Words & recipe from cookbook Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-style — a cookbook by Great British Bake Off quarter-finalist Urvashi Roe.
Great British Bake-Off quarter-finalist, Urvashi Roe, brings us her first cookbook — Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-style.
In the world of Gujarati-style snacking nothing is wasted and every meal can be turned into a whole range of snacks.
“We waste nothing in a Gujarati household… it’s common practice to re-use even the smallest leftovers, transforming them into a different dish for another day’s meal or snack. Usually the latter,” say Urvashi.
Full meals can be served, but it’s snacks that are most often offered for visiting guests. “If someone is just popping over for a natter then it is usually ‘katak batak’. This is slang for small bites, snacks, pre-food, a little something or other. Katak means ‘a small piece’ and batak means ‘bite’. “In my family, we say called ‘Biting Biting’,” she says.
Biting Biting is full of quick and easy vegetarian recipes from the region in India renowned for its snacks and innovative dishes. You’ll find beer snacks to bhajia, masala mogo to green chilli margaritas!
Shaak — ‘Curry’
In Sanskrit saka means ‘vegetable’ but in Gujarati it is the word we use for ‘curry’. Depending on which part of Gujarat you are from, you might say shaak or saak. My family all say shaak except my friend Kavita who says saak. Shaak can be dry or with sauce, and it can feature a stuffed vegetable, single vegetable or combinations of vegetables. It is often associated with certain rituals or functions – for example, at weddings you will often see potato shaak, mixed vegetable and dumpling shaak and some form of lilotri or green vegetable shaak.
Usually on weekdays we have one shaak with rotli. On a weekend or at family functions we may have a few more. When I first got married my husband always got three or four shaak at dinner as he was the Jamai (son-in-law) in favour. Nowadays he gets one unless my mum needs a job doing around the house or garden.
There are three categories of shaak:
Raso Varu Shaak Raso means ‘sauce’ and you can make any shaak ‘raso varu’ by simply adding water, passata or coconut milk either during the cooking process or the following day.
Bharelu Shaak Bharelu means ‘stuffed’. Vegetables that work well for this are aubergines and potatoes, bullet chillies or okra.
Lilotri Shaak This is shaak made from green vegetables. Again, you can use single vegetables – say, green bean shaak – or mix it up as you like: green bean and pea shaak; green bean, courgette and pea shaak; green bean and spinach shaak, etc.
I make shaak about twice a week. I try not to have leftovers, but truth be told shaak makes such good Biting Biting the following day that I usually make double portions for that reason.
My mother was never so intentional. My husband’s observation when he first visited my home was, ‘Why does your mum have all these little bowls of shaak and rice and chutneys left over? Why don’t you guys just eat that tiny portion instead of keeping it for tomorrow?’
The answer is simple. It is so that you ALWAYS have Biting Biting! If someone comes round unexpectedly then that small bowl of leftover shaak could be transformed into parotha or chaat or sandwiches. Nothing goes to waste in a Gujarati household.
Recipe | Reveya: Peanut-Stuffed Baby Aubergines
I never liked aubergines at school. They were always dense, oily and tasteless, whereas at home my mother would stuff them with crushed peanuts, cumin and tomatoes to make these reveya which I couldn’t eat fast enough. When I was younger, she’d send us all shopping so she could get the housework done in peace and quiet. We didn’t have a car so we’d take the bus. Dad would spend aaaaages choosing the best small aubergines and meanwhile I’d have to watch my sisters to make sure they didn’t run off. I guess this is why these were such popular snacks with all our family. Every aubergine was tender and soft, never bitter. Each a perfectly cooked mouthful.
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Serves 4–8
Ingredients
100g blanched peanuts
100g tomatoes, roughly chopped
30g jaggery, grated
1½ tsp salt
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp finely grated ginger
100ml plus 3 tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
100g fresh coriander, finely chopped
12 baby aubergines
2 tsp cumin seeds
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
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Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Put the peanuts, tomatoes, jaggery, salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and ginger into a food processor and blitz together. The peanuts should be coarse in texture so use the pulse setting so you don’t get too much of a purée.
Pour this mixture into a bowl and add 100ml of the oil. Reserve a spoonful of the finely chopped coriander and then add the rest to the peanut mixture and stir everything together so it’s nicely combined. The mixture should be like a thick paste so you can really push it into the aubergines.
Prep the aubergines by slitting them into quarters from the base and leaving the stem intact. Gently open out an aubergine and stuff it with a few tablespoons of the peanut, tomato and spice mixture. Repeat with the remaining aubergines.
Lightly oil a roasting tin or ovenproof dish. It needs to be large enough to snugly fit all the aubergines. Place the stuffed aubergines into the tin. If you have any spare mixture you can spoon it onto the aubergines.
Pour 50ml water into the gaps between the aubergines, then drizzle over the remaining three tablespoons of oil and sprinkle over the cumin seeds. Push the tomato halves in between the aubergines. Bake for 30–40 minutes. The aubergines should be tender and squidgy, oozing with the spicy mixture.
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Tips
If you don’t have a food processor you can crush the peanuts in a food bag. Pop them in the bag. Squeeze the air out of the bag, seal it and then bash the nuts inside with a rolling pin. Then add these to the tomatoes and spices and follow the recipe as normal.
Reveya freeze really well so it’s worth making a double batch. You can reheat them in a 180°C (160°C fan) oven and then top with fresh coriander and crushed peanuts.
You can also use new potatoes instead of or as well as aubergines for this recipe. Slit and stuff the potatoes in exactly the same way.
Serving suggestions
Serve with rice, rotli or parotha. This is how we would have them at home.
Nowadays I also like reveya with couscous, quinoa or bulghur wheat drizzled over with Green Chilli, Coriander and Coconut Chutney (see page 151 [in the book]). They are a great topping for toast paired with a poached or fried egg.
Scoop them onto a baked potato, sprinkle over feta cheese and fresh coriander. Pop them onto warm garlicky yoghurt and scoop with sourdough slices.
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Urvashi Roe is a freelance food writer and blogger based in London, UK. She was a Great British Bake Off quarter-finalist.
Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-style by Urvashi Roe.
Published by Kitchen Press, distributed by Bateman Books, RRP $49.99
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