Other recipe ideas: Tambuli │ Simple Sabji with Bauhinia Buds

Bauhinia purpurea, the “orchid tree” (going by the form of its flowers) or camel’s foot (going by the shape of its leaves), or “Basavana Pada” (again, going by the leaf shape; Basavana is the Kannadiga name for Shiva’s bull, Nandi)–this is the more visually striking cousin of the lighter, whiter Bauhinia variegata, whose buds and tender leaves are used in the more northern states as vegetables, mostly for sabjis and pickles.

B. variegata’s flowers are light pink-white to purpurea’s bright purple: mandarai/மந்தாரை to sivappu (red) mandarai, in Tamil, Kanchan to “Roktwo Kanchan” in Bengali, and similarly qualified in other Indian languages indicating that the former is the norm. In Sanskrit, Bauhinias are all Kanchanar. Flowers are all pentamerous [5-petaled], with four spreading petals and a fifth upright or “standard” petal that’s colored rather more vividly than the others–a little like the gulmohar [Delonix regia] with its single yellow-white standard we used to nibble as kids–and they present in corymbs at the ends of branches.

So there’s the common pink, the vivid purple and the smaller, pretty white mantharai, also known as the “orchid lilly” for perhaps obvious reasons: Bauhinia acuminata.

While I’m listing varieties, I can’t go without mentioning the “Hong Kong orchid tree,” which is Bauhinia x blakeana, a hybrid between Bauhinia variegata and Bauhinia purpurea, and a very popular ornamental. I’m not sure what we call that in any of our local languages, or whether the hybrid even has a local name.

The far simpler B. variegata is standard with both culinary and Ayurvedic uses. In the south, the leaves are traditionally dried and used as “plates” or disposable dish-making raw material. Temple prasadam is often distributed in mantharai thonnais [small cups]. Tender leaves and buds being used as vegetables appears more of a Himachali thing, or from those general regions. And Kanchanar Guggulu is one example of B. variegata’s Ayurvedic use, along with other ingredients: it’s a polyherbal formulation that is used in anti-cancer therapies plus to correct hormonal imbalances like hypothyroidism.

The showier purple “orchid,” for its part, boasts no less impressive a list of medicinal gunas or virtues: it’s anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, anti-pyretic, anti-diarrheal, and anti-on and on, ending with hepaprotective (good for liver) and apparently some effect on ameliorating hyper-thyroidism (though that’s the leaves, not the flowers). This plant, in particular its buds and leaves, would appear to represent the veritable anti-thesis of poor health.

All of which really can be rolled into a single, simple, working principle: they’re good for you, eat them. Eat them not like a daily pill or an obsessive dietary focal point, but with the exuberance of the season that brings them in colorful abundance, to be shared with the eyes because they’re just that beautiful (no wonder the tree is a prized ornamental), with the bees and ants that come in numbers, and any others coming a-visiting. Eat them as part of a mixed diet in which all things have an honored place. Eat them and eat on them!

Working with Mantharai or Kanchanar buds

If you get these only in markets and not from a neighborhood tree, you miss the scents that release with fresh foraging. I thought the nibbled buds surprisingly young mango-like—a coincidence because mango trees are just coming into bloom, too, or a conversation to which us humans are simply not privy? So these things felt just right for a pickle, but a small-batch one as I didn’t have the heart to gather more than a few buds this time.

The pickle is a mustardy delight, and my favorite of all the bauhinia preparations I tried this year. The bulbs are flash-boiled, dried, and then dunked in a mustard oil in which a handful of other spices have already been soaking. The pickle is ready in a day or two and must be consumed within a relatively short time. The recipe here is culled from several sources online, most of which are Himachali.

Kachnar Ki Sabji

A small sabji or curry is another option. Sabjis made with “Kachnar ke phool” [but not the flower at all, again only the buds] are nothing new, again in the Northern states and moving towards the North Eastern ones; the typical preparation is with the boiled tender buds, onion-tomato-ginger-garlic, the usual dhania-jeera spice suspects, turmeric and red chilli powder, and a little dahi or curd to balance off the slight bitterness of the buds.

Working with Mantharai Petals

Petals are not commonly used in traditional Indian preparations, but did rather seem about right for a gulkand which I might try another time. Meanwhile, fermenting with just sugar and water gives you a light little almost-shrub in a week. Quite pleasant, for the coming summer that these flowers herald. Don’t miss the lovely way in which the red of the flower’s upright standard petal shows itself particularly as a top “layer” to this sharbat.

Tambuli

The other, very easy and quite delightful use of mantharai petals is my favorite tambuli. [What’s a tambuli, you’re wondering? Read this & follow that same recipe for this tambuli, too.] The petals are flash-fried in a drop or two of ghee, ground with chillies, coconut and a little jeera and then tempered. Poured on hot rice. Forget purple rain, it’s purple heaven.

Note: Don’t forget to separate the petals from the flower’s reproductive parts before using in either ferments or tambuli.

Kachnar ka Achar or Bauhinia bud pickle

Kachnar ka achaar is a Himachali special, typically made using the buds of the Bauhinia variegata/Mantharai/Kanchanar tree. Here, I’ve substituted variegata for purpurea, the red mantharai or red kachnar buds, with similarly delicious results.

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Ingredients

1-1½ cups of kachnar flowers, of the variegata or purpurea variety
¼ cup mustard oil, plus more to top the pickle jar
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds, lightly roasted and powdered
¾ teaspoon dhania powder
¾ teaspoon jeera powder
½ teaspoon saunf or fennel
½ teaspoon ajwain
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Juice of 3 limes

Instructions

Clean the buds by pinching them off the stalks. Do not use any that are in partial bloom.
Bring a saucepan of water to boil, add the buds and cook for 3-4 minutes or until the buds feel soft and can be cut easily with a knife.
Drain the cooked buds well and spread on a clean tea towel to air dry (in shade) for 2-3 hours.
Once the buds are fully dry, heat the mustard oil in a kadhai. Once it’s hot, lower the heat to low and add all the spices and powders, including salt.
Mix well and add the lime juice—the mixture will splutter a bit, so be careful. Let this come to a gentle boil, as though you’re frying masalas for a vegetable dish.
Now add all the dried buds, mix again, and switch off the heat.
Adjust salt, if needed.
Transfer the achaar into a clean jar, preferably one that’s been washed in hot water, dried and a little vinegar swished on its walls and drained.
Top the achar with mustard oil so that there’s a protective oil layer on top.
Leave this on the kitchen counter for a day or two, after which it is ready to use. Consume it within a week or keep it in the fridge to use over a longer period of time.