Gluten Free Rice Sheera - by Amruta Nargundkar
A doting father, my Baba indulged
unembarrassedly in us when Aai, my mother went away for a week or two to her
mother’s or on the few trips she went with her friends.
Baba would get as excited as us kids to be
on our own, be able to eat out, watch movies, have no curfew time and do stuff
that would usually not get past Aai’s approval.
One year Aai went on a short holiday to Pondicherry with three
of her childhood friends at a very short notice. Baba was all game and helped her pack
and be off on her way in a matter of hours, which was why we were left without
the usual stock of “laadu-chivda” goodies, pre-prepped meals, any arrangements
for a neighbouring “aunty” or the maid to come in and help braid my long hair
and infinite and invariably forgettable instructions!
No sooner had she gone than I got sick from
eating panipuri on the wayside “bandi” while returning from watching the “second
show” of a movie on a school night.
This level of indiscretion was possible only in Baba’s reign at
home alone.
A day or two later, seeing that I had begun
to miss Aai prematurely due to my sickness, Baba set about cheering me up by
making my favourite sheera, for the very first time in his life. I was super
excited and even offered to help, but he wouldn’t hear of it. All he asked for
was the ingredients and I told him just that – the ingredients as I remembered
them from hanging around the kitchen while Aai made the dessert. He didn’t ask
me for the method and I didn’t tell him because I didn’t know it anyway.
Then I sat back and waited impatiently for
the aroma of roasted semolina that I, as the smelling scout, was required to
watch out for and tell Aai I had smelt as a measure for the semolina’s
doneness. Even as I was waiting for the whole house go agog with the aroma, Baba lovingly
brought me a plateful of a green alien looking viscous mass.
Looking sheepish, he confessed that he had
boiled water, added sugar, ghee and rava to create the flubber like sheera. And since it looked un-appetizing he had embellished
it with all the pistachio nuts in Aai’s secret stock in the pantry. When it still
didn’t look good, he added some green food colour.
Although he wasn’t colour blind, he had broad-spectrum
names for colours and flummoxed us with his descriptions – like the time he gave
us instructions to launder his red trousers that were actually his brown pair.
At best Baba’s sheera could be described as
“लय ” (homemade craft glue) or “लप्पम ” - mixed putty.
And did he get teased for it!
Aai brought piles and piles of handmade paper,
fabrics and incense sticks from the Sri Aurobindo Paper Factory and was eager
to show us the brilliantly hued stuff- but even before we listened to the
stories of her adventures, she first had to listen to the tale of Baba’s garish
sheera escapade.
Life comes a full circle in the most
unexpected ways.
When I was sick with a terrible cold some
weeks ago and missing my mum, my first-born decided to make me some sheera.
Warning me with dire consequences if I even got out of bed, she set about in
the kitchen. The sense of déjà vu
that descended even as I was presented with a plateful
of sheera deepened when I saw the green colour.
What had possessed her? I had never used green colour in a sheera... and we hadn't talked about the lappum episode in ages...
But the sheera tasted great – certainly not
like Baba’s lappum, but not 100% like Aai’s and my sheera either.
I spooned in a few mouthfuls trying to
fathom how the fourth generation sheera is different. Watching my face keenly
for approval, Amruta asked me in a deceptively casual voice where we stored the
semolina. A little digging and it was confirmed that she has used idly rava
made with boiled rice.
A new dish is created; a new family legend is born.
My Baba and his granddaughter who has never seen him surely concocted two diverse new confections – a cardamom flavoured craft glue and a gluten free sheera.
But the common denominator is sheera indulgence …
Gluten Free Rice Sheera – by Amruta
Nargundkar
Ingredients
1cup rice rava/ cream of rice
¾ cup sugar or Splenda
2 tbsp ghee
A pinch of salt
½ cup low fat cream
½ tsp cardamom powder
A pinch of saffron
2 tbsp chopped pistachios
A few drops of food colour of your choice
(totally optional)
Method
Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the
rice rava and roast on low heat till it turns a light golden colour. Add the
cream and stir till it is absorbed. Add about two cups of boiling water and mix
thoroughly. Cover and cook on medium heat for a few minutes till white steam
emanates from under the lid. Add sugar,
cardamom powder, saffron (and food colour, if choose to) and mix. Keep stirring till all the moisture
evaporates and semolina is cooked completely. Remove from heat and rest the pan
covered for a few minutes.
Garnish with chopped pistachios and serve
hot.
What a wonderful story behind this age old dessert presented in such a novel look! I was totally intrigued by the green colour.
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