What the world is raving about at the moment – particularly health-conscious eaters and diet influencers – India has been consuming for hundreds of years. Fermented meals are having their second, showing on high-end restaurant menus and being really helpful by dieticians and nutritionists. However in lots of Indian houses, these dishes had been at all times there, nourishing generations.
Once I was round seven or eight, I used to be at all times curious concerning the meals our family workers cooked for themselves. Our residence was recognized for its abundance –– lavish Bengali and worldwide meals had been served every day. But when we had 5 dishes on the desk, the workers usually had eight cooking away within the kitchen. They wanted the power, and their meals, I felt, at all times felt richer, spicier, and one way or the other extra satisfying.
I usually spent my mornings perched on a low picket stool within the kitchen, dipping bread into sturdy, sugary tea. The fish curry made for the workers, far bolder than ours, was often shared with me. However there was one dish I at all times prevented: paanta bhaat.
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In the present day, this dish is a connoisseur novelty. Again 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 had been fortunate, some fried fish roe. Paanta bhaat was seen as peasant meals in Bengal. It wasn’t served to visitors, 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 college buddy, who cherished hanging across the kitchen with me, requested to strive the paanta bhaat, one of many helpers was consuming. She was blown away. After that, it grew to become her go-to meal each time she visited, served with chillies, lime, fried potatoes and cauliflower, a spoonful of ghee, and a pinch of salt. Because of 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. However like catfish or small fish, which I like, it’s usually thought-about 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 identical dish made by soaking leftover rice in a single day in an earthen pot. The following morning, it’s usually combined with curd and tempered with mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried pink chillies. It’s served with mashed potatoes, sautéed greens, or fried fish. Referred to as the “poor man’s gruel,” pakhala has deep roots; its earliest recognized point out dates again to the twelfth century, when it was supplied to Lord Jagannath in Puri.
Down south in Kerala, there’s pazhamkanji, which interprets to “previous kanji” (rice gruel), which was as soon as a breakfast staple and is now being rediscovered as one of the vital nutritious dishes you may 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 chook’s eye chilli in Kerala), thick curd, and salt.
None of those dishes require nice cooking expertise or substances – 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. Within the morning, serve it with mango chutney, fish curry, and even boiled tapioca.
In Thiruvananthapuram, pazhamkanji is served with palm jaggery. In components of north Kerala, individuals who do laborious guide labour begin their day with thekanji, a model of the identical dish the place the day before today’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 supply power and stamina for the day forward.
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Virtually each area has its personal twist on the dish, usually 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. Usually, fried fish can also be served with fermented rice. Generally, even a ripe mango is stirred in.
Fermented rice and its water have cooling properties and assist digestion. (Picture: Freepik)
These dishes had been born out of necessity. Earlier than 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. Past frugality, although, these meals got here with practical knowledge.
Fermented rice and its water have cooling properties and assist digestion. The marginally bitter water is probiotic-rich, loaded with lactic acid micro organism, which assist defend the intestine and increase metabolism. It additionally accommodates short-chain fatty acids with anti-inflammatory advantages and vitamin Ok, which pace up therapeutic. Farmers in Kerala are mentioned to devour as much as two litres of this fermented water every day – it retains them cool and energised underneath the tough 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 “heat the physique” and assist blood circulation. Fashionable analysis suggests it provides advantages just like yoghurt, however with out the dairy, making it superb for vegans and the lactose-intolerant.
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Even plain rice porridge – conjee – because it’s referred to as in lots of components 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 at all times amuses me is how a lot of our conventional meals, as soon as dismissed as fundamental and even backwards, is now being repackaged as “practical” or “medicinal”. Whether or not it’s paanta bhaat, pakhala, Pazhankanji, or conjee, these humble, frugal dishes are lastly getting the highlight they deserve. Generally, it simply takes a elaborate label to remind us of what our ancestors already knew.
