Saturday 22 September 2018

Tiki Chawle(boiled rice)- Have you ever imagined the rice we get on our plate everyday goes through what all processes to get dehusked and cleaned!!! The process of removing husk from paddy to obtain rice is tricky and the process followed makes the rice more or less healthy and tasty. Moisture content in the paddy during dehusking plays a great role to get perfect whole rice.
There are different methods of dehusking followed in different regions. In some places paddy is stored underground for a period of time and then processed.
In my place(generally the people of Mayurbhanj) we follow a 2 to 3 days long process of preparing paddy for dehusking which has 3 distinct steps. 

Step1- A measured quantity of paddy is soaked in hot water for 7-8hours and it has to be done very carefully. Over-soaking results in removal of the outer brown-reddish coating of the rice called bran. Bran makes rice healthy and tasty 😋


Step2- Steaming of soaked paddy. All water from the soaking container is drained out and steamed or separate container is used for steaming. Usually smaller containers are used so that it can be easily taken down from the chulha* by one person immediately after the water content in the paddy has been evaporated completely. If the container is not immediately removed, paddy at the base starts burning and the entire lot will smell burnt while eating rice made out of it. In this step the rice inside the husk is almost cooked and it makes the rice strong as a unit so that it doesn't break in parts during rigorous beating in dehusking process. 15kg of paddy in an earthen container may take 40-45minutes to be steamed properly.
 

Step3- Drying of steamed paddy. Usually dried under sun. Slow drying is always better. An expert can always know whether the paddy needs more drying or not just by touch, feel and wieght of a handful of it. As I said slow drying is better, it takes 4-5 hours in sunny days(ok ok) and 7-8hours(best result) in medium dry condition and 30-40 hours(not preferred) in rainy days. After drying, the paddy is kept in shadow till its temperature cools down to room temp. Then it is dehusked in mortar or rice mill. 
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Believe me the rice made in this process tastes ways different from the packed rice we buy from market. Most of the time the rice we get in market is polished too much to look shiny and appealing. The polishing process unfortunately removes the thin outer coat, the bran as mentioned earlier. This is the reason why many a times the rice we eat doesn't taste as good as it looks to be.

The image of rice given below is completely processed by me. I have been doing this from my childhood and yet to reach the level of perfection I have seen in other women of my village. Well.. repeated effort is the only key to perfection when there is no short cut available ❤️. Infact there is no short cut available in mastering an art.



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#healthyfood, #homemade #madebyme #desirice #boiledrice #baskeydaka #mandidaka #dakameansrice #villagelife #triballife #foodprocessing #rurallife

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In our day to day practice we eat rice in Kansa bowls. It enhances the taste of food but avoid serving pickle and other sour tasting food on Kansa utensils, it yields a bitter taste.