In Bihar the festival is not called Makar Sankranti so much as Dahi Chura, after the thing everyone eats on it. On the fourteenth of January the household bathes early and sits down to flattened rice softened in thick curd, with gur broken over it, and in some districts a bowl of mashed red pumpkin alongside. It is not cooked. That is the point of it: at the turn of the winter harvest, when the new rice has just come in and the buffaloes are giving well, the celebration is to eat the harvest as close to its raw state as the season allows, with nothing done to it but setting the curd. In Mithila the same plate is not only a festival — it is the ordinary breakfast, it was the food people travelled with, and it is what goes out at a bhoj to honoured guests. Tilkut, the sesame and jaggery sweet, follows it. Nobody in Bihar has to be told what date it is when the chura comes out.
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g thick chura (flattened rice)
- 600 g thick set curd or strained natural yoghurt
- 120 g block jaggery (gur, grated or broken into shards)
- 400 g red pumpkin (peeled and cubed)
- 1 tbsp ghee
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp asafoetida
- 2 dried red chillies
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp ghee (to finish)
- a few slivered almonds and pistachios
METHOD
- Put the chura in a colander and rinse it briefly under cold running water, no more than half a minute. Drain and leave it to sit for 10 minutes; it will swell and soften on its own.
- For the pumpkin, heat the ghee in a pan and add the cumin, asafoetida and dried chillies.
- Add the pumpkin, turmeric, salt and sugar, cover, and cook on low for 15 minutes until it collapses.
- Mash it roughly with the back of a spoon and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Whisk the curd until smooth and thick. It should be set enough to hold a spoon upright.
- Fold the softened chura into the curd and leave it 15 minutes so the grains drink it in.
- Spoon into bowls, break the jaggery over the top in shards rather than stirring it through, and add a spoonful of ghee to each.
- Scatter with the slivered nuts.
- Serve with the mashed pumpkin alongside, and tilkut afterwards if you have it.
