Posted on
Saturday, August 23, 2008
8:11 PM
| By:
Degchi
Category: Rajasthani Recipes , sangri
I came to know about the weekend herb blogging from Srivalli's Cooking 4 All Seasons blog, which is an event started by Kalyan of kalynskitchen. Being from the state of Rajasthan, I took this opportunity to introduce the quintessential Rajasthani dish of all times - The Panchkuta.
This dish is essentially made up of 5 ingredients found widely across the Great Thar Desert. For ages, this has been the mainstay food of travellers across the desert. It has long shelf life after being cooked and does not require refrigeration unlike other foods. In case you are travelling through Rajasthan, don't be amused if you find your fellow traveller pulling up a box of Panchkuta with pooris/rotis and enjoying his lunch/dinner.
The five ingredients of Panchkuta are sangri, kair, Kumat, Goonda and dry red chillies.
Sangri ( Prosopis cineraria ) - Sangri ki phali (pods of the khejari tree) grows in Rajasthan. This is the protein powerhouse of the desert with 53 per cent protein. Linky
Kair ( Capparis decidua ) - This is a wild berry which grows on the shrubs in the Thar. Linky
Kumat ( Acacia Senegal ) - Seeds from the pods of this small deciduous tree. Linky
Other ingredient which form part of the Panchkuta is goonda (Cordia mixa) Linky. With the current place I am in, I couldn't get this.The taste of this dish is slightly different and has to be developed. If you taste it after soaking/boiling them, it might not be that agreeable, but once the dish is ready, the taste comes out really well.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sangri
- 1/4 cup kair
- 1/4 cup kumat
- 4 dry red chillies
- 1 tablespoon raisins
- 1 tea spoon haldi (turmeric) powder
- 2 tea spoon red chilli powder
- 2 tea spoon dhaniya (coriander) powder
- 2 tea spoon amchur(dry mango) powder
- 1/2 teas spoon cumin seeds
- pinch of hing (afsofedia)
- 2 tablespoon oil
- salt to taste.
Method
- Soak sangri, kair and kumatia in water overnight.
- Drain the water. Add 2 cups of fresh water,1 tea spoon salt and 1/2 tea spoon haldi and boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain the water.
- Heat oil in the pan. Add cumin seeds, hing and red chillies.
- Add sangri, kair and kumat.
- Add all spices and amchur powder. cook for 2 minutes.
- Serve with poori or bajri (millet) roti.
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Manisha..thats really a fantastic entry..thanks!
This a fabulous post. I wish i could prepare it straight away - it tickled my curiosity.There are so many things to experiment, so many food possibilities.
wow. this is amazing. i'm glad i've found your blog!
What a coincidence, I just posted Ker Sangri a week ago - I found the ker and sangri quite unexpectedly in a store near my home. I followed Tarla Dalal's recipe and she didn't include Kumat, but I saw it in some other recipes on the Net and wondered what it was used for.
it is my first time hearing of all these ingredients. Lots of knowledge update, thanks Manisha.
Thanks Srivalli, Valentina, Nikki,and LG.
@ sra
your sangri also look delicious...I made panchkuta that's why I used kumat else kair sangri recipe doesn't call for kumat.I missed Goonda in this recipe In rajasthan we also get the pickle of kair sangri and goonda.
Wow what an informative post....thanks for sharing :)
@Usha
my pleasure.....
Lovely post..an award for u on my blog
Tagged u here http://simpleindianfood.blogspot.com/2008/08/carrot-tofu-sevai.html
Sorry I am so slow at catching up on the WHB entries. I had a very rough week going back to school!
What an interesting post. I haven't heard of this dish or most of the ingredients either.
oh this is so fabulous, how I wish I could find ker sangri here:(
BTW, someone told my mom that another way to prepare ker sangri is to soak it overnight in water to which a little curd is added.
@delhibelle
yaa ..you heard it right, we can soak it in buttermilk.
Hi ya
This is my first time here... u have a nice space.
Nice straightforward recipe..thanks for sharing..
Do have a look at my recipes too!!
Cheers
This looks SPICY! Is it? Yum.
Please do collect your award from my blog....
Rajasthani food is my all time favorite!! I am going to try making this on the weekend!! Thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe!
wow!i liked your blog.yeah I am willing to try some recepies from your blog.keep posting more interesting yet simple ones.
I also love this dish....
and one suggestiong if u add Curd in it, it will give much more taste
Hey, I noticed that you live in US, so how did you get these ingredients here? Did you get them from India or made this dish while you were in India. Just curious as I would love to get my hands on these ingredients too :)
Priya - All the recipes on my blog are made at my home in US with provisions sourced from my trips to India.
Nice to meet another Rajasthani through these blogs.
hi, lovely recipe. can we pls have your email?