Chura

Oryza sativa (flattened) · Chira · poha · chiura · flattened rice

Rice pressed thin enough to eat cold.

What it is

Chura is rice that has been parboiled, dried and rolled between rollers until each grain is a flat papery flake. It is sold in thicknesses: thin flakes collapse almost on contact with liquid, thick ones swell and hold. Because the rice was cooked before flattening, it needs only to be soaked or briefly heated.

Where it comes from

Eastern India and Nepal, where it is the standard convenience grain — Bihar, Bengal, Odisha and the Nepali hills all make and eat it. Its keeping quality and the fact that it needs no fuel made it travel food and offering food long before it was breakfast.

What it's called

Chura in Bihar · chira in Bengal · poha in the west · aval in Tamil · chiura in Nepal. All the same product; the grade and the local dish differ.

In the kitchen

In Bihar it is soaked in curd and eaten with jaggery, particularly at Makar Sankranti, or fried with peas and spices. Thick chura is essential for the curd version — thin flakes turn to paste. Rinse rather than soak, and let it stand; it will take up what it needs.

What we know about the claims

Easy to digest and a common convalescent food, which is fair — it is pre-cooked starch. Iron content is sometimes claimed from the rollers used in traditional milling, which is not a reliable basis for a nutritional claim.

Choosing and buying

South Asian grocers sell thick and thin, usually labelled poha. Buy thick unless a recipe says otherwise. It goes stale and musty within months, so check the date and store it sealed.