The Fajeto

The Global Bhatia met up with Sonal Ved, Food Editor at Vogue India and author of her second cookbook – Tiffin. The book is making waves in the culinary world and the publishing domain alike. Not only is it a mega compilation of any dish you might come across from any part of India, but it is also being sold in bookstores all the way in USA and has recently got translated into German language.

We browse through the book and it builds up an appetite enough to want to get up and try one of the five hundred recipes. So lucidly replicated, they focus on ingredients to create the right foundation to each.

It’s the mango season and Sonal recommends Fajeto as an accompaniment and alternative for daal. Unlike the sweet aamras, this seasonal sensation replaces the daal and curry when King Mango is around. She shares the recipe from her book, Tiffin.

Fajeto

A classic Gujarati dish made of mango, yogurt and chickpea flour.

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups (480ml) water

1 cup (240g) yogurt (dahi)

½ cup (120g) mango pulp

1 Tbsp (75g) chickpea flour (besan)

1 Tbsp (21g) grated jaggery (gur; unrefined cane sugar)

1 tsp ginger-chilli (adrak-mirch) paste

1 tsp ground turmeric (haldi)

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 Kashmiri dried red chillis (sookhi lal mirch)

1 tsp mustard seeds (rai)

1 tsp cumin (jeera) seeds

2 curry leaves (kadhi patta)

Pinch ground asafoetida (hing)

1 tsp ground cinnamon (dalchini)

½ tsp ground cloves (laung)

½ tsp ground dired ginger (sonth)

Salt, to taste

METHOD:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the water, yogurt, mango pulp, chickpea flour, jaggery, ginger-chilli paste and turmeric. Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Alternatively, transfer to a standard blender and blend until smooth.
2. In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat the vegetable oil.
3. Add the dried red chillis, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, and asafoetida. Cook until the seeds begin to crackle.
4. Stir in the cinnamon, cloves and ginger.
5. Add the mango-yogurt mixture and bring to a rolling boil. Season to taste with salt and serve hot.

(Recipe rights with Roli Books)