Crackling sound of firewood, tiny golden sparks from red hot coal and the smoky aroma of cooking on a Chulha is a traditional holistic cooking experience that has always fascinated us, Sous Chef & me, and this fascination turned into commitment when the exploration of hidden gems of Pune started!!!

The last 24 hours have been a roller-coaster. My colleagues at rtCamp know it better. Most times aspirations that begin with honest intentions end well. I ain’t talking about Bollywood movies. In the last couple of weeks I have started realising that life is more than just milestones. It’s actually the journey that cherishes our souls. The process of cooking is sweeter than the dish itself.

Wrapping up my long week at work, I headed home. Physically I was tired but my heart was all up for a cooking adventure. I was excited and nervous about a new traditional method of cooking. I was finally going to get a hands on experience of cooking on a firewood/coal Chulha. Also, I was supposed to inaugurate the Copper Lagan my Mother-in-law procured almost a year ago.

Preplanning

I decided to cook my signature recipe, Golbari Kosha Mangsho, a caramelised mutton delicacy for Saturday lunch. This meant, the preparations had to start right from Friday. As usual, I was busy with my office stuff so Sous Chef extended her helping hand and procured the mutton. She marinated it overnight in raw papaya juice (essential for tenderising mutton), ginger/garlic paste, red chilli powder and the most crucial raw mustard oil.🥰

Aroma of Barista & Kosha Masala

The lovely caramelised barista was made on Friday night by Sous Chef. I worked on the secret Kosha masala, a mixture of 10 whole spices roasted & grounded. I can swear by its aroma.

Magic of Pestle & Mortar

It was an early start to Saturday owing to a sleepless night in anticipation of the grand cook. Mom took charge of slicing and grinding onions using pestle and mortar. In the meantime, I was trying to find my way with the ever annoying chore of peeling garlic cloves. Nevertheless, by the end of the 2nd hour, we had all our ingredients ready. The barista paste, ginger-garlic-chilli paste, cinnamom-bay leaf paste & red chilli paste.

My stars have been with me of late as I got a cab on Uber, yes you heard it right 😏. We reached my in-laws home, located at the other end of the Pune city, Bibwewadi, after a 60 minute journey. My mother-in-law gave us a warm welcome with an equally warm plate of South Indian delicacies, idli & vada.

Following the scrumptious breakfast, Sous Chef started with the final step of preparations. She coated the copper lagan bottom with clay to ensure that the lagan could be easily cleaned following our adventurous cook.

The Grand Cook

It wasn’t as easy as turning the knob of my gas stove this time. Lighting up the chulha required conscious and smart tricks by burning a couple of coal blocks on gas stove, and placing them in the chulha and load it with firewood.

The best part about this chulha was the electric fan which helped me to generate and maintain the fire within the soul of the chulha 😄

I was playing with fire and soon realised, that it isn’t easy to control. Being my first attempt, I had to adjust my cooking quite a bit to make the best use of the firewoods. There came my favourite tool, a beautiful copper spatula. I envy my Mother-in-law for her precise collection of cooking equipments. Someday I am surely gonna beg, borrow or steal this brass beauty. 🙈

The next 2 hours evolved to be the most exciting and difficult cook till date. I was spellbound by the beauty of the 16 inch copper lagan. I could easily stir 2 kilograms of goat mutton. Ofcourse I had to fight through the teary eyes and a hell lot of sweat as I fought my battle with the intensity of the firewood and coal flame.

We learnt a crucial lesson for future that recipes cooked on high heat need firewoods while the ones requiring low heat need coal blocks instead.

After adding, mixing, stirring, sauteing, checking, readjusting, further sauteing and scraping the sweet goodness of the masala it was time to raise the curtains, oh my bad, raise the lid of the lagan & there it was. A perfectly(look wise at least) cooked golbari er kosha mangsho.

We paired it with white rice laded with ghee & kala jamun, a Bengali sweet delicacy.

That’s all for this wonderful weekend evening. Tomorrow is going to be another big day as we will be starting preparations for Diwali. Stay tuned for the delicious updates 👋