Unique Dessert: Ragi Pudding with Mahua

 

Unique Dessert
by
Chef with a Dash:
Mandia Tikhri with Mahul

 

Readers’ response to my food blogs confirms what I had long suspected: my talents may be better suited to culinary affairs than to creative writing! Whenever I fancy myself as a chef, create a dish, and share my undisguised delight with select readers, those who never bother to even acknowledge my blogs on assorted subjects (myths, epics, nature, travelogue, etc.), not even with an emoji, generously shower praise and offer brief or not-so-brief comments.

After reading my mahua recipes, a reader asked, ‘I thought it makes desi daru; how do you know that mahua flower is edible?’  How could I not know, since I spent my childhood in Khuntpali, a small village in western Odisha where everyone knew all about mahua, nature’s bounty providing food, fodder, and fuel? 

I knew of mahua liqour, toddy, and ganja sold at Shundhi ghar (house), the village bar where the tipplers sat on their haunches in the open courtyard, and of the incorrigible alcoholic Manbodh Seth, a fisherman who had his house in front of ours. After his morning catch, he headed straight for Shundhi ghar while his wife Uma handled the sales, home and hearth, and their many children. When he returned home stone drunk, Uma berated him for wasting all his income on booze upon which Manbodh showered choicest, unprintable abuses on her, and often resorted to violence. A few others (Kanidhamna's sons Ghasia and Baragulia) also drank daru, mostly on festivals like Puspuni (Pausa Purnima), but there wasn't another like Manbodh, his elder brother and neighbour Purna being a teetotaler.

Mahul, the name for mahua in Sambalpuri/Odia, was gathered, sun-dried, and stored in every home, and while it was mostly used as cattle-feed, every housewife knew how to make chakel, podapitha (for which the village potter made telen- a clay cooking-pot with a thicker gauge and highly polished to ensure the baked podapitha didn't stick to the pot when scooped out), kakra and other delicacies with mahul as a sweet, nutrition supplement, particularly in the lean season. Chandrashekhar Sahu from Nagenpali near Bargarh, and my classmate in George High School recalled that mahul sijha (dried mahul boiled with a little gud) was easy to make and a popular delicacy.

Our village home was filled with the sweet fragrance of mahua flowers during March to June, the floral notes changing with the various stages of processing – fresh, pale-yellow, soft flowers to semi-dried to fully-dried. The fruits (tol or tori) arrived during Jun-Jul, heaped in a corner of the open courtyard, seeds separated from the outer cover, broken  one by one with a piece of stone by a little group of women and children, after which the inner shells were ready to go to the teli who would cold-press it with his traditional wooden ghana or oil-expeller moved by a bullock or a pair.

Mandia Tikhri

Yesterday, on my request Sanjukta made mandia[i] tikhri (that’s the name in Sambalpuri/Odia); you may call it ragi pudding, though it is more a soft, flat cake than a pudding. I was not sure she’d like my idea of a fusion dessert, so I kept it to myself, and when she was finishing the dish after sweating for more than thirty minutes in the kitchen (no AC there!), I requested her to lend me a portion for my unique dessert: Mandia Tikhri with Mahul. No longer surprised with my crazy inspirations, she hid her frown well while ladling out a portion on a flat bone-china plate on which I had put a bed of moist mahua flowers, which now lay buried under the hot thick tikhri and would be cooked just right while cooling. After cooling, I put it in the fridge, and after a few hours cut slices and plated.

Here's what I got:

 

                        Front-view


              Back-view, after flipping

Plating (Chef needs to improve his skill!)

Serving Idea (Can be more artfully served!)

Sanjukta’s Recipe

I have never made mandia tikhri myself since Sanjukta makes it so very well, and generally prohibits me from entering her kitchen. On my request, she shared the recipe. Next time, I can make it on my own, I guess.

Ingredients

·      Mandia (Ragi) powder – 200 gm

·      Milk – 1 ltr

·      Gud – 100 to 200 gms, as per preference

·      Assorted dry fruits – cashew, pista, kismis – 100 gm

·      Elaichi powder – A tea-spoonful or less

Process

·      Soak mandia powder in 2 cups of water for 4 to 5 hrs and then drain the excess water

·      Boil the milk, add gud, let the gud mix well with no lumps left

·      Put flame to medium

·      Add ragi slowly, and keep stirring to make sure no lumps form at the base

·      Cook for 20 to 25 mins, keep stirring

·      Add dry fruits and cook for 10 mins, still stirring.

·      Add elaichi powder

·      Once the mix is thick (not too thick) and easy to pour onto a plate, it is ready

·      Grease with a little ghee a steel plate with rim, or a glass bowl to have the pudding about half-inch thick

·      Pour the tikhri or spread it evenly with the ladle

·      Allow it to cool

·      Put it in the fridge (not deep-fridger!) for 2 hrs

·      Cut it in squares, rounds, triangles, or strips as per your plating and serving preference.

·      Best served a little chilled. Even at room temperature, it’s fine.

·      Stays good in the fridge for 2-3 days; you may cut it into pieces and store it in a glass or plastic box.

·      Enjoy!

Note (in case you’re lactose intolerant, and prefer a healthy, lightly sweet pudding): Mandia Tikhri, often made without milk and dry fruits, also tastes great, and looks better – a shining rich brown – bringing out the natural hues of ragi and gud. Visually more appealing, in my view.

Postscript

Jun 21, 2024: Today, I noted that Microsoft Copilot offers a 'Cooking Assistant'. Curious, I asked it about the dishes I can make with mahua.

It suggested Mahua Podapitha (along with recipe), and a few other interesting dishes.

Impressive!

From Dear Readers

G.Subbu

A friend, and an inveterate limericist shared these two delicacies:

Limerick 1

Prasanna's experimented with Mahul ,

The Odisha phool which is cool ,

His friends who are "high" and mighty ,

Especially when they are thirsty ,

Prefer the desi Mahua in a glassful !

Limerick 2

After pottering around in the kitchen for days - three ,

Prasanna has now become an expert in cookery ,

Started off with a salad ,

Now, a dessert has been crafted ,

Relieved , guys at the main course said - Thanks for letting us free !

Thanks, Dear Subbu.

Sangeeta Verma, a friend.

"Responding with more than an emoji! In the good old days before refrigerators what did they do to chill the mandia tikhri?

And Chef did not tell us what his family thought of his innovative dish?"

My Reply:

Q1 - No need to chill. Enjoyable at room temp.

Q2 - Spouse is the only family I got at Bhopal. She has not posted any comments. You're free to draw your own conclusions! Children are too busy to read my blogs!

Mita, a friend from Sambalpur

The recepie is very interesting. We are getting tol in the market now a days with which we make tawa fry. Very tasty!

Jayalaxmi R.Vinayak, a friend

"My mom -in- law used to make a similar delicacy which we called Ragi Payasam.

Your Mahua puran reminded me of Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies!"

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[i] Ragi (Eleusine coracana) is also known as finger millet. Here are its names in various Indian languages: Sambalpuri/Odia- Mandia, Sanskrit- Ragidhanyam, Kannada- Ragi, Telugu- Ragula, Tamil- Kezhvaragu, Hindi/Urdu- Nachani or Mundua, Marathi- Nachni, Gujarati- Mandika, Bengali/Nepali- Marwa.

It is a nutritious grain widely used in traditional Indian cuisine; rich in calcium, iron, and dietary fibre, making it a valuable addition to our diets.