Mudhi Ghanta (Conflict and confusion on Odia and Bengali cuisines)

People often treat Odia’s cuisine as a kind of Bengali food. There is a confusion and also a food battle between the two states. No Odias or Bengalis can survive without rice and fish. As we are neighbouring states so our culture, tradition and cuisines have a greater similarities but we are definitely having our own variation in it. The evolution of a dish may be argued but the two states always stand in favor of each other whenever needed.
Let me share some facts regarding those dishes whose evolution is often disputed:-
➡️ The origin of Rasagola in Odisha can be traced to the 12th century when Lord Jagannath temple comes into existence. At that time this prasad is known as “Khira Mohana”. Rasagola is also a part of our culture, every year on the eve of Niladri Bije Lord Jagannath offers the sweet to Maa Lakshmi and the ritual is known as Bachanika.
➡️Dahi Macha is offered as a prasad in Maa Cuttack Chandi temple.
➡️Mudhi Ghanta where fish head and pieces are cooked with channa dal and vegetables is served in various devi pithas like Maa Ramachandi, Maa Baliharchandi, Maa Uttershwari etc.

➡️Where as facts claimed by Bengal is that,the spongy white rasgulla is believed to have been introduced in West Bengal in 1868 by Nobin Chandra Das in Kolkata. His descendants claim that his recipe was an original, but according to another theory, he modified the traditional Odisha rasagola recipe. In 2017, West Bengal was given GI status for Banglar Rasgulla. Odia Rasagola was declared different from Bengali Rasgulla and Odisha got its own Rasagola’s GI status on 29 July 2019.

➡️ Doi maach, Machhar matha diye dal is regarded as favourite of every bengali house.

Meenakshi Gupta in her book “The Calcutta Cook Book, a treasury of recipes from pavement to place” writes that odia cooks are referred to as “thakurs” and they cooked in  bengali feast.They took Odia recipes to the kitchen of Bengal and with time it becomes one of there favourite. I will suggest you all to go through an article on Google “Odisha’s bitter food battle with Bengal” written by Diana Sahu.


But why this food battle?
I believe that we should focus on popularizing our Odia dishes and the facts related to it. So that no such confusion would ever arise. Cause the evolution of a dish depends on popularity and its adaptation in a particular region.

Recipe of mudhi Ghanta:-

  1. Wash chana dal and soak it in water for 3 to 4 hours.
  2. Wash and chop vegetables (potatoes, pumpkin, raw banana, carrot, colocasia, yam).
  3. Then boiled the chana dal, chopped vegetables with 1 tsp turmeric powder, salt and water in a pressure cooker for 1 to 2 whistles. Keep aside.
  4. In a bowl add fish head and 4-5 fish pieces marinate it with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt.
  5. Heat mustard oil in a pan and fry the fish till it becomes golden in color. Keep them aside.
  6. Heat mustard oil in a kadai, add crushed garlic ginger and green chillies, cook for a minute.
  7. Now add chopped onions and cook till it become golden in color.
  8. Then add ginger garlic paste, roasted cumin and red chilies powder,turmeric powder and salt in it. Mix everything.
  9. Fry till oil separates from the mixture.
  10. Add chopped tomatoes, coriander powder and garam masala in it. Mix everything, cook till tomatoes become soft and tender.
  11. Add fish head and pieces to the masala mixture and fry for 5 minutes with the masala.
  12. Add boiled chana dal and vegetables into it.
  13. Mix all the ingredients and add water let it boil.
  14. After that crush the fish head with the help of spatula. Let it boil for sometime.

Finally serve the dish with Rice and Roti.

Veg Magura

Sometimes I don’t understand why Odia Cusine is so underrated,
Is it due to lack of popularity or due to our practices ????
We are forgetting our foods and recipes. Remember we can’t blame anyone else for ignoring our delicious food until we promote it ourselves. It’s our responsibility to prove Odisha is not only a state of Dalma, Dahibara, Chena Poda, Rasagola, but also many more dishes.
There are varieties of cuisines from each part of the state. Although we use similar spices but the style and process of cooking gives the dish a complete distinct flavour.

This dish also known as Saru patra Magura (Colocasia/Arbi leaves curry) is a very famous delicacy from western odisha.

Ingredients:-

9 Colocasia/Arbi/Saru Leaves

1 cup urad dal

3 tbsp Black Mustard

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1tsp roasted cumin and red chilies powder (Jeera Lanka Gunda)

1 cup thick yogurt

1tsp Panch phoran

5-6 garlic cloves

4-5 Green chillies

2 thin slice ginger

Curry leaves

Mustard oil

Salt

Water

Recipe:-

1. Take leaves of colocasia/saru/arbi, break their stems, and wash them properly in water. (Be careful, do not break the leaves)

2. Soak urad dal in water for 5 hours. In a blender add urad dal, ginger, green chillies, water and prepare the paste.
3. In a bowl add urad dal paste, salt, roasted cumin and red chilies powder, 2-3 tbsp water and mix everything to prepare a thick batter.
4.Keep the arbi leaves on a plate facing the upper surface and apply thin layer of urad dal batter. Place another leaf over it and again apply the batter, repeat the process using total 3-4 leaves for one whole roll. Roll it tightly from one end to other applying urad dal paste on each fold. Secure the end using some batter. Prepare total 3 sets of such roll.
5. Steam all the prepared leaves roll for 15 minutes or till it’s totally cooked on a steamer.
6. Let the leaves cool down completely, then cut them into round pieces.
7. Heat a pan and add mustard oil on it. Now fry the leaves pieces properly from both sides.
8. Heat a kadai, add mustard oil. Then add panch phoran, green chillies and Curry leaves, let it splutter.
9. In a bowl mix curd, 3-4tbsp mustard paste, salt and turmeric powder. (For mustard paste blend mustard seeds with some garlic, green chilies and water)
10. Now add the curd and paste mix in kadai, also add water and mix everything. Let it boil.
11. Finally sprinkle some roasted cumin and red chilli powder (Jeera Lanka Gunda) and add the fried arbi leaves pieces in the curry and let it boil. (Donot stir, or else it will break)

Finally enjoy the dish with Rice or Roti.