20th March,Universal Pakhala Day celebrated

Welcoming Summer in mid-March, people of Odisha replace their lunch plate with a bowl of Pakhala/Water rice. Pakhala is the favourite of every Odia and it’s also the symbol of recognition of every Odia, in Odisha or abroad. A person can never erase his/her love for his motherland likewise an Odia can never forget Pakhala, irrespective of social classes.

Before few years while discussing Pakhala on an Odia group on a social networking website. The group decided to celebrate Universal Pakhala Day to welcome Summer. As Pakhala is the favourite dish of every Odia and holds a special place in every Odia’s heart, so it is every Odia’s responsibility to promote this special and unique dish. Then a question must be arising  Why 20th March? The answer to it is, as the whole discussion was done on 20th March, it is decided to celebrate the special occasion on that day. The Celebration got recognized in a very short span of time and hope it will reach every corner of the world.

What is Pakhala / Water Rice?

Pakhala is an Odia/Oriya term for Indian food consisting of cooked rice washed or little fermented in water. The liquid part is known as Torani.

It is popular in Odisha/Orissa, Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. It is a traditional dish of every Odia, prepared with rice, curd, Cumin seeds, and mint leaves. It is popularly served with roasted vegetables like potato, brinjal, Badi & saga Bhaja, or fried fish. Dry fish is said to be the best dish to be served with Pakhala. It was included in the recipe of Lord Jagannath Temple of Puri during circa as mahaprasad.

Types of Pakhala

There are diffrent types of pakhala, Jeera Pakhala, Dahi Pakhala, Garama Pakhala, and Basi Pakhala.

How to make Pakhala?

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Rice
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• 2 teaspoon oil
• 2 slit green chili
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger Julian
• Bunch of curry leaf
• 2 cup water for cooking rice
• 1 bottle of chilled water

Method :

• Cook rice with 2 cup of water. Add chilled water in the rice.

• Add lemon juice and salt in it. Stir it well. It is call plane pakhala.

• Add curd or lemon juice according your choice. Heat a pan, Add oil.

• When oil became hot crackle mustard seed, curry leaves, green chili. Saute it for little.

• Put the tadka in the curd rice. Sprinkle cumin powder, ginger Julian and chopped coriander leaves on top.

• Pakhala is ready to be served. But let it cool down before you eat. Serve it with fish fry or dry meat curry.

Pakhaḷa tastes best when served after 8 to 12 hrs after preparation. Generally boiled potato and other fried vegetables or fried fish is served with pakhaḷa. Modern day variation is to add curd instead of fermenting it.

OdiaLive has introduced a lot of unique segments for the 1st time in any website of Odisha which Includes ….

Read – Know-How and When Pakhala Dibasa started.

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