Name: Shivam Sharma
Roll number: 23/5740
Course: B.Sc. (Hons.)- Mathematics
Email: shivam_119@outlook.com
Phone number: +91 8986426495
Address: KS-001-0144, Kishanganj (855108), Bihar
“Bhakka”
Where: The home to this dish.
Rice is more of a staple diet than wheat in the state of Bengal and in a few districts of eastern Bihar because of the high production of this crop in the aforementioned regions. Quite obviously there are many dishes based on rice.
What: Bhakka?
Only being restricted to a few number of places Bhakka is not quite well known like litti-chokhaa, yet it is one the finest snacks in the eastern Bihar and regions of West Bengal and Nepal. It is a fast food but unlike the used-to definition of fast food, it is quite healthy and not at all junk by any dimension. Bhakka is basically a fluffy cake made of granulated rice and some proportion of water. There are various ways of stuffing it with jaggery, sugar and lentils. Being made of rice, water and jaggery only, it is 100% healthy. It is mostly a winter dish.
How: Would you be able to prepare it?
A steel/aluminium pot is covered with a clay lid containing a hole in the center, resembling a pressure cooker. Even though this pot may reassemble a pressure cooker, bhakka can’t be cooked well with the latter.
Simultaneously granulated rice is mixed with relatively a little amount of water and then a cake like structure of this mixture is moulded in a bowl with jaggery, lentil, sugar, etc. stuffed in the centre of it.
The pot is filled with water and then this water is heated very well so as to eject vapour from the perforation.
Upon the release of vapour the mould with the cake of rice is covered with a cotton cloth and placed over the perforation upside down and after 20-30 seconds the mould is removed leaving only the cake wrapped in the cloth above the hole.
In a minute or three the cake is cooked as much is required. And the cake is then, generally, served in a small piece of newspaper.
Bhakka is sometimes served with pickle, fish curry of chutney and oftentimes it is eaten just like that, only jaggery centered in it.
Benefits: Or is it just more tastier?
Health benefits:
Bhakka can be made only of white rice and it has many health benefits associated with it.
White rice is gluten-free and rich in antioxidants and carbohydrates.
It is proven that white rice maintains blood pressure and boosts immune system.
Likewise jaggery is very much beneficial for our body.
Jaggery is rich in nutrients and help to purify blood.
It boosts energy levels and helps in digestion.
And one of the benefits of jaggery is that it can help relieve menstrual pain.
Anything that is a part of Bhakka, like lentil, is very nutritious and beneficial.
How does it help as a source of income?
If by any chance you visit Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar, a few districts in Bihar in winter, you would notice women selling bhakkas alongside the road with earthen stove and preparatory materials for bhakka. It feels plenty good to eat bhakkas and enjoy the hot cake in chilling winter. These women sell bhakkas in winter as it is very economically profitable.
You would rarely, or not at all as I have, see a man selling bhakkas. It is mostly and totally, as I have seen, done by women. It is quite easy to jump to a conclusion that for financial reasons women are selling foods. But only when you belong to such places and have seen the real reasons you’d be surprised.
The women selling bhakkas are usually widows or women whose husbands are drunkards who do not work and feed on the wives’ earnings. In winter these women earn food for their families by selling bhakkas and in other seasons they find something else to do.
Conclusion:
Bhakka is a very healthy snack in parts of Bihar, Bengal and Nepal. Though it is made in homes to dine upon, it is generally sold by women who do so to earn their families food. It is recommended to try these at your homes and if possible visit the natives to try these.
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