About
Sarbari Sen and their work
Sarbari Sen is a world famous chef in her family. She feeds one husband, one daughter, one son and their many friends as often as she can. When not making rosgullas she dabbles in homeopathy, tolerates her kids and concocts tales of murder and mayhem. She has zero tolerance towards anyone who chops a tree, which is strange since she apparently has no issues knocking off people in her stories.
Sarbari Sen is a previous participant in The Irregular SloWord BirthMonth Festival. She has also been a guest outside the Festival.
Please read her short story in ISBF-2022 here.
Pinnis
by
Sarbari Sen ️
Pinnis
How do you describe something that is delectable, delicious and warms the cockles of your heart? Pinnis are sweets made in the North of India during the winters. They are made of wheat flour, sugar, nuts and ghee. The same ghee which the Doctors now say is the healthiest fat! Punjabis knew their fats well!
The story goes that the World War’s Indian soldiers were unhappy with the food in London and wanted Pinnis to be sent to them as they were depressed without them. I don’t know if they received their goodies or not but this defintely illustrates the power of Pinnis!
My Punjabi family would say that during winters, if a kid ate couple of pinnis and fussed with his rotis during meal times it was pardonable, as a pinni is like one roti. You cannot argue with Punju logic!
There is no occasion which doesn’t warrant a pinni.
Munda pass ho gaya? Eat a pinni.
Getting married? Eat a pinni.
Lost your job? Eat a pinni!
Pinni makes the world a better place for you and me!
There is another advantage of the mighty pinnis not spoken about. Pinnis are quite hard to break; gluten generally is! Now I will tell you my secret…shhhhh! listen carefully!
If you make Pinnis with lots of nuts and stick them in the refrigerator, they harden with the consistency of a cricket ball.
Now choose your victim/ enemy carefully. Focus, focus. Take aim and throw the hardened pinni at the unsuspecting chap.
Voila! Suspect down, suspect down and no weapon found! Someone might pick up the pinni and gobble it up, thus removing the weapon!
No, I am not here to give you classes on ‘ how to get rid of pests’ but to educate you about the resourceful Pinnis.
I will now tell you my secret Pinni recipe.
- Heat a kadhai. Big one.
- Pour ghee. How much? Anyone who wants to control the quantity of ghee used may ignore this post.
- Now add coarse wheat flour.
- Begin to stir. For one and a half hours. In the end, your muscles will be like Schwarzenegger’s!
- Add nuts. lots of them.
- Let the mixture cool.
- Add powdered sugar. If you have a sweet disposition then omit the sugar!
- Start making laddoos, round balls.
- Thoda khao, thoda feko!
Nahi, nahi thoda neighbours ko de do!
