This is the meal that starts Chhath, and it is built for what comes after it. On Nahay Khay, the first of the four days, the fasting women bathe in the river and carry that water home to cook with. What they cook is bottle gourd and rice, with chana dal alongside — no onion, no garlic, seasoned with rock salt, over a clay or wood stove. Then they eat once, and the fast begins: thirty-six hours without food or water. The choice of vegetable is not arbitrary. Bottle gourd is almost entirely water and holds it; rice cools and releases slowly; the dal carries enough protein to make the day survivable. A folk scholar in Patna puts it plainly — the tradition was made with the body’s needs in mind. It is called the first offering of faith, and it is also, read another way, thirty-six hours of preparation disguised as lunch.
INGREDIENTS
- 150 g chana dal (soaked 1 hour)
- 1 medium bottle gourd (lauki, about 700g, peeled and cubed)
- 300 g short-grain white rice
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp asafoetida
- 2 dried red chillies
- 3 green chillies (slit)
- 3 cm ginger (grated)
- 2 medium tomatoes (chopped)
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2 tsp rock salt (sendha namak)
- 600 ml water (for the dal and gourd)
- 600 ml water (for the rice)
- a handful of coriander leaves (chopped)
METHOD
- Drain the soaked chana dal. Boil it in 600ml water with the turmeric until just tender but still holding, about 20 minutes. Do not drain.
- Heat 2 tbsp of the ghee in a wide pan. Add the cumin, asafoetida and dried chillies and let them darken for a few seconds.
- Add the ginger and green chillies, then the tomatoes and coriander powder, and cook until the tomatoes break down.
- Tip in the cubed bottle gourd and the rock salt. Stir to coat, cover, and cook on low for 15 minutes without adding water — the gourd releases plenty.
- Uncover and cook until the pieces turn translucent at the edges and taste sweet rather than green.
- Add the cooked chana dal with its liquid and simmer together for 10 minutes so the two settle into each other.
- Meanwhile boil the rice in the second 600ml of water until soft, and drain.
- Finish the gourd and dal with the last tablespoon of ghee and the coriander.
- Serve the rice and the kaddu together on one plate, with nothing else on it.
