Thursday, April 17, 2014

Chahou Kheer - Manipuri Special

Manipur is situated in the North Eastern part of India and this state is named as the Land of Jewels coz of its rich tradition with many cultural aspects like dance, theater,sculpture, martial arts and the cuisine. The most distinct characteristic of this Manipuri cuisine is hot and rich in nature. This cuisine have many delicious dishes which are simple to cook and healthy to eat. The staple food of Manipur is rice,fish and leafy vegetables. Most of Manipuris have a kitchen garden where they grow vegetable and a pond where they grown up their fishes.Various aromatic herbs ,roots and certain vegetables are found only in this region are used to prepare their dishes that makes this cuisine so unique from other cuisines of India. Manipuris dishes are mostly hot and they use their locally grown chillies. Iromba is a popular Manipuri dish, this fish chutney consists of fermented fish called Ngari and chillies. Fish have their prominent place in Manipuri cuisine.Ngari is a favourite among the locals, they can give up the meal a day but they cant live without Ngari a day. Food is served traditionally on banana leaves and eaten by sitting on the floor.

Eromba one among the popular Manipuri dish is prepared with potatoes,vegetable and with excess of chillies with dry fish while Singju is a healthy salad prepared with a variety of vegetable and Ngari. Kangshboi or chamthong is a dish prepared with seasonal vegetable and ngari definitely.Morok Metpa is a hot dish prepared with a mixture of dry chillies and green chillies,onions and coriander leaves. While the traditional dishes are hot, this cuisine have a special place for desserts too. Their desserts includes Chahou kheer(rice kheer), Madhur Jaan (gramflour fritters in sweet milk), Kheer Angouba, Khamen Ashinba Athoomba (sweet tomatoes), Sangom kheer (rice pudding), Chakhao Matum (black rice fritters) and Heinou Thongba ( a sweet mango dish) served usually after a heavy meal. I picked Chahou Kheer from this cuisine which goes for simple ingredients like rice,milk, few dry fruits and sugar. Chahou Kheer is nothing the rice kheer which i simply loved as this recipe goes for quick preparation, i used pressure cooker and trust me the cooking time is just less half an hour. An easy breezy kheer you can enjoy both warm or chilled.


Recipe Source: Chakkum
1cup Rice (washed & soaked for 15minutes)
2nos Bayleaves
1cup Sugar
6cups Milk
4nos Cardamom (slightly crushed)
Few coconut pieces or 2tbsp Grated coconut
1tsp Raisin
Few cashew nuts
Few cherries for garnishing

Boil the milk in pressure cooker, add the bay leaves, cardamom,cook for few minutes.

Add the soaked rice, sugar and give a stir.

Close the pressure cooker and cook for a whistle, put the flame in simmer and cook for 10minutes

Put off the stove.

Once the pressure gets released, cook the kheer in medium flame.

Add the raisins, grated coconut, cashewnuts,cook for few seconds.

Serve warm topped with few dry fruits and cherries.

36 comments:

Sandhya Ramakrishnan said... Reply To This Comment

Looks delicious Priya! Bay leaf in a kheer is very unusual. Did you taste the bay leaf?

Lifewithspices said... Reply To This Comment

yummy recipe n loads of info abt tis state

vaishali sabnani said... Reply To This Comment

The kheer bowl looks very interesting..love the garnishes and presentation.

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said... Reply To This Comment

wonderful post as always. now you made me crave payasam.

Suma Gandlur said... Reply To This Comment

Yummy kheer. these eastern states have a tendency to add bay leaves to kheer dishes.

Srivalli said... Reply To This Comment

That's a lovely kheer, you guys have done a great job in translating their dishes!

Sona said... Reply To This Comment

delicious and yummy kheer...

Priya said... Reply To This Comment

look fabulous akka .so tempting

The Pumpkin Farm said... Reply To This Comment

this looks closer to our regular kheer but with the spices i am sure therre was a nice twist of taste, well found

Rafeeda AR said... Reply To This Comment

bay leafs in a kheer??? that sounds interesting... looks like a yummy bowl..

great-secret-of-life said... Reply To This Comment

so creamy and tasty kheer

Sanoli Ghosh said... Reply To This Comment

fingerlicking good kheer. Irresistible....:)

Shama Nagarajan said... Reply To This Comment

awesome...wonderful preparation

Chitra said... Reply To This Comment

Kalakureenga Priya :)

Sona - quick picks/pick quicks said... Reply To This Comment

yumm yummm yummmy !!! Priya !!!

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

Yummy kheer..cute props.interesting to know about recipes of other states.

MySpicyKitchen said... Reply To This Comment

Such a delicious kheer! Bay leave seems to be a very common ingredient used in almost every dish.

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

Wow! That's one mouth watering kheer and loved the container too.. Beautiful presentation Priya.. :)

Julie said... Reply To This Comment

wow..delicious :)

Menaga Sathia said... Reply To This Comment

Thxs for sharing the info for this state..lovely kheer n pot too...

Suja Manoj said... Reply To This Comment

New recipe,sounds great and looks super yum

Vidhya said... Reply To This Comment

Sounds and looks so tempting.

Nadji said... Reply To This Comment

Encore une belle découverte qui met l'eau à la bouche.
J'en mangerai avec plaisir.
A bientôt

Varada's Kitchen said... Reply To This Comment

The kheer looks yummy! Love the taste of bay leaves in sweets.

FewMinute Wonders said... Reply To This Comment

Lovely to see your post on Manipur cuisine. Great to know how each state treats the kheer and add their flavors. Loved the click.

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

So beautiful presentation Priya,,,me too own similar bowl sitting somewhere in corner ..need to put it to use soon

Unknown said... Reply To This Comment

you have presented it so well Priya!! loving this delicious kheer!!

Harini R said... Reply To This Comment

Good one. I have observed that the Manipuris seem to be using Bay leaves in desserts, right?

Sundari Nathan said... Reply To This Comment

Am drooling over your kheer!! very tempting :)

jayanthi said... Reply To This Comment

such an easy and yummy dessert. and so quick too.. lovely kheer

Gayathri Kumar said... Reply To This Comment

Kheer looks very flavourful and rich...

Pavani said... Reply To This Comment

That is such a flavorful and delicious kheer.

Chef Mireille said... Reply To This Comment

kheer looks good with the cherries

Nalini's Kitchen said... Reply To This Comment

Such a creamy and yummy looking kheer..sounds very inviting.

Padmajha said... Reply To This Comment

I am so hesitant to use bayleaves in desserts. But I guess it will be great to taste. Nice one Priya:)

Archana said... Reply To This Comment

Bay leaf? I forget to use it my pulaos and biryanis! Wow Priya sound flavourful