev bhaji its distinctively woody undertones.
This dish, which integrated itself into the cuisine of this region belatedly, came to meet the need of having a wholesome gravy to dip one’s bhakri into. But where Konkan meets Gujarat in Khandesh, the recipe also underlines the ethos of frying, drying and putting things away in a terrain where even water is scarce to spruce up a quick meal.
Recipe: Shev Bhaji
Ingredients
To be ground into a paste after roasting
3 cloves
4 pods green cardamom
½ inch stick of cinnamon
5-6 cashew nuts
1 ½ medium sized onions chopped finely
1 bay leaf
½ piece of star anise
½ cup grated coconut
Oil to roast these ingredients
To be ground into a rough paste
1 inch ginger
6-7 cloves of garlic
A bunch of coriander leaves
For the main bhaji
3 tomatoes pureed
1 medium onion chopped
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp chilly powder
½ tsp coriander powder
Oil to fry
Shev (I used the Haldiram Long Sev, even Bhujia shev or gathiya will do)
Method
In a pan roast and then cool all the ingredients mentioned under ‘To be ground into a fine paste after roasting’ and grind it into a fine paste in a mixer by adding a bit of water. Add the coconut last, else it will burn.
Grind the garlic, ginger and coriander into a rough paste. I used a mortar and pestle for this.
In a pan saute chopped onion till golden brown and add the tomato puree and cook for 2 minutes. Now add the masala powders and fry for a moment. Then add the coconut spice paste and ginger garlic coriander paste and fry for another moment till some oil separates. Add water and bring the gravy to a boil. Add salt to taste.
Turn off heat and serve into bowls. Now, add the shev to let it soak in the gravy. Garnish with chopped onion, coriander leaves and lemon juice.
Suraj Anand is a Malayalee-Punekar-German, who works in publishing and enjoys writing about food.
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