Dear Locavore,

 

In my very first culinary newsletter, which went out in July of last year, I wrote about how The Locavore wanted to build on ChefTZac’s brainchild of ‘Know Your Desi Vegetables’.

 

The seeds for Know Your Desi Vegetables—or KYDV—were first sown in 2015 when ChefTZac wanted to answer a simple question: What exactly are desi or native vegetables? Take potatoes, tomatoes, or even chillies, for example—ingredients most households across India consume on the daily—all non-native crops that arrived on Indian shores through centuries of global trade and colonialism. Most modern culinary traditions, as we know them, have evolved from these influences, combined with the diverse, cultural facets drawn from the many communities that have resided in the Indian subcontinent over time. 

 

Over the last decade, ChefTZac has spent a considerable amount of time researching and documenting vegetables from across India on his personal Instagram page, garnering a lot of attention and traction on social media. Following a conversation with him last year, we came up with a bunch of ideas to bring KYDV into the larger fold of The Locavore, and I’m glad to share that we have finally zeroed in on an approach.

 

ChefTZac and the culinary research team at The Locavore thought of making it more than just about vegetables and changed its title to ‘Know Your Desi Ingredients’—or KYDI.

 

With KYDI, the primary goal is to share with you the incredible potential that indigenous produce holds. It turns the spotlight onto the availability and uses of fresh native ingredients (so many of which have fallen out of regular use), with tips and tricks on how to cook or consume them. Alongside indigenous produce, KYDI highlights traditional culinary practices, while capturing unique perspectives on non-native ingredients which have been adopted as ‘desi,’ eventually becoming an integral part of a regional cuisine’s repertoire.

 

KYDI will be a one-stop-platform on our website to learn more about indigenous ingredients, and will include a wealth of information such as historical narratives, climatic requirements, how to prepare and store the ingredient, recipes—both from The Locavore and via other sources—and interesting articles that take you down a rabbit hole. What makes this section credible is our attempt at incorporating verified sources of information, along with making room for folklore and colloquial knowledge about the ingredients.

 

As a sneak peek, here are a few ingredients that we are launching with:

In my home, laal (red) maath is a staple in the post-monsoon and winter seasons. It frequently goes into salads, pastas, and stir-fries. My favourite amaranth leaf dish is a simple stir-fried sabzi, cooked on a wood-fired chulha with plenty of garlic, green chillies, and onions. The smokiness of the wood-fire perfectly complements the rich, nutty, and earthy taste of the amaranth.

Disha Pinge has fond memories of Tival, a homemade drink that features kokum as the star ingredient. When she speaks of this sweet-and-sour drink, she describes it as though it was made for her. Although the drink isn’t seasonal, her memories of it are; her grandmother would prepare it for her every summer afternoon, to be had with lunch.

To Zeeba Kazi, Organisation Partnerships Associate at The Locavore, there’s something special about getting fresh bhindi from their family farm located in Ainghar, a village in Maharashtra. At home, they love it two ways: deep-fried to make crispy, kurkuri bhindi sprinkled with chaat masala, or in quintessential Konkani-Maharashtrian style, with grated coconut or ground peanuts and garlic. Simple, flavourful, and full of comfort.

We hope that the 'Know Your Desi Ingredients' section will be an ever-expanding repository that you will keep coming back to often. 
 

If you would like to share information, cultural lore, memories, recipes, and even experiences surrounding any native ingredients, write to us at connect@thelocavore.in with your inputs and any verified sources we should look into!

 

Besides, April will be my last month with The Locavore. While it is imperative that I give some time to my family, it seems extremely poetic that my final newsletter, much like my first one, is also about desi ingredients. Hopefully, one day you’ll see me back here, writing another newsletter, but until then I will say adieu.