MURIR MOYA / PUFFED RICE N JAGGERY BALLS

In our childhood, evening snacks or say breakfast at times meant this kind of food, all homemade with lots of love and care. When I was at school, I used to visit my maternal grand parents' place during the vacations, paternal place been far off, in Assam. It was an altogether different concept of life, where summer meant picking mangoes from the garden and having them with puffed rice as breakfast or visiting the nearby lychee garden with our youngest aunt. I remember, my typical middle-class father hailing from the eastern part of undivided Bengal refused to have Indian breads during the summers, he loved having puffed rice or pre washed flattened rice with mango or jackfruit puree.

The Daddy, who we lovingly call Papu, even our cousins called him by the same name, had a transferable job. He stayed alone in remote townships of Bengal and visited us fortnightly. On his way back to the workplace, our mom would pack such snacks like murir moya, chirer moya, chirey bhaja for him, so that he could have them as evening snacks back from the office. Isn't that love? Though not dove kind of....

I too prepare such things like Murir Moya / Puffed Rice n Jaggery Balls at home, mainly during special prayers at home, as an offering to the God. We need less ingredients to prepare this Murir Moya / Puffed Rice n Jaggery Ball, the trick is in the stickiness of the jaggery in right consistency. The puffed rice has to be crisp. Its common in every Bengali home. Let us do the murir moya together, a sweet snacker. Now I know Southern India also eats it, even this island makes some kind of it.

I cooked it back in 2016 and successfully made the balls, but thereafter I was failing to. Today, a day in June, 2024, I again made them and updated the pictures.

INGREDIENTS :

Puffed Rice : 250gm
Jaggery [ankher gur] : 100-150gm
Ginger Extract : 1tsp
Shredded Coconut : 3-4tbsp [to garnish]

METHOD :

Few years back, I did them well, thereafter, I was failing. I have watched several videos, talked to our mother. I have learnt, a good quality jaggery is a must, I see the jaggery here has / have high quantity of sugar. But I wished to do them and click the stepwise pictures. I wanted to tell my readers that I was finding it difficult to do it. We are to prepare the balls while the mixture is pretty warm, I could manage some and the jaggery got cold & sugary. Let me go to Kolkata, buy the jaggery from a known shop and do again.

Place a wok on the gas top and heat moderately. Dry roast the puffed rice to get a crisper consistency, take down. 

Break the jaggery cubes into smaller pieces or just add the chunk to the wok. Add about half small cup of water. Let it melt.

Keep stirring the molten jaggery mix continuously, if there is impurities, we have to strain it.

Thereafter, we are to add the ginger extract. After 10-12 minutes, it will reach a sticky consistency. Add the puffed rice now slowly and little at a time and fold in well.

Transfer to a plate. Let cool a bit. We need to shape into balls while it is still warm. Wet your hands before you do it.

Garnish with shredded coconut before serving.

We can store Murir Moya for a week without refrigerating but no garnishing should be there. Coconut spoils very fast.

Enjoy Murir Moya / Puffed Rice n Jaggery Balls as a sweet snacker. It had been a childhood favourite.