The days of salads are here: Savor the season’s revitalizing flavors

When Ashish Verma first graduated from hotel management school more than 25 years ago, his only goal in life was to travel and see the world. He has been there and done that, yet his restlessness persisted till he felt the allure of Uttarakhand’s hills. Now a climber, the former hotelier now calls Jilling home, where he hosts a wonderful, quiet homestay for like-minded individuals. To make a long tale short, this is how “Himalayan Bounty” came to be—a special initiative that aims to return the favors that the rural Himalayan villages have long shown to everyone who comes to heal and regenerate.

Each year, Ashish invites friends—both home cooks and trendy chefs—to collaborate with village women for “cook-ins,” offering a never-before-seen chance for interaction between the lowland tourists and the hill people. Exchanges of ideas and skills give rise to a fresh interpretation of the “Farm to Fork” culinary movement. Lost recipes and ingredients, some foraged from the forest around the settlement, are also investigated. But enough about it.

The season’s first mangoes have appeared: sinduri and the pricey, exotic hapuz, also known as alphonso. And before you know it, the peach flowers on the trees will turn into delicious fruit. This gave home cook Anita Tikoo the idea to make the mango-roasted peach salsa as a way to greet summer and say goodbye to winter before it gets too hot.

Anita encourages a conscious attitude to food intake and likes to use local products to give her meals a taste of the region. She saw pahari women roasting the juicy, delicately-skinned peaches and frying potatoes over a chulha’s coals.

This is simple to duplicate over an open flame on a gas stove.

Melon cultivation is not well-known in Uttarakhand’s hills. From the plains, they were always aspirational imports. Food mythology states that kharbuja becomes sweeter in the summer. Is there a scent quite like the appropriately titled muskmelon? Babur, the Mughal dynasty’s founder, missed this fruit the most from his hometown in Samarkand. The honeydew melon is like a barrel of honey.

An accomplished executive chef in the Capital, Chef Anuj Kapoor is enthusiastic about giving back to the community. He often cooks with residents, sharing his expertise and teaching important skills that go far beyond cooking.

To provide light and refreshing dishes for his guests, Chef Anuj enjoys experimenting with different combinations of ingredients. His contribution to the continuously expanding “Himalayan Bounty” menu is a mango salad with kharbuja and feta cheese on top.

We take great pleasure in sharing these two simple-to-make recipes with our esteemed readers. In addition, you can make the salad dressing ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator for about a month in airtight jars. You may use it with any other salad recipe you choose to make at home. These days, feta cheese is widely accessible, but if you don’t have any on hand, you may try substituting plain, creamy paneer!

Mango and peach salsa

Components:

Two huge mangoes (Baganpalli, Malda, peeled and sliced)

Peaches (peeled, diced, and fire-roasted) two medium

Lime juice (1)

One minced clove of garlic

minced green chili 1

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons freshly chopped coriander

Diced fresh mint, two tablespoons

Double-tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Half a teaspoon of salt

freshly ground pepper

Technique

Place all the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and stir with a spoon to mix them together gently. To let the flavors to mingle, cover and refrigerate for an hour before serving.

Mango salad with Kharbuja

Components:

Muskmelon (medium, desi kharbuja) 2.

300 grams of feta cheese

pristine rosemary Several sprigs

Walnut kernels, roasted and somewhat cracked. 80 grams

Getting dressed:

Ripe, fresh tomatoes (or semi-dried ones) four

6 cloves of roasted garlic

Two tbsp fresh rosemary with broken leaves

A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil (80 ml) plus 20 ml

Six drops of mustard oil (kachchi ghani)

Black pepper with rock sea salt according to taste

Technique

Chop the tomatoes into quarters to start the dressing. Transfer to a baking sheet and top with the peeled garlic cloves. Add a little rock salt, black pepper, and 20 milliliters of olive oil. Gently toss. No need to preheat; just set the oven to 80º C. After the 30-minute timer sounds, switch off the oven and leave the tray inside for an additional thirty minutes. Put the garlic and tomatoes from the baking pan into a blender with the rest of the ingredients. Chop the melon and mix it with broken rosemary leaves before transferring it to a serving basin. Over the melon, drizzle the dressing. Add some feta chunks on top. Add walnut kernels as garnish.