Prabhumam’s Phardi

Seventh Heaven

August 6th, 2006

While driving through the Air Force Station at Lohagaon, Pune, I saw a wayside restaurant named The Seventh Heaven and wondered what fare and fate awaited those who entered.

The next day we had guests at home for dinner. The small talk (or should I say: the phardi) soon turned to sweets. And mom explained about a Seven Day Wonder.

Each city in India offers a different but equally inviting cuisine for the gourmet. Benares is for famous jalebis and kachoris. Pune for its ambe barfi and bakharwadis. And Agra for its peta (ash gourd or candied sweet made dry or with syrup) and daalmot (spicy snack made with fried moth lentils and vermicelli pieces).

Now, peta to the phoren crazy is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (who say that animals are not ours to eat, etc.) or People Eating Tasty Animals (who say that animals are ours to eat, etc.).

But to us peta is the sweet made from ash gourd. And nobody could prepare them as well as the Agra-wallas and wallis.

You can try, as mom did, and relish it; as Prithvi did, and experience the Seventh Heaven.

Here’s how. I will avoid the formal layout of a recipe and record the ingredients and the instructions for preparation as told by mom that night - the embellishments are mine, of course.

Day One

Select a hard ash gourd. (Petha in Hindi; pushanikai in Tamil; boodidigummidikaya in Telugu; elavan in Malayalam; boodikumbalakai in Kannada; kohala in Marathi; chanchikumda in Bengali; kolo or kohora in Gujarathi; kuvale in Konkani or kudvale in Prithvi-ese.)

Slice the ash gourd like a birthday cake.

Remove the skin/rind - a full quarter inch thick. On the other side, remove the seeds and the soft belly. This would leave only the hard part of the ash gourd.

Cut the slices into equal pieces - one and one-half inch square. This is to make the final peta presentable and you, the presenter, a professional.

Weigh the pieces. Measure an equal quantity of sugar. Keep the sugar in a separate container safely - it will now be required only on Day Three.

Prick the pieces - not too deep - with a fork. Stab at them merrily. (Ensure that a head-shrinker is not watching you.)

Take a nice clean vessel and pour some nice clean water into it - sufficient to cover the ash gourd pieces. But don’t put the ash gourd in it - not yet. Use your culinary imagination to estimate the water required.

Add some lime paste (chunam, which is spread on beetlenut leaves) to the water - in the proportion of one teaspoon for every two litres of water. Stir well until the lime paste dissolves completely in the water.

Now, dump all the ash gourd pieces into this lime water.

Cover the vessel with a clean lid. Keep it aside in a corner of your kitchen and go to sleep, proceed with your homework, or whatever - forget it for the next 24 hours.

Before I forget, clean the mess on the table:

• First, sort the mess.
• Second, throw the rind/skin.
• Third, saute the seeds and eat it (a very french idea: cook the seeds with the skin in a small amount of fat very quickly over heat until they take on color and add some salt to taste.) Or you can dry the seeds in the sun and eat it after removing the skin (a very lazy man’s idea).
• Fourth, make an ash gourd curry with the soft belly and the odd pieces.

Day Two

Remove the ash gourd pieces from the vessel. And throw the lime water.

Rinse and wash the ash gourd pieces in fresh water. Do this seven times - it is a seven day wonder, you see. Use fresh water for each wash.

Take another vessel and pour some nice clean water in it - sufficient to cover the ash gourd pieces (you have done this on Day One, remember). Heat the vessel until the water starts boiling. Switch off the flame.

Dump the ash gourd pieces in the hot water.

Cover the vessel with a clean lid. Keep it aside in a corner of your kitchen and do what you did on Day One - forget it for the next 24 hours

Day Three

Drain the water through a sieve and discard the water.

Wash the vessel. Wipe it clean and dry.

Lay the ash gourd pieces one by the side of the other at the bottom of the vessel.

Remember the sugar you had measured on Day One and kept in a separate container safely? It will be required now. Take it out and spread the sugar over ash gourd pieces in the vessel.

Keep another layer of the ash gourd pieces. Spread more sugar over these pieces also.

Continue this process until all the ash gourd pieces are used in this manner. Pour/spread the remaining sugar on the top layer.

Cover the vessel with a clean lid. Keep it aside in a corner of your kitchen and do what you did on Day One and/or Day Two - forget it for the next 24 hours

Day Four

When you remove the lid today, you will find that the ash gourd pieces would be floating in a sugar syrup.

Strain sugar syrup through a sieve into another vessel.

Boil this sugar syrup till a drop pressed between fingers feels sticky (1 thread consistency).

Remove the vessel from the flame. Add the ash gourd pieces to this syrup and mix together until well combined.

Cover the vessel with a clean lid. Keep it aside in a corner of your kitchen and do what you did the last three days - forget it for the next 24 hours.

Day Five

Again, strain the sugar syrup through a sieve and boil the strained syrup till a drop pressed between fingers feels sticky (1 thread consistency).

After removing the vessel from the flame, add the ash gourd pieces to this syrup and mix together until well combined.

Keep it aside in a corner of your kitchen and do what you did the last four days - forget it for the next 24 hours.

Day Six

Repeat what you did on Day Five

Day Seven

The D-Day.

Keep the vessel directly on a gas. Light the gas. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 1/2 hour.

Pass through a sieve and allow to cool.

At last the peta the sweet is ready.

As Purush commented that night, this dish really requires eight days.

Day Eight is for savouring the seven day savoury to send you to the seventh heaven.

Good Luck.

Entry Filed under: PadmaRatna