Kanji Recipe

Come winters and I start pining for 'kanji'. My fondness for this Punjabi drink has remained intact for the last 25 years. My mother would prepare it in an air-tight container and keep it under sun for many days so that it could pick up a peculiar piquant flavor from black carrots. We would wait anxiously for the day when she would 'announce' that kanji is ready and we could taste it. From that day on, we would open that canister 3-4 times daily and drank until only carrots would be left behind. It was only last year that I tried giving a shot to this and managed to made it quite well. Allow me to share the recipe of this non-alcoholic drink with you.

What do you Require to Make it?

About one kg black carrots

2-3 teaspoonful mustard seeds

3 teaspoonful salt

4-5 liters water

A bunch of mint leaves

2-2½ teaspoonful red chili powder

How do you Make Kanji? 

Remove the caps from black carrots and scrap off their skin with a peeler. Wash them thoroughly under running water. Now, split each carrot lengthwise and then cut further into inch long pieces. Keep these aside.

Grind mustard seeds manually with the help of a mortar and pestle; do not pulverize them too much. You need to dry grind the seeds. Place chopped carrots in a wide-mouthed bowl. Sprinkle salt and red chili-powder over them. Also add mustard seeds. Now, mix all well so that all the ingredients get uniformly distributed.

Boil water in a kettle and pour it in a canister which will be used to make kanji. Add to it the mixture prepared in above step and stir thoroughly. Allow kanji to get cool down a bit. If you taste kanji now, it will be bland for your buds. Close canister's lid tightly and place it under sun daily for about a week.

By this time, kanji will pick up its flavor from carrots and mustard seeds. As you will see, it also acquires a deep maroon hue and a characteristic aroma which is indicative of the fact that kanji is ready to be gulped. Chill kanji in refrigerator for a day or two. Before serving, shake the container well and add some chopped mint leaves to it. Once all kanji is consumed, don't discard the carrots left behind. Mix in salt, chili powder, mustard seeds and make kanji all over again by adding water.

Enjoy this non-alcoholic drink from India in winters. In fact, it is only in the winters that black carrot is available in market.