#530 Our beloved "Pakhala" to beat the summer

 Our beloved "Pakhala" to beat the summer

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As an Odia, I have always appreciated the simplicity of a summer cuisine called Pakhala. It’s also known as watered rice. It’s very easy to prepare because it requires minimum time. It’s the soul food that instantly refreshes me by taking away all my exhaustion. It is said to work against dehydration, hence protecting us from the side effects of the scorching heat of summer.

My sweet recollection of enjoying this simple cuisine is linked to the summer(both literally and metaphorically) of my childhood days when we would return from school around 2pm. After freshening up a bit, our hunger would be aggravated by seeing a table full of Pakhala bowls with a lot of side dishes like Brinjal fry, Badi Chura(Crushed Badi), Saaga Bhaja, Alu Chakata(Mashed Potato), sliced onions & cucumber, fish fry, santula ( Boiled veggies) etc. Magic of my mother’s culinary skill would instantly appease our hungry stomachs and touch our souls to an inexplicable level.

If you’re wondering how to prepare this, let me spill the beans. You have to ferment the cooked rice with plain water overnight, there’s no compulsion to do so but it tastes better this way. Alternatively, you can add plain water to the cooked rice and keep it aside for some hours to let rice get more softened and assimilated in the water. Add some spoons of curd to this. To enhance its taste, it needs to be tempered with curry leaves, mustard seed, dried red chillies, chopped garlic and coriander to garnish. As accompaniments, you can take mashed potatoes with chopped onion and mustard oil, fried/boiled/deep fried veggies of your choice. If you’re a non-vegetarian, you can enjoy this with fried fish. Nothing can beat this combination, trust me!

This skill to prepare this simple dish travelled with me across borders. Whenever I wanted to eat something light, simple but wholesome which could be prepared instantly, nothing would come across my mind as a saviour other than Pakhala. It is something that my husband also enjoys having. The water of the Pakhala, which is caled Torani, that is either mixed with curd or lemon juice is drunk to digest the food.

I have had many memories with Pakhala, enjoyed experimenting with different side dishes in recent years and many moments to be lived which will have this dish in it , these moments turning to memories. I can never recreate the sense of satisfaction that came after eating a bowl of Pakhala with various side dishes prepared by my mother. Every time, I eat Pakhala, I am instantly reminded of those memories while I try to soak myself in the heavenly drape of the moment.

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Swati Sarangi

13.06.2024

P.S: I’m participating in #BlogchatterFoodFest2024.

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