A way to my heart

Sarita Bisht’s claim to fame is a rajma recipe tweaked and honed over two decades.

By Anoushka Sawhney

As I spooned rajma (kidney beans) on a plate of rice on the first day of my boarding school in

Mussoorie in 2013 and cried, my favourite dish comforted me. However, the taste was

nothing like that made by my neighbour, Sarita Bisht in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. 

The first time I tasted rajma and rice, popularly known as rajma chawal, made by Mrs Bisht

(Sarita Aunty for me) was through a friendly neighbourly exchange. Nine years ago, my

mother gave Mrs Bisht a bowl of kadhi chawal (curd curry with rice) in return for a bowl of

thick rajma by Mrs Bisht, which is now my favourite. 

While the rajma recipe is believed to have originated in India, the beans were first brought to

India from Mexico. Rajma is a popular dish in north India and is popular in Punjabi cuisine.

There are various ways to make Rajma—Kashmiri Rajma, Punjabi Rajma, etc—there is

nothing like pahado ke rajma (rajma from the mountains).

Mrs Bisht, 53, is from Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. She moved to Meerut in 1990 after her

wedding.

The first time she cooked rajma was after her wedding. “Initially, when I cooked rajma, the

taste was not so good,” Mrs Bisht said when I speak to her about her recipe one Tuesday

afternoon.

Over 20-25 years of tweaking it, Mrs Bisht made the delicious rajma chawal for which she is

famous in her family and the Rajan Kunj housing society, where she lives. 

“Mere haath ke rajma bahut pasand hai mere padosi ke bete ko (My neighbour’s son loved

eating Rajma whenever I made it),” Mrs Bisht said. 

Karan, the neighbour’s son, has now shifted to Canada and asks her mother frequently about

Mrs Bisht and her rajma.

Whenever I go back to Meerut, my hometown, from college, the first thing my mother tells

me the next day is that Sarita Aunty is sending Rajma for lunch. 

“Whenever there was rajma for lunch, my family of seven in Pauri would eat together.

Sometimes, the quantity would also prove insufficient.”

She said that at least once a week, rajma was surely made at her home in Garhwal.

Mrs Bisht said that she cooks rajma differently from her mother, who makes it simple. She

laughed and said, “I have some special ingredients”. 

While the traditional recipe involves grinding the onions and tomatoes together, Mrs Bisht

first fries the onion separately before grinding them with the tomatoes. She roasts this paste

again with ginger and garlic, which gives it a different flavour from others. 

Mrs Bisht laughed and said, “My secret ingredient is two spoons of cream in the end.”

While a variety of kidney beans are available in the Indian market -- Jammu rajma, red rajma,

etc -- Mrs Bisht uses Chitra rajma. 

“I like it when people appreciate my rajma,” said Mrs Bisht. 

“Whenever someone comes home for lunch, they ask me to make rajma chawal,” she added. 

In winters, rajma chawal with coriander on top is comforting for many. 

“Rajma is my favourite dish,” she said. It is everybody’s, isn’t it?”

Cover image credit: Eat more art