Bread is such an important aspect
of survival for a human. After water, if anything a human being craves for, is
nothing but bread. Over thousand years of evolution of homo sapiens and a
subsequent development of new cultures on this planet, the bread has taken
various forms. There’s no other region which has a rich history and variety of
breads the way Europe has. As I read somewhere that Germany alone boasts 1300
varieties of breads and pastries (I so vividly remember the strudel Christopher
Waltz’s character eats in the movie, Inglorious Basterds). So famous is Italy’s
Focaccia, France’s Baguette, Danish Rugbroad or German’s Bauernbrot. Middle
East too has its own contribution to this ancient recipe. The famous pita, the
supremely tasty lavash, sumptuous taftan or our own hearty naan.
Being a human being (not just
Being Human J),
I too developed craving for the bread from my childhood. Though Indians are not
heavy eaters of leavened bread and generally prefer flat unleavened breads, I
loved the freshly baked soft white bread or the tasty buns with my evening tea.
The love further blossomed with introduction to pizzas and garlic breads. My
curiosity for breads is increasing always. And I was in for a surprise when I
married my better half who’s a Kashmiri Pandit. Kashmiri Pandits also share my
love for breads. So it is easy for me to write about the Kashmiri breads.
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| A typical dekko of a Kashmiri Bakery, Nagrota, Jammu |
A Kashmiri breakfast would never
be complete without breads, that too the baker’s breads. Every Kashmirí’s home
would be situated in the vicinity of a bakery or vice versa makes more sense J. I think both are
inseparable entities. The bakery in Kashmir is known as ‘Kandur’ (pronounced as
kaan-duur). The owner of a kaandur is considered to be blessed by the Kashmiri
saint, Lal Ded who once took shelter in an oven of a kaandur. This is as per a
KP legend. I am not too sure about the legend of Lal Ded but I am sure that the owner of
kaandar/kaandur is blessed by thousands of souls including me.
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| The Baker in The Kaandur (Please check the red hot oven and the divine light from the window in the background !) |
A fresh bread with a cup of
piping hot tea on a cold winter morning in Kashmir/Jammu is a luxury anyone can
afford. That’s where the blessings start to pour in. It’s not an ordinary job
to run a kaandur and meet expectations of its various patrons. The oven (that’s
tandoor, dude!) is lighted up very early in the morning. The knuckles come hard
of leavened or unleavened dough to start the day. Interestingly, the kaandur
keeps on changing the breads with almost every passing couple of hours (Please
correct me if I am wrong since that’s my experience)
Whenever I am in Jammu, my
morning starts with an endearingly refreshing cup of Kahwa. To date, there has
been nothing which is able to beat the subtle mixture of various aromas in the
simplest forms like the way Kahwa offers. And obviously, it doesn’t need an
accompaniment as your all senses are awakened with every sip of this delicately
beautiful clear tea (but some people prefer Kulcha, KASHMIRI…SAY…KASHMIRI
Kulcha, with it, I think it’s just a function of hunger). Here, kaandur is
saved from the early morning raiders as the he silently works his hands on the
dough to make the first batch of lavaas and girdas ready.
Kashmiris love their tea the way
Punjabis love their whisky. (Ouch, Okay!) Kashmiris love their tea like the way
fish loves water (Sounds good…would the first line be chopped?). Tea is an integral
part of every Kashmiri household. The day starts with it and most possibly, you
may end the day drinking tea if you are willing. I guess half of the cooking
fuel consumption should be dedicated to tea in a Kashmiri home (and rest goes
for those delicious slow cooked dishes which I relish a lot… I mean gobbling
4-5 dum aloos). Why I am I stressing so much on tea when the write up has to be
about bread. Bread is the best accompaniment of tea. J
As I mentioned, the first round
of milky tea (mostly the pink nun chai) doesn’t descend through esophagus
unless you hold girda or lavasa in other hand. Girda or just czot (pronounced
as ‘chot’) is a flatbread similar to the roti we may get in plains in India but
is prepared using maida (refined flour). Freshly warm (or warmly fresh) and
smeared with table butter, it becomes ‘no one can eat just one’ affair in the
morning. My personal capacity can be enhanced to 5-6 girdas on any given
morning. Kashmiris generally prefer the nun chai (salty pink tea, ‘nun’ stands
for salt in Kashmiri) with girda. Over the time (7 years to be precise), I have
developed the taste for ‘nun chai’ but my fundamental structure prefers to
enjoy these breads with sweet milky tea (generally labelled as ‘Lipton Chai’,
what a brand recall of Hindustan Unilever!) Girdas/czots/rotis, as I call them
the first batch of breads are consumed around 9 in the morning.
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| Girdas... No one can eat just one (Not even two also) |
Lavasa is a fairer brother/sister
of Girda. Girda is generally baked to golden crispiness while lavasa is kept slightly
thin but have numerous blisters on surface. I personally prefer girdas over
lavasas as the slightly stretchable texture is not something which I enjoy with
my tea. However, I believe (and as I read), lavasas are the perfect breads for
kebabs or veg dishes like paneer tikkas and chole. Needless to say, you have to
apply butter on the surface of lavasa to enjoy your dishes to impermissible
limits J.
Kashmir, as many of you know, is
a valley situated between the beautiful Karakoram and Pir Panjaal range of
Himalayas making it one of the most beautiful terrains in the world. It is
bestowed with a very balmy weather which becomes very cold (Oh..that ‘Chilai
Kalan’) in winters. The guts of people here are so suitable to consume butter
and refined flour that we poor mortals from plains who complain after eating
few pies of a pizza will always be at awe at both, usage and capability of
kashmiris to digest these two commodities. The situation is worse especially if
you are staying in a city like Mumbai where the weather never helps you build
an appetite. It brings me to tears (of course of JOY) to see people enjoying so
much of leavened bread and butter in the hills.
