Kashmiri Yaji- A Dying Dish From The Valley

There is no dearth of variety when we think of Indian cuisine. From North to South to East to West, the options might just leave you wanting for more but one such cuisine that has seen variation and variety at the same time is the Kashmiri cuisine. Natural ingredients like Saffron, Kashmiri red chilies, dried cock comb flower etc, enriches the flavour take the centerstage here and enhances the aroma of the cuisine, while whole spices like black pepper, cardamom, cloves etc gives that extra punch and distinct taste and flavour of the traditional savouries. 

One such dish that is prominent amongst the Kashmiri Pandits are Yaji also called the Kashmiri Yaji, which can be drawn parallel to a pizza. With the migration of the Kashmiri Pandits in 90’s a lot of their heritage and food somewhere got lost and today have become anonymous; one such is Yaji is often eaten with butter tea. Taking to the gram kashmiri_zaikaa_foodblogger on her post wrote “Yaji is a renowned kashmiri snack made from rice flour.  It has a great significance in our religion. Yaji are prepared on vahrath.  On this day people take a bath using green amaranth leaves in place of soap,offer yaji to God as bhog. Then this prasad is eaten with a belief that stomach related all problems will be eradicated. This snack is very easy to prepare. Enjoy this snack with noon chai” 

This Kashmiri snack is consumed on the day of Vehraat once people have taken their bath with green amaranth leaves not soap and then Yaji is offered to God as bhog. Then the offered prasad is eaten and it is believed that it will solve all stomach related all problems will be eradicated. This easy to prepare snack, made with rice flour hold much significance. Chef Rahul Wali also pointed saying that it is made in pandit community and offered to God's and is mostly eaten with Salty tea. The Kashmiri Pandit women are known to make these at home and the whole family savours it.

For making Yajis all you need is Rice Flour, salt, few walnut kernels, carom seeds, Cumin seeds and oil. Soak the walnuts so that they become moist and then mix all the items with water. Round balls are made using the palm of the hand from the dough and are shaped like half of coconut or cup shaped. These are then deep fried in the pan. The Yajis are much tastier than then when cold. But with each day the number of Kashmiri Pandit making this dish is getting less and only few families make it today. Roshni Kher, a housewife from the valley who had seen her mom making and till date she too is holding on to te tradition says “this snack is actually very simple, but still it’s slowly dying. Mostly during the rainy month of Vehraat  we make this at home and I make sure that the whole family have it together. There are two famous Kashmiri proverbs relating to Yaji - “Zan chuk yaji chapan” or “Yaji chuk apravan” when yaji are hot and refers to someone who lacks mannerism and the second proverb when yaji is cool and hard and is used as a sarcastic remark against a person who tries to befool others. 

Though the popularity of this dish is slowly dying, but as you read and is tempted to make some, let a hot Yaji keep you warm.