E-Paper
Delhiwale: Anita Tikoo’s home-grown haakh with a whiff of Kashmir
Architect Anita Tikoo cooks a special Kashmiri dish for us with ingredients grown in the lush farm-garden terrace of her east Delhi home
Architect Anita Tikoo lives in a treehouse. No, let’s call it a farmhouse. But that’s misleading, too.
We’ll just call it a bungalow but don’t blame us for the confusion.
A sprawling gulmohur tree spreads out over this two-floor house in east Delhi’s Swastha Vihar.
The terrace is a lush farm-garden. We spot lettuce, bokchoy, beetroot, Thai basil and even haakh, which grows in Kashmir.
“This is my first home-grown haakh!” Ms Tikkoo swoons delightfully. “I had got the seeds from Jammu.”
Haakh’s presence in this east Delhi dwelling is no coincidence. Ms Tikoo is from Kashmir.
Born in Srinagar, she grew up in Delhi but would always spend the summer vacations at the family home in the Barbar Shah neighbourhood.
Like many Kashmiri Pandits, her family sold the ancestral house in 1990s. The home is now a heritage hotel.
Plucking the haakh leaves, Ms Tikoo regales us with stories of the Swastha Vihar monkeys and how they regularly raid her terrace harvest.
Later, we walk downstairs into her lovely home — a calming harmony of space and daylight.
The first floor has been turned into her office: she runs an architecture firm with her husband Vijay, who is from Maharashtra.
We end up in the kitchen, where we spot a jar of tempting neembu pickle sitting beside the window sill.
Though thousands of her Instagram followers relate to Ms Tikoo as that wonder woman who makes delicious sourdough bread, today she is making haakh for us.
This is the dish without which, we are told, no respectable Kashmiri meal is complete.
Until recently, haakh was available only in select places in Delhi such as the INA Market, says Ms Tikoo, but now “a subziwalla brings haakh every week during the Saturday Market in Lakshmi Nagar.”
Pouring mustard oil into the pan, the architect confides: “This dish is ready in just 15 minutes, and it needs no masalas, no onions, no tomatoes... that simple!”
And so tasty, as we discover later.
INGREDIENTS
Haakh
1 ½ lb haak
1 tablespoon (or more) oil, preferably cold-pressed mustard seed oil
A few grains of strong hing, dissolved in a little water (optional)
2 green chillies, broken into two
2 dry red chillies, broken into two
a pinch of soda
salt
½ teaspoon Kashmiri veri masala (optional)
METHOD
Heat oil in a pressure cooker or heavy-bottom pan. Once it starts to smoke, add one-and-a-half cups of water and bring to boil. If you are using hing or hing-water, add it to the hot oil before you add the rest of the water. Add a pinch of soda (it will foam) and then put in the greens. Stir till they wilt.
Add more water if needed – the leaves should stay submerged (you may need more water for pan-cooking). Add salt and the chillies. Close the lid and pressure cook for 5-7 minutes (or simmer till tender: 15-20 minutes). Immediately release the pressure, add the veri masala and transfer to a serving dish.
Serve with steamed rice and a bowl of plain yoghurt.