As the day starts crawling
towards noon (I really mean it, with so much of butter in your belly, the day
actually crawls), we are introduced to another set of amazing breads. This is
the time for the famous tilwor and that not so famous but equally delectable
‘Katlam’. Tilwor or Chochwor as it is commonly known in the valley is similar
to bagel bread. One of the the most attractive in the Kashmiri section of
breads. Traditionally, a good friend of nun chai, tilwor when fresh out of
kaandur can give a run to the best bagels anywhere on this planet. Highly
recommended on a cold afternoon with the very Kashmiri nun chai (Did I forget
to mention ‘lot of butter’, eh?).
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| Freshly baked Tilwors, make way, you Bagel! |
Katlam is my all time favorite
bread. It is similar to what we call ‘Khari’ biscuits which we get in different
bakeries in Mumbai. The ones from Yazdani Bakery in Fort are probably the best
I have come across in Mumbai. So Katlam has that multi layered personality and
all the layers are crunchy in peking order as your teeth go on biting the
layers. Even the relatively soft core is so so delicious that you may want to
skip your lunch over multiple cups of nun chai/ lipton chai along with
continuous supply of Katlams. However, unlike the khari biscuits, the katlams
tend to lose the crunchiness over hours. The khari biscuits can retain crunch
over days. Come what may, that’s my personal favorite bread from the kaandur.
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| Katlams and Tilwors...Awesome twosome combo for your late morning tea! |
Bakirkhani is also an everyday
bread. We may call it a big bro of Katlam. Slightly puffed, layered, crunchy (I
am tired of saying that they go well with any Kashmiri tea and this time please
include Kahwa if you wish to… but I prefer Kahwa as a solitary drink).
Bakirkhani itself though is not unique for Kashmir. Available from Bangladesh
to Uttar Pradesh to Pakistan, the recipe may vary little for every region. A
preparation with clarified butter (ghee) will give you an accompaniment for the
savory dishes prepared on special occasions.
And how can I forget to write
about Kulcha! No, no, not your typical kulcha. This too is a baker’s bread but
little firm and you can’t stuff chhole into it. Again exclusively goes with tea
(haa, I give up now, exclusively with ‘nun chai’).
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| Kashmiri Kulchas...for Rs 3 to Rs 5 per piece is an excellent bargain! |
The breads I talked about are
integral part of daily life of a Kashmiri. It is difficult for a Kashmiri to
survive without tea and bread. So girda, lavasa, tilwor, katlam, kulchas and
bakarkhani always come to rescue for him/her. However, there are few breads
which are prepared for special occasions like weddings, new arrival (not the
movie, man!).
Krippe or Krip is dear to me. My
first encounter with it took place at my wedding in Jammu. My relatives and
friends who accompanied me for the wedding told me that they were enjoying Krip
with their tea. All I could do was to react with a smile as I had to observe a
ritualistic fast till the wedding was complete (technically late afternoon
around 4 p.m.). This tiny round bread wins your heart (and may clog arteries
also) with its flaky structure, goes well with….. (Please fill in the blanks
now). We carried loads and loads of krip on our way back to Pune from Jammu and
how voraciously we finished it before we reached Pune. JJJ. Another strong
contender who accompanied us during the trip and no one dared to mess with it
was the roth. Roth is a bulky bread laden with dry fruits and coconut with a
sweet tinge. It is an exclusive bread for grand occasions like wedding and
child births. I loved it dunking it in warm milk and gobbling it up.
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| Roth (Yes, the one that looks like Pizza...sweet and mighty!) |
Gyevchot which literally
translates as the ghee roti is obviously made using ghee (clarified butter). It
has a fluffy, soft texture with surface baked to golden hue. I earlier thought
it to be an everyday bread but alas, it has become a rarity. I went on
inquiring about Gyevchot last time I was in Jammu and the kaandur man told me
that it is made on order.
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| Gyevchot with Kashmiri Nun Chai as well as sweet milky tea! |
Sheermal is one bread I really
love to dig my teeth into. And surprise, it need not be accompanied with tea.
It is a sweet bread prepared using refined flour, milk, saffron and dates and
has its own flavor. I am not too sure if sheermal is an exclusively Kashmiri
bread because I find numerous mentions about this bread in northern UP. But
since the place of origin for this bread is Iran, Kashmir will obviously be
connected. Mildly sweet, prepared using date flavoured milk this one is one of
my favourite companions on travel. One can eat them without any accompaniment. It’s
like a delicious biscuit. Crisp, crumbly and flavorful.
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| Rate List outside a Kaandur in Nagrota, Jammu. |
The distinctive nature of
Kashmiri culture also influences its cuisine. Now-a-days, there’s a lot of
curiosity over Kashmiri dishes and I could see many restaurants serving
exclusively Kashmiri cuisine in the metropolitan area. The tourist flow is
increasing to Kashmir and hopefully, it will keep on getting better and better
every year. All I wish is that the beauty would always be perpetual with no more
scars. So next time you go to Kashmir, definitely visit a kaandur and raise a
Bread (not the toast) to the peace, prosperity and longevity of Kashmir.
NOTE - All the pics in this post are originally clicked by me. I would be happy to share them with anyone who needs it but request to take my permission please!)
