Jammu is like a foodie’s paradise and the Baggar Rajma-Chawal is very famous.And the reason behind their popularity is their Desi –Rajma (local kidney beans),
which grow in the hilly village land. They taste awesome due to the natural manure and fertilizer used to grow them. It has a unique taste to it and it’s considered good for digestion.
With this Rajma, they serve chutney there and they serve it here as well. That is known as “Anardane-ki-Chutney” (Dried Pomegranate & mint chutney). This chutni has its own unique taste. When you put it on your tongue, you will get a smokey Whiff. This happens because after the chutney is cooked, coal is taken, and some oil to set it on fire, then it goes inside the chutney and covered with a lid. So that it gets a Smokey taste. And you’ll yearn to have this again and again. That is the basic taste.
We don’t add any extra spice to the Rajma just salt, turmeric and chilies. But the process of making this is very lengthy. This starts to cook at 10:00pm in the night and at 10:00am in the morning Rajma is finally ready. But normally in our houses, we just put them for two whistles in cooker for half-an-hour and they’re ready. And in that Rajma, we put tomatoes, turmeric, garlic everything. But in this Rajma, the taste comes from within. Due to the 12 hours of cooking, it gets that different taste.No one cooks at home in that way. If you have it here, you’ll get “Anardane-ki-chutney”, onion and radish with it. The taste gradually develops and that’s why people keep coming for it. Every 2-3 days, we yearn to eat this. When they add Desi-ghee (pure clarified butter) and paneer (cottage cheese) that adds an extra taste to it. Desi-ghee with rice and warm Rajma the taste is on another level! It’s obvious, when you cook something with onions and tomatoes the taste is different. But when you cook something in a very simple in simple yet lengthy process, it develops a taste on its own. Surely words itself will come out of your mouth, like, “we haven’t eaten anything like till date,” this words will definitely come out of your mouth. And when you taste the chutney, that’s totally magical. Fried Paneer with Desi-ghee, Rajma and Chutney, I would say this Rajma has very charming taste. Especially those made in Hilly areas. People especially go there on weekends or off days they go to Baggar to taste their food.
Here comes our plate and here we have Basmati (long grain) Rice and Rajma. Look at the consistency man, how thick and creamy this Rajma is! So good and the best part is, there’s no spice at all. These are cooked over night. So this is special Baggar-vale-Rajma-Chawal (Baggar style beans and rice).