Chef Osama Jalali is a passion-driven soul. His new venture is Village Degh, Gurgaon where he is not only recreating heirloom Indian recipes but also trying to revive old cooking techniques. Food delivery in Delhi NCR is at an all-time peak now and the good news is Village Degh is delivering. We recently experienced a food-petara situation from them.

Time to face some home truths – corona virus has changed the world for good. And it has also changed how we look at things. Seems as if the human race has been ruthless with nature and it is now payback time. Nature is out to teach us a lesson, take us back to basics. Osama Jalali, the passion-driven chef, has been at it for a while. He has been attempting to revive lost recipes under the guidance of, amongst others, his mother. We have been extremely lucky to have tasted some of these surprises and have been left positively gobsmacked while licking our fingers.

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Osama has upped the ante this time a notch further. He has started a new venture – Village Degh in Sector 53, Gurgaon where he is not only recreating heirloom Indian recipes but trying to revive old cooking techniques as well. We were very excited when we learnt about Village Degh, as we love the ancient Indian styles of cooking. If you follow our blog, we have always been advocating Slow Travel and Slow Cooking. Slow cooking not only retains the flavour of the ingredients but also enhances it with the least compromise on nutritive elements.

At Village Degh, the food is prepared in Indian pots or degh and handi and not frying pans, pressure cookers or woks. The food is cooked, not on a gas stove but a chulha or pit fire, something that is a hazy memory to some of us and a thingummy to others. The spices are hand ground on the traditional grindstone or sil-batta and are sourced directly from farmers. Add to that locally procured fresh ingredients and vegetables being kept cold in dug pits instead of a refrigerator, and it seems like the recipe for a good life the traditional way.

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We were itching to taste the Village Degh fare for a while. However, one of the worst-hit sectors during corona is the hospitality industry. Dining out after corona is still a no to many. People are increasingly gravitating towards ordering-in. As a consequence food delivery in DelhiNCR has been on the rise. Many people have created opportunities in this situation and not only fancy but home food delivery in Delhi has also seen a huge surge. We have also been adopting a cautious approach and holding ourselves back from eating out.  In this situation, we got a piece of good news – Village Degh had started home delivery of their dishes.  Without wasting time we took the opportunity and last weekend we finally got to taste some of the dishes on their menu that screams Indian heritage cuisine using forgotten cooking techniques.

Osama sent us a petara, the traditional style wooden box wrapped in a white cloth or chadar. This reminded us of the old wood chest grandmother used for stowing her Puja utensils. Till some years back, such chests were used as “dowry boxes” in rural India.

The box from Village Degh had several in mitti ki handi or clay pots carrying the food. In parity with the retro packaging, the Village Degh brandings on the petara were not printed but were impressions by blue ink stamps. The names of the dishes were also stamped on the pot. Chutneys were packed in brown paper packets. The hamper was absolutely eco-friendly and so soothing to the eyes. We could see the conscientious effort for shunning usage of plastic or metal in the project.

We are foodies and it might be droll to mention all that we had. But in our opinion, the dishes that are a must-have include Dal Gosht, Faridkot Meat Curry, Rampuri Chicken Kofta, Chicken Curry, Nalli Nihari, Mirzapuri Shami Kabab, Filmistan Hari Mirch. From the vegetarian fare, we recommend the kebabs, Dal Langar and Ranikhet Paneer Curry. A pot of well-cooked Chitte Chawal garnished with coriander went well with all dishes.

From the taste of the non-vegetarian dishes, one could make out that these were mostly cooked in their own fat on slow chulha flame which kept the meat tender and juicy. The food was clearly prepared with a lot of love and sincerity and it was really difficult for us to classify this in any category but some sort of imagined nostalgia. Moreover, Osama hails from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and has been an advocate of Rampur cuisine that we had rejoiced on an earlier occasion. But kudos to him for presenting surprise dishes from other places like Faridkot, Ranikhet and so on. We cannot imagine the quantum of research and investigation that would have gone in for authentically reviving such cuisine that would be endemic to just a city or a district.

The dessert was kheer – creamy, smooth, loaded with nuts, raisins and coconut. This was actually hashtag – IndianDessertPorn.

What we understand is that Village Degh is a novel concept that is trying hard to reintroduce us with the authentic tastes and aromas of India. The project is more than a commercial venture or a whimsical experiment, it reeks of passion. Like my mother, who cannot stand electric mixers and grinders which, in her view, make a generic mush out of everything. She carries a small sil-batta even when she is travelling to USA and Singapore and foresees prospects of cooking. So yes, we can relate to Osama’s core values behind this project.

You can learn more about Village Degh, their food and cooking techniques and also order online from their website VillageDegh.com