Indian-born food writer and chef Romy Gill's new book, On the Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh, shares her travels and more than 80 recipes. This is an extract.
Kashmir through Romy-tinted lenses
When I was a child in India, growing up in West Bengal, we were the first family on our street to get a television – an enormous black-and-white affair. Occasionally, we would invite neighbours and friends round to watch Bollywood movies. These were mostly filmed in Kashmir, the valley that was once the summer capital of the Mughals. With its stunningly beautiful lakes, snow-capped mountains and rolling meadows, it looked like paradise. It was partly these movies that were responsible for my fascination with this remote state, which straddles the Himalayas: one of the many, varied parts – each with their own distinct culture – that define the ‘real India’. Growing up, Kashmir felt like a foreign country to me, and I longed to visit.
It wasn’t just the lofty mountains and rolling valleys of the region that captured my imagination: the people and the food also had a huge part to play. This is all down to my father, Santokh Singh Sandhu, who at the young age of 16 had travelled to Burnpur in West Bengal to work in a steel plant. Here, he worked alongside people from across India: colleagues and friends, including several families from Kashmir, with whom we shared numerous meals and celebrations. It meant that I learned a huge amount about their culture, their religion, their food, their language and their values – and I learned even more when, just before winter came, Kashmiri traders would visit Burnpur with shawls, carpets, dried fruits and apples to sell. I have fond memories of my mother stocking up on purchases from Kashmiri people at this time of year, carefully bartering with them all before handing over any money.
Now, as a professional chef, Kashmir intrigues me for even more reasons: the various ways of living, speaking and feasting, and the different rituals ingrained into everyday life. With so much political uncertainty in the region, its cuisine and culture is increasingly difficult to access – but I strongly believe that it’s a cuisine and culture that the world deserves to know more about.
Try Romy Gill's recipe for lavasa masala tchot, a Kashmiri street-food wrap.
Lavasa masala tchot (flatbreads stuffed with split pea mash and chutney) Source: Murdoch Books
In recent years, I’ve learned more and more about my home country through my travels to places like Leh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Himachal, and many more. I’ve enjoyed the chance to eat, cook and learn about the food from each region, and then write about it to share their incredible recipes and stories with a new audience. So, when I finally decided to travel to Kashmir, it would be no different: I was looking forward to enjoying the company of local Kashmiri people and seeing the region through their eyes.
I knew it wouldn’t be an easy trip to plan. It was April 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic had the world in its grip: every country had its own travel restrictions and its own regulations once you got there.
It was worth it. The scenery, the people, the traditions, the love – and, of course, the food – all came together to create a truly incredible experience for me in Kashmir. As a chef, the trip was an education, and I’m excited to share the Kashmiri recipes and techniques that I learned about.
Try Romy Gill's recipe for these chestnut-flour snacks, often made for ceremonies but enjoyable any time.
Shaker pare (sweet deep-fried snacks) Source: Murdoch Books
Kashmir, the northernmost region of India, is bordered by Pakistan to the north and west and China to the east. Unlike other places in India, Kashmir is largely untouched by foreign and domestic tourists, primarily because of its political situation.
In 1947, with the partition of India, both India and Pakistan tried to lay claim to Kashmir. Since then, fighting over the region has continued. However, to me, it was important to travel the parts unknown and to learn from them.
The basics of Kashmiri cuisine
Kashmiri cuisine draws its heritage from two different groups of people: the Pandits and Muslims. While there are differences between the two groups, there are also many similarities – most importantly, the fact that they both offer such a rich fusion of styles and flavours in their food. Both cuisines draw heavily on Central Asian, Afghan, Persian and Mughal styles of cooking, and both share an affinity for lamb-based dishes, cooked over a wood fire.
Find the recipe for matz chhiear (lamb meatballs with apricot) here.
Matz chhiear (lamb meatballs stuffed with apricots) Source: Murdoch Books
Perhaps the most surprising difference between Kashmiri Pandit and Muslim cuisines, though, is the fact that Pandits will cook without onions or garlic: two of the staples of the majority of Indian regional cuisine. Conversely, two ingredients that you will find in Kashmiri Pandit cuisine, but rarely in Kashmiri Muslim cuisine, are hing (asafoetida), and curd or yoghurt-based sauces.
Each group brings its own style of richness to the table, with a deliciously aromatic blend of spices, including cloves, cinnamon, green and black cardamom, and ground fennel and ginger. Some of my favourite traditional dishes include the delicate and soft Pandit chaman kaliya: chunks of tender curd cheese cooked in a mild cardamom and fennel-scented sauce, perfect mopped up with a flatbread.
Try making chaman kaliya with this recipe from On the Himalayan Trail.
Chaman kaliya (paneer in yellow gravy) Source: Murdoch Books / Matt Russell
Learning more about Ladakh
In the early days of my relationship with my husband Gundeep, he would tell me tales of his travels throughout India. The stories I always remembered best were those about Leh, and how he travelled there via scooter from Punjab with his friends. The way he described Leh’s remoteness and its landscape filled me with a great desire to visit. Until fairly recently, though, I had never had the chance. So, when the opportunity came to visit Ladakh, the territory in which Leh is the largest town, on a press trip, I immediately said yes.
It was then that I met Dadul, a local who was to be my guide, for the first time. Welcoming us to Ladakh, he described it as ‘the land of high passes’. It is part of the wider Jammu and Kashmir region, bordered on the east by Tibet, and to the south by the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. With the Kunkun mountains in the north and the Himalayas in the south, and located on the country’s ancient trade routes, it’s not only an important part of India, but one whose scenery is so different compared with everywhere else in India. Its landscapes are so barren, yet so beautiful.
Ladakh has been a region associated mostly with the Maggi bouillion empire and momo dumplings, but I was soon to learn that there is far more to the area’s cuisine than that...
Romy Gill in Ladakh, the 'land of high passes'. Source: Murdoch Books / Poras Chaudhary
The extreme climate of Ladakh, an area that experiences frequent snowfall, means that many vegetables and other crops simply can’t grow. Peas, beans, turnips, potatoes, beetroot and pumpkins are some of the most common vegetables in the region, and buckwheat, millet, wheat and barley are among the most common crops.
Chutagi is a famous Ladakhi dish, like pasta with a rich vegetable sauce. Chu means water in Ladakh and tagi means bread. The pasta dough is made in the shape of a bow-tie and is cooked in a thick soup of potatoes, carrots and local leafy green vegetables.
Find Romy Gill's chutagi recipe here.
Chutagi (pasta with vegetables) Source: Murdoch Books
My trip made me realise how much more I still have to discover ... No matter where we come from, how big the place is and how much we believe we know, there is always more to explore and learn about our homelands.
This is an edited extract from On the Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh by Romy Gill, published by Hardie Grant Books, RRP $55, available in-stores nationally. Photography: Poras Chaudhary and Matt Russell.
On The Himalayan Trail Source: Murdoch Books
