IMAGE: Lajjaya Singh at the Taj with her husband Raghubir Singh. Photograph: Kind courtesy Sneh Thadani and Prem Bhandari
Lajjaya Singh, a social worker, representing leading social welfare organisations in the 1950s in Himachal Pradesh, published a book of Himachali recipes, in Hindi, in 1981, the title of which translated to The Art of Himachal Cooking.
She hailed from Sirmaur district and was married to Raghubir Singh, who was with the IAS and was posted all over the mountainous state as a deputy commissioner during his career. Lajjaya collected recipes from different districts of Himachal and compiled them into a valuable cookbook that is sadly not in print any more.
IMAGE: A biographical sketch on Lajjaya Singh that appeared in the newspapers many years ago. Photograph: Kind courtesy Sneh Thadani and Prem Bhandari
Her daughters, New Delhi-based Sneh Thadani and Baltimore-based Prem Bhandari picked out a few recipes for Rediff.com and translated them and shared two yesteryear images.
Here is Lajjaya's recipe for Soybean Kachoris, a savoury dish from Kullu, that contains a stuffing of the ground nutty legume in the centre and has a kastha or crispy, crumbly covering.
Soybean Kachoris
Serves: 3-4
- ½ kg aatta or whole wheat flour
- Water
- ½ kg soybeans
- 5 gm ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
- 1½ tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tsp brown (sukha) dhaniya or coriander powder
- 1 tsp red chilly powder
- 1 tsp jeera or cumin powder
- 4 lavang or cloves
- 2 small pieces dalcheeni or cinnamon, ground
- 2 pieces bada (kala) elaichi or black cardamom
- ½ kg oil or ghee
Method
- Soak the soybeans overnight.
Drain and grind in a mixer/blender will all the spices, ginger and 1 tsp of the salt.
Keep aside.
- Knead the flour with a little water and the remaining ½ tsp salt into a stiff dough.
Keep aside, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil for frying the kachoris in a kadhai or deep frying pan/saucepan.
- Make small, 1-inch diameter balls out of the dough and roll each into about 2-inch diameter circles.
Put soybean stuffing -- plenty of it -- in the centre of each of the circles and bring the edges together and enclose the stuffing inside the dough.
Roll or flatten each into thick, small 'puris' and deep fry each in ghee or oil, till golden brown, flipping so they cook on both sides.
Drain from the oil onto a tissue or paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve with dahi (yoghurt) or imli chutney.