My friend Mackenzie introduced me to Swiss chard. We were living in Saudi Arabia together and he had a garden and I didn't. I was in the bachelor quarters, because I was single and Mackenzie was in the family area because he was married to Trifena. You only got a garden if you were in the family area. Mackenzie was a good gardener and grew lots of different vegetables. Most of them thrived in the hot climate as long as they got enough water, but spinach was the exception. Although he tried several times, Mackenzie never had any success with spinach and eventually gave up on it, but he decided to try something else which was similar and when he returned from a visit to Scotland he brought a packet of Swiss chard seeds with him. The chard grew really well and a couple of weeks after planting it, Mackenzie was handing out bags of leaves to anyone who would take them. There's not a great deal of difference between spinach and chard; they taste similar, but chard is more fibrous, has a bit more substance and retains its texture after cooking. That's why I tried the present recipe with chard. it's usually done with mustard greens, but I couldn't find any and chard was the nearest thing. The recipe would work with spinach, nettles, collard greens or any other similar leaves, but I'm writing it up as a chard recipe because that's what I used and anyway, I don't have a chard recipe in my cookbook yet.
The original dish which inspired my version was the creation of a Nepali guy who runs the Yankee Lodge in Lava, North Bengal. I went there one winter to do a spot of birding. It's a great place, but it was freezing. Sveta did the sensible thing and went straight to Chennai to stay with Oxana while I arsed about in the woods for a couple of weeks. I went to Darjeeling first and it was cold there too, but not as cold as in Lava. Darjeeling is a lovely place. It's perched on a ridge with spectacular views of Kangchendzhonga. Here's a picture of the town from Tiger Hill five miles away, with Kangchendzhonga in the background. See what I mean? Tiger Hill is one of the tourist attractions around Darjeeling. Jeeps leave the town for the hill at around 5.30 a.m. to catch the sunrise. I took a one way trip, as I wanted to go birding on the hill. There's a lot of dense bamboo jungle which is good for several rare species of bird. The hill is extremely cold at that time of the morning, but there's a sunrise viewing pavilion you can sit in and drink tea. I did that, with hundreds of other tourists, but when they jumped back in the jeeps, I stayed behind and had the hill all to myself. I had a rough map which showed an old trail round the hill just below the summit, but I couldn't find it and ended up on one of the many bamboo-cutters paths by accident. I wandered about a bit, getting more and more lost as the paths branched. The going got tougher and the paths became slippery and very steep with lethal sharp angled bamboo stumps sticking out of the mud. The bamboo on either side was three metres tall and very dense. I couldn't see the sun or anything else to get my bearings. I started feeling a little bit apprehensive. I was hot and sweaty, getting tired and starting to climb less carefully: the kind of behaviour that usually gets you impaled on a big dod of jaggy bamboo sooner or later...and then my mobile phone rang. It was Sveta calling from Chennai to see how I was doing. We had a nice wee chat and afterwards I thought, 'Right, Macbean. Get yourself together and let's get out of here.'
So, where were we? On Tiger Hill, right, but we were supposed to be in Lava, or Labha depending how you spell it. It sounds like something in between. It takes most of a day to get across north Bengal from Darjeeling, in the west close to the Nepal border, to Lava in the east, close to the Bhutan border. The most convenient means of transport is by share jeep. The jeeps gather in town squares and you walk up and down asking for your destination and when you find one going there, you pile in with everyone else and pay your ten rupees when you get out at the other end. I went from Darjeeling to Kalimpong, then from there on to Lava. Boy, was it cold there. I arrived at sunset and it was already getting cool, but an hour later, I was wearing every stitch of clothing I had plus the blanket off the bed and I was still shivering. It was no fun either getting up at 5.30 to go birding.
I could go on, I like this story, but let's get to the recipe. This is how we do it: first I tell you about the menu at the Yankee Lodge. It was fairly limited and you had to order the night before for the following evening. maybe you could order in the morning but I was always out early and didn't come in until after sunset. There was a pakora stall in the village and I would buy a bag on the way back to the lodge for the next morning's breakfast and lunch. I had my trusty kepetilnik with me. That's a wee device for heating water. It consists of an element, a cable and a plug and you stick it into a tin mug of water, plug it in and 'Presto!' two minutes later you've got hot water for coffee. I take it with me on most trips.
So, I,d arrive back at the lodge. The boss would say 'Dinner in half an hour.' Which would give me time for relaxing with a cup of tea or coffee and checking my bird lists and stuff, then the landlord's son would bang on the door and bring in my dinner on a tray. It would be a pile of steamed rice, a small bowl of dhal and a plate of braised mustard greens with chilli. There would be a little side plate too, with two or three wedges of raw red onion and a few whole green chillies - absolute dynamite and just the thing for the cold evenings. The mustard came from a big patch just down the hill from my room. I watched the kids picking while I sat on the balcony with my post-birding coffee.
This is such a simple dish, but served with rice it makes a filling and nutritious meal.
Ingredients
A bunch of Swiss chard
1 onion
1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
A couple of dried red chillies
A piece of root ginger or a half teaspoon of ginger powder
Oil
Salt
Wash the chard and roughly chop it. Heat some oil in a pan and when it's hot, add the mustard seeds and fry for thirty seconds before adding chopped onion and ginger (if you're using fresh). Fry for a few minutes more then crush the chillies and stir them in (add the ginger powder at this point if you're using that). Pile the chard into the pan, sprinkle on some salt and put a lid on. Give a quick stir when the chard starts to wilt and cook for another three or four minutes.
Serve with steamed basmati rice, a raita and, if you want to make a more substantial meal, some dhal.
