Come winters,it’s time for various regional specials to come forth. Food that is best enjoyed piping hot, served with dollops of butter n lots of love.  Some of us pick up making these from our mothers, keeping in mind the small antidotes that add to the taste and others have to depend on generous friends to share these with them.Thanks to covid, the rise of home chefs has got us an alternative which is  homemade food. It is convenient and most importantly delicious.

For a Punjabi paratha, halwa n rajma are the soul satisfying foods for any time of the day month or year. But the winter delicacy of saag n makki roti are divine. I have been a big fan of the green leafy vegetables cooked plain or whipped to be made in saag. I avoided learning or even attempting to learn how to make this, thinking about the time and effort it must take to cook it up. However, I decided to

finally embark on the herculean task.

From ensuring the proper ratio of sarsoo, palak, methi, bathua n sua to plucking the leafs and  cleaning them 4-5 times to ensure no mud remained, it was surely a difficult job!!! Chopping the leaves and then pressure cooking them with garlic, green chillies n ginger created the magical smell in the air.. the aroma of the sarsoo was divine and mouth watering. Next came the pounding and adding in curd, besan (gram flour) and cooking it for a good amount of time. It was topped up by the chaunk(छौंक) of onions and tomatoes in Desi ghee. The final out come was best relished with homemade white butter.

The entire process of falling in love with what you are making, added to the joy of eating it. Today my mil proudly boasts how a gujju girl has perfected the Punjabi saag vs her own traditional specialties. While I attempt to make it once at least, I am quite happy when there are people whom I can depend on instead, they are around to save me the time and effort… that my friends is the beauty of home chefs. Homecooked Punjabi food that is made just like your mom did, minus the hassle.