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Into The Heart of Kashmir Culture- Kashmiri Bakery

News Desk

January 12

Murtaza Gull

Though famous for Wazwaan, there’s a mind-boggling variety of traditional bakery products available in Kashmir. Very few outsiders would know that the Valley bakes products, known for their unique taste, prepared in a traditional tandoor by bakers called “kandur”. These professional bakers are in the trade for generations.

While the modern culture has touched and changed almost every aspect of life in Kashmir, The Kashmiriyat takes a look on how the traditional bakeries have withstood the onslaught of modernity.
A whole culture of socialising has evolved around these breads, which form an intrinsic part of the Kashmiri way of life.

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While all of Kashmir still sleeps, the lights flicker on in the neighbourhood kandurs (bakeries) that dot the streets at regular intervals. The large clay tandoor, built into the ground and deep enough to hold the average sized man is fired up in anticipation of the thousand or so loaves of bread that will be slapped onto its walls during the course of the day.

By 5.30AM, the shutters on these bakeries are rolled up – baskets and wooden display shelves are filled with morning breads like Girda and Czochworu, their aroma wafting through the air. Male members of families make their way to kandurs at these early hours to get their share. The kandurs shut shop by around 8.30AM when their stocks deplete and catch up on some sleep till noon, when the tandoors are fired up again.

The evening breads are rolled, layered, shaped and baked. By 4PM, every household in Kashmir sits down to tea with the family, sipping on Namkeen chai and Zaffrani Kehwa, sharing Bakarkhani and Roth, a Kashmiri cake, quite unlike anything we are used to, while catching up! No Kashmiri household is without its share of breads and never are these breads made at home.

 

Kulcha is a special variety prepared mainly for functions. Mith and Namkeen Kulchas, served along with the traditional Kashmiri Doodh Kehwa They are palm-sized mounds in mith (sweet) and namkeen (savoury) versions. With a sprinkling of poppy seeds on top – these are the crumbly breads that spell the beginning of a siesta especially when paired with Doodh Kehwa.
The making of the Girda is quite hypnotic. Rolls of dough are flattened out by hand and finger impressions are pressed into it, to give you lines that run down its length.
Another kind of everyday bread is lavasa. It is a thin, large, unleavened flat bread, white in colour, made of maida (finely- milled wheat flour). It is a paper-thin blistered naan. One can also apply butter or jam to lavasa. Some lavasas are soft while others are crispy. It is also used to wrap barbequed meats and chickpeas (Masala lavasa).

 


 

Czochworu is the desi donut. It is a small, soft round bread of about three inches diameter and six inches circumference, with a soft upper half sprinkled with til (sesame seeds) or Khaskhash (poppy seeds) and the lower crust is crispy. It’s the evening/afternoon bread.
It is a very large bread usually one-meter long, two and a half meter wide baked and garnished with dry fruits and silver foil. It holds its importance during weddings and is sent as a gift from the bride’s side which is called Roth Khaber. It is then distributed among family members.
This is more like puff pastry, cooked in layers and often served with kahwa. The bread is made by stretching a sheet of dough repeatedly and interleaving with ghee before baking in a tandoor.
The kandur also makes kulchas. Kulcha is a small, hard dry, crumbly bread, usually round in shape. It is decorated by placing a peanut in the centre of the upper face of the kulcha. It is also had for special occasions like on weddings, eid, etc.

 

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