Baba had a transferable job with the Odisha State Electricity Board, which is now long gone. Our trips to Balabhadrapur — my ancestral village in coastal Odisha’s Cuttack district, where my uncle lived with his family — from baba’s places of posting, were made first on his Vijaya Super scooter and then on a Bajaj Chetak. There would be five of us on the scooter, baba driving it. Ma would ride pillion with Soni, the youngest, sitting (and often dozing) on her lap. I, the eldest child, would be squeezed in the middle, sitting very uncomfortably between the two seats. Sili would stand on the foot-board in front of baba. When he was posted in Pipili, the nearly 80 km trip would take around three hours.
Thrice a year
When we were young, this ritual took place at least three times a year. The first would be in March when we travelled home for the spring festival of Dola that commemorates Krishna playing colour with the gopis. The second was in June when, towards the end of the summer vacations, we would make the trip for the three-day long Raja festival that celebrates the earth’s fecundity and is perhaps the most important one in the Odia calendar. The third would be made either during Dussehra or during the Christmas vacations. On our way to the village, we would stop at the tehsil headquarters of Salepur to pick up a bagful of rasagola for everyone at home.
The house in Balabhadrapur was a mud one, thatched with straw, surrounded by a veranda. Although the house did have a front-yard, we almost always entered through the backyard door, as that was closer to the road. Near this entrance was a chulha that was used to cook food that was taboo for the caste of Khandayats that we belong to — for example, chicken, eggs and field crabs.
Three in all
There was another chulha in the inner courtyard shaded by a roof abutting the inner veranda. This was the most frequently used one in the house, even during the monsoons. Rice, vegetarian dishes, and meat that was not taboo, such as mutton and fish, were cooked here. There was a third chulha in the kitchen, which housed some deities as well. Outsiders did not have access and members of the family could enter only after a bath. The kitchen chulha was meant for only vegetarian food.
The food-related taboos among Khandayats mapped out differently across genders. Women could eat fish and goat meat, irrespective of their marital status, but not chicken (and other birds) or eggs. They were barred from handling this latter category of food as well. Widows were not expected to forgo mutton, meat of buffaloes (killed during sacrifices) and fish. The men (and children from either gender) could eat meat denied to women, but the cooking and the eating had to happen outside the home.
Cooking taboo meat was the preserve of the first chulha in the backyard. These taboos also meant that men had to learn how to cook chicken and field crabs in this chulha and had to eat it outside as well. And so Khandayat men and boys developed the skills to cook non-vegetarian food of various kinds.
The recipes were very simple, so they could be easily whipped up with few kitchen tools and little spice. This cooking relied primarily on condiments and herbs that were dry roasted earlier and ground to powder. Not much oil was used; the meat was generally cooked in its own fat. A variety of these dishes was patra-poda, in which the meat was first wrapped in leaves and then left to be charred and cooked on the dying embers of the chulha.
Small fish, tiny shrimps and field crabs were cooked in this manner. But that is a whole other story, to be told some other time.
SUNDAY RECIPE
Khandayat-style chicken curry
(serves four)
INGREDIENTS
1 kg desi chicken without neck and skin
4 tablespoons mustard oil
7-8 cloves of garlic
Two-inch-long piece of ginger
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
3 teaspoonfuls red chilli powder
1 teaspoon fennel powder
3 teaspoons cumin powder
Juice of a lime
Salt to taste
METHOD
1. Dice the ginger into small slices and pound it together on a stone with the cloves of garlic into a rough paste without adding any water.
2. Cut the chicken into small pieces, clean thoroughly and put these in the aluminium wok in which it is to be cooked.
3. Add the mustard oil, the crushed ginger-garlic, turmeric powder, chilli powder, fennel powder, cumin powder, lime juice and salt to the chicken pieces. Mix thoroughly. Marinate for half an hour.
4. Place the wok on the lowest flame possible on your gas stove, cover it with a lid and cook for around 60-70 minutes. Check intermittently to ensure that the chicken or the masala do not stick to the bottom of the wok.
5. When the chicken is done, add four cups of water and bring it to a boil on a high flame. When the gravy starts boiling, reduce the flame again and cook for 7-8 minutes.
6. If you want to serve this chicken dish with rice, then the gravy should be thin and watery. If it is accompanying chapattis/ phulkas, you may boil the chicken for a few more minutes and make the gravy thick.
The writer is an author and researcher based in Bhubaneswar.
