"YAJJI" A KASHMIRI SNACK OF YORE

                                                                            

YAJJI......

Yajji was a  snack speciality  of our  past. By past I mean a period when our grandmothers were in full command of the kitchen. It was generally  prepared and consumed during July-August  months corresponding to  rainy season or Vahraat in Kashmir . Like Maalpurees of  Jammu , this delicacy was quite popular during rainy season.

The word Yajji became a part of popular Kashmiri  metaphors /phrases like:-

(1)

Guss Tsaap yajji...Go and idle away your time by eating Yajji

(2)

Su chhu Yajji Maadhav..He is a good for nothing fellow.

Even Lalded uses the word Yajji in one Vaakh and  says..

"Moodus  gyaanitch kath no vanizeh

Kharrus go'r deun raavi doh

Seiki shhaatus Phal no vovizeh

Raavi komm yaajjein teel." 

"To a fool, say  not a word of knowledge,

Waste not your day in making a donkey eat sugar candy,

Plant not fruit trees in a desert

Waste not cooking oil on Yajji prepared from rice husk(when these needed rice powder)"

                                          

Yajji is prepared by making a dough of powdered rice mixed with zeera ( Cumin seeds ) , Ajwain ( Carom seeds ), crushed walnut kernels ,common salt and a little curd. This dough is moulded on hands to give it a shape of small cups or something like  half coconut.It is finally fried.

Grandma's method of making yajji was wonderful.Dum pukhta in a leijj or earthenware pot with a lid. A small quantity of water and  edible oil  was also used in the Leijj . The Leijj was finally kept over slow/ low heat till Yaajji turned dry ,got perfectly cooked and absorbed the oil.

 Probably Yajji got identified with lethargy, lack of initiative, poverty and backwardness and vanished from our kitchen. 

 Noted scholar Dr. Shahi Shekhar Toshkhani adds:-

“It was a kind of fast food which Kashmiris in not so distant a past enjoyed for its yummy taste. It could have been promoted very much like the South Indian Idli-Dosa, but Kashmiris have given it up like several other indigenous dishes which with slight improvement could have become a hit.”

( Avtar Mota)

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