What the world is raving about immediately – particularly health-conscious eaters and vitamin influencers – India has been consuming for hundreds of years. Fermented meals are having their second, showing on high-end restaurant menus and being really useful by dieticians and nutritionists. But in lots of Indian properties, these dishes have been all the time there, nourishing generations.
When I used to be round seven or eight, I used to be all the time curious concerning the meals our family workers cooked for themselves. Our residence was recognized for its abundance –– lavish Bengali and worldwide meals have been served every day. But if we had 5 dishes on the desk, the workers typically had eight cooking away within the kitchen. They wanted the vitality, and their meals, I felt, all the time felt richer, spicier, and one way or the other extra satisfying.
I typically spent my mornings perched on a low wood stool within the kitchen, dipping bread into robust, sugary tea. The fish curry made for the workers, far bolder than ours, was often shared with me. But there was one dish I all the time averted: Paanta Bhaat.
Today, this dish is a connoisseur novelty. Back then, it was one thing we wrinkled our noses at. Leftover rice from the evening earlier than, soaked in a single day in water and eaten the following day with chillies, fried neem leaves, greens – or when you have been fortunate, some fried fish roe. Paanta bhaat was seen as peasant meals in Bengal. It wasn’t served to friends, and definitely to not us. Why eat fermented rice water when there was lobster thermidor being made in the identical home? Made no sense.
This was till the day a Punjabi vegetarian faculty buddy, who cherished hanging across the kitchen with me, requested to attempt the paanta bhaat, one of many helpers was consuming. She was blown away. After that, it turned her go-to meal at any time when she visited, served with chillies, lime, fried potatoes and cauliflower, a spoonful of ghee, and a pinch of salt. Thanks to her, my East Bengali mom and grandmother quickly began consuming it too.
In Bengal, paanta bhaat stays widespread in rural households and working-class kitchens. But like catfish or small fish, which I like, it’s typically thought of déclassé by the city Bengali palate. Now, nonetheless, it appears the dish’s time has come.
And it’s not simply Bengal, and never simply paanta bhaat.
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In Odisha, there’s pakhala, an analogous dish made by soaking leftover rice in a single day in an earthen pot. The subsequent morning, it’s typically combined with curd and tempered with mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried crimson chillies. It’s served with mashed potatoes, sautéed greens, or fried fish. Known because the “poor man’s gruel,” pakhala has deep roots; its earliest recognized point out dates again to the twelfth century, when it was provided to Lord Jagannath in Puri.
Down south in Kerala, there’s pazhamkanji, which interprets to “old kanji” (rice gruel), which was as soon as a breakfast staple and is now being rediscovered as one of the nutritious dishes you possibly can have. It’s made by soaking leftover rice in a single day in room-temperature water. By morning, fermentation units in, enhancing the dietary worth. It’s often eaten with kanthari chilli (the equal of hen’s eye chilli in Kerala), thick curd, and salt.
None of those dishes require nice cooking expertise or elements – combine leftover rice with water, add chopped onion or inexperienced chilli, curd when you like, and let it sit in a single day in an earthen pot. In the morning, serve it with mango chutney, fish curry, and even boiled tapioca.
In Thiruvananthapuram, pazhamkanji is served with palm jaggery. In elements of north Kerala, individuals who do arduous handbook labour begin their day with thekanji, a model of the identical dish the place the day past’s rice gruel is boiled, saved in hanging clay pots, after which combined with dal or gram and gingelly oil within the morning. It’s believed to offer power and stamina for the day forward.
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Almost each area has its personal twist on the dish, typically within the type of distinctive accompaniments. Chutneys made with tamarind, chilli, coconut, or ginger are widespread. In central Travancore, they combine boiled yams or tapioca into the rice. Often, fried fish can also be served with fermented rice. Sometimes, even a ripe mango is stirred in.
Fermented rice and its water have cooling properties and help digestion. (Photo: Freepik)
These dishes have been born out of necessity. Before refrigeration, girls in the home merely added water to leftover rice to stop it from spoiling. It was often the boys who ate it within the morning earlier than heading out to work within the fields. Beyond frugality, although, these meals got here with practical knowledge.
Fermented rice and its water have cooling properties and help digestion. The barely bitter water is probiotic-rich, loaded with lactic acid micro organism, which assist defend the intestine and increase metabolism. It additionally incorporates short-chain fatty acids with anti-inflammatory advantages and vitamin Ok, which velocity up therapeutic. Farmers in Kerala are stated to eat as much as two litres of this fermented water every day – it retains them cool and energised underneath the cruel solar.
Even in China, there’s jiu niang, candy fermented rice or rice wine. Made by fermenting sticky rice with a distiller’s yeast, it’s historically given to youngsters to “warm the body” and help blood circulation. Modern analysis suggests it affords advantages just like yoghurt, however with out the dairy, making it preferrred for vegans and the lactose-intolerant.
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Even plain rice porridge – conjee – because it’s referred to as in lots of elements of South and Southeast Asia, is being reappraised. Simmered with extra water or bone broth, it’s simple on the abdomen, energising, and stuffed with gut-friendly properties.
What all the time amuses me is how a lot of our conventional meals, as soon as dismissed as fundamental and even backwards, is now being repackaged as “functional” or “medicinal”. Whether it’s paanta bhaat, pakhala, Pazhankanji, or conjee, these humble, frugal dishes are lastly getting the highlight they deserve. Sometimes, it simply takes a elaborate label to remind us of what our ancestors already knew.
Next week I’ll write on Indian mustard – particularly kasundi, and why it’s one of many tastiest mustards out there, together with its a number of makes use of.
