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Of the many glorious things to come from Kashmir, one that is not spoken of enough is their food. Oh, the food! Whether it be their local bakeries churning out fragrant breads, or the use of dried plums in their chicken curries, Kashmiri cuisine has so much more to offer than what we see in the mainstream.
When we speak of a local cuisine, we tend to hone in on the flavours and cooking methods, all while the common denominator of ingredients may be overlooked. How, without the awareness and knowledge of the local produce, can one truly appreciate the food that is finally laid in front of them? Each dish has a humble beginning, and it all starts from its raw materials.
Today, let’s explore one of them that is rarely spoken of –– nadru, also known as lotus stem. We may have seen lotus stem here and there cooked in no more than a couple of ways, maybe even in pickles, but it often lies at the heart of Kashmiri cuisine. Nadru grows as an indigenous plant along Kashmir’s lakes which makes it a highly available vegetable in the region.
Nadru came into the Kashmiri cuisine around the 15th Century, when ruler Badshah Ghiyas-ud-Din Zain-ul-Abidin was on a boat ride around the Gill Sar. Apart from admiring the lotus flower, his boatmen also picked the root and decided to add it to that evening’s supper. Soon, nadru gained popularity and began being added to several dishes in Kashmir.
The use of nadru prospered as it took various forms - in curries that feature meat, dals, fried on their own, and so much more. Two of the most famous being the nadru monje, a common street food, and the nadru yakhni, a yogurt-based curry. The former are essentially lotus root pakoras, as the vegetable is dipped in rice flour, deep-fried, and tossed in spices. The yakhni, on the other hand, is a more elaborate dish that requires time (and patience) like many Indian curries.
In September of 2014, the floods in the region wreaked havoc. Lives and livelihoods were lost, and so were certain local vegetations including nadru. Most of the nadru in the lakes had been destroyed, leaving those dependent on it distraught. Two years later, there was still no sign. And so, the farmers picked lotus seeds from one of the lakes that maintained its integrity and planted them around the region that was once teeming with lotus plants. This came to fruition just over a year later, when the lotus stems were sufficiently available to harvest once again.
The vegetable is also eaten as a snack with chai, after it has been sun-dried to bring out its tougher texture, and a more sour flavour notes.
The festival of Nowruz is incomplete without nadru. A celebration unknown to most of India, Nowruz is the welcoming of spring in the Northern hemisphere, and the valley celebrates this on the 21st day of March. It is also the Persian and Iranian New Year.
While, at the end of the day, nadru is simply yet another ingredient in everyday food, its cultural significance is immense. When food becomes a vehicle of identity, struggle, and community, tales such as that of nadru are born.
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