TRADITIONAL MALPUA

 

DURGA PUJA IS OVER BUT IT DOES NOT SADDEN ME ANYMORE, IT USED TO IN MY STUDENT LIFE!

I hated studies during my entire school life! I didn't enjoy most of the subjects. The school did not give us the proper guidance we required, it itself was going through a turmoil. We were made Guinea Pigs in the hands of the newbie teachers coming and going! Whilst other nearby schools had teachers well equipped with the board syllabi! Till date I regret the poor start of my academic life! I enjoyed going to the school but the academic part remained uninteresting! Once in the college, I took up the subjects that interested me but friends & chatting occupied me so much so that I proved to be an insincere student! The parents never insisted I should work, earn, have a career! Whenever a festival or a long holiday would end, I dreaded the academic part, of opening the books every evening! I never did enjoy reading the text books! Today when I see the youngsters quite focussed about what they want in life, choosing the field of study way in advance, I feel proud of them! I wish I had been sincere a bit! My regrets multiply when I see myself in a vegetative state when it comes to finding a decent job for myself, I am not eligible for any!

HOWEVER USELESS I THINK I AM, I DO NOT STOP ENJOYING THE LIFE!

I thank my men for this, they do not criticise or shame my useless self! Once the forceful association with text books were done with, life got easier! I enjoyed doing the masters & the bachelor of education degree courses because by that time you are specialising only in one area! But somehow my lack of confidence did not allow me to use my full potential! Not everyone is born with talent, any mediocre can do good in life if the person is a bit organised with an aim! Today, when I am free of the responsibilities more or less & want to earn some decent dollars, I see my lack of communication skill stands in the way of my wishes! My friends flatly say my unfriendly nature would not get me business! What they say and suggest is true but it is impossible for me to make hundreds of friends at this time to get business! I am not built for it! How beautiful it feels to walk the island alone, sit & have quiet meals! Today, I was at my doctor's, Vincent is down to the earth with absolutely no airs! Even the sisters working in his team, in both his chambers are nice! My today's lunch was this and I had it in a known food stall run by few young boys! I do not like food served on those broken plates but they give you food at the cheapest rate! Moreover, they are like my kids!

I planned not to eat anything with my evening tea but I could not keep my promise! There is an increase in weight! Not only my poor diet & lack of exercise, attaining menopause is also a major reason! Any day I enjoy only walking and swimming! I am soon to start swimming, all of my toning is gone! Also, I can feel there has been a lot of water retention!

Today I got home the local style "muri chikki" but it was too low in sweet! A little more of jaggery or sugar in it would have been better! Although I do not have an average Bengali's sweet tooth, I am weak about some varieties of sweets!

Today, it feels I am only capable of writing; pages after pages of what's there on my mind! Then, there too you have to be organised & systematic, have language skills! As per a friend who is a published author; I have to write everything in the pdf format, run after the publishers, also spend from my pocket to publish whoever agrees! Else, I need to catch an editor to organise into a format picking from my blog! But I want only my name on a book's cover! But yes, if I could pick up portions from my blog and organise into a format, get published; the second, third would have come easier; the flow comes with confidence & not all authors need to be bestsellers! I expected the men to help me with it, lazy beings like me hardly can achieve anything! A happy loner like me cannot do useless talks with people to get food orders, the very thought irritates, more irritating is when strangers ping with no intent to get me business!

WHAT IS THIS TRADITIONAL MALPUA?

Eversince I got to my senses, I had been eating malpoa and  patishapta, perhaps chushi too made from rice flour, never with semolina and refined flour! It is in my immediate family, refined flour & semolina started to be used for making "pithe-puli"! It is same for the most in the Bengali Community, that in the early 80's the female heads in the family started using refined flour & semolina in place of "atap chal" for a couple of sweet meat recipes! I had a long standing wish to do malpoa / malpua the traditional way! Okay, I have used the idly / dosa rice grain variety for making this TRADITIONAL MALPUA, that is a gluten-free, vegan fried snack, an authentic Bengali recipe! It is an immense pleasure for me to author a detailed blogpost about it! Trust me, it is easy to cook using few ingredients! But we cannot use readymade rice-flour in the recipe!

INGREDIENTS :

RICE KERNEL : 1 1/2 COFFEE MUG

BANANA : 1 OR 2 STANDARD SIZED

SHREDDED COCONUT : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP

JAGGERY POWDER : 1 SMALL TEA CUP [USE AS PER YOUR REQUIREMENT]

SUGAR : 2 TBSP

FENNEL SEED : 1 TSP

OIL : 100-150 ML TO DEEP FRY

PROCEDURE : 

We would wash & soak the rice for at least 5-6 hours or overnight! Thereafter, we would drain the soaked water, wash again & blend the rice kernels to a paste, adding a little of water to the blender!

We cannot make it runny, neither paste like! We would take it in a bigger bowl and add the rest of the ingredients to it except the oil!

We would mix together all of them well, I did not mind using my right hand for this!

We would cover the batter for an hour, this is a must do!

We would stir the batter before starting to fry! We would heat the oil in a wok but not to the smoking point! 

We would use a deep bottomed, round spoon for the purpose! Before frying each one, we would stir the batter to avoid deposits in the bottom!

When one side browns, we would turn over & brown the other side! The oil should never be too hot!

Hold the perforated ladle above the wok for a while to drain as much oil as possible and then place each on to a tissue paper for sometime before transferring to a serving bowl!

If you want round, fluffier malpoa, use a round shaped, deep bottomed wok & more of oil; if flatter ones, use a wok like mine!

If you eat them fresh & hot, they would taste crisp! The use of banana softens the interior! If storing for a later use, refrigerate once they are cold, take out an hour before, re-heat at the lowest power for 30 seconds before having! Or you may not reheat, just eat at normal temperature!