Corn n Rice with Greens cooked North East Indian Style

Corn n Rice with Greens cooked North East Indian Style~Indian State Meghalaya

Corn n Rice with Greens cooked North East Indian Style is the simple yet delicious meal from the state of Meghalaya in India!

The people of Meghalaya, like the other indigenous communities, have their typical cooking pattern, according to the availability of foodstuff in Meghalaya. Moreover, the Meghalaya cuisine can be divided into three distinctive styles: Garo, Khasi and Jaintia.

However, in spite of their differences in the cooking styles of the tribes, the main Meghalaya food comprises of rice along with fish or meat preparations. The food crops of Meghalaya are rice and maize, rice being the staple food.

Fruits like oranges, guava, pineapples, bananas, lemon, etc form an important part of the food in Meghalaya and are grown here.

The people of Meghalaya have a varied diet from rice and maize, millet, tapioca, etc. Besides, the people of Meghalaya rear goats, pig, ducks, and fowls and consume their meat they also eat the meat of bison, deer, wild pigs, etc. Fish, crabs, eels, prawns, dry fishes also form a major part of the food in Meghalaya.The people of Meghalaya practice ‘jhum’ cultivation; and the yields are a part of the diet.

Don’t be surprised if you see the people of Meghalaya are chewing Betel leaf and unripe betel nut. Like in the
mainland people prefer having betel leaf, along with dried tobacco and lime.

In Meghalaya, a special kind of beer is prepared from fermented rice. The rice beer is prepared by fermenting the rice and then distilling it. The use of rice-beer is most prevalent during the various religious ceremonies.

Thus, it is evident that food is a typical to Meghalaya cuisine with its own innovations and delicacies.

Coming down to my experiences cooking for Meghalaya…

I was tearing my hair out for I was tearing my hair out for Meghalaya.I tried fermenting the soya bean.
My experiments with the beans ended up in the bin as Bai decided that I had forgotten the beans and they were not edible.

I was at my wit’s end… the nagging thought was with so much green cover how come there are no vegetables eaten?
Since the food is mainly boiled or smoked or fermented there has to be something I can make which we will like.

Finally, I hit gold when I read this page called Down to Earth the author has introduced “chef from Shillong, Lambert Chiang, currently a junior sous chef at Sheraton New Delhi.

Chef Lambert Chiang is responsible for introducing the author to the various greens that Meghalaya has and the author has said, ” It is often assumed that people in the north-eastern states eat only non-vegetarian food. But then assumptions about the culture and cuisine of people in the Northeast is more often than not proved wrong. Just as a meal in a home in the region is considered incomplete without a piece or two of meat of choice, it is equally incomplete without vegetables. “

Then there was a discussion on tree tomatoes, various kinds of mustard etc. and how the different tribes have their meat but it is considered incomplete without greens.

Finally in the last paragraph the site of my buried treasure I found this paragraph,” Last year, Chiang enthralled the visitors by giving a modern touch to the dishes prepared by the village residents. He also tried his hand at innovative dishes, using ingredients like millets. His version of corn rice is worth trying. This is essentially made of short grain rice cooked with corn kernels and water. The procedure is simple: soak the rice in water for ten minutes; take the corn
kernels and boil for 15 minutes and blend it roughly and keep aside. The corn is added to the rice and cooked in water. You can have this with any vegetable of your choice. And, it does taste better than plain rice.”

That’s exactly what I have done. Served it with the methi or fenugreek leaves that I had seen at Rajani’s place, of course, Rajani had used Palak or spinach I had methi and loads of it and hmarcha rawt.

It was awesome.

Corn n Rice~ Indian State Meghalaya

Rice and Corn Meghalaya Style

Indian State: Meghalaya

Recipe Source: Greens of Meghalaya

For Rice Meghalaya Style you will
need:

½ cup rice
¼ cup corn
Salt
Water

Method:

Wash and soak the rice (used ½ cup water) for 10 minutes. ( I used Sona masuri).
In the cooker, I boiled the corn with ½ cup water for 1 whistle.
Once the pressure dropped I removed the corn (thanked my stars they cooked but needed some more cooking about ¾ done ) and blended them with the immersion mixer. Coarsely.
Next, I added the corn ( and the water) and the rice with the soaked water. The water was approximately double the corn and rice, added salt, mixed well and cooked for 1 whistle.
Remove when the pressure drops.

The veggie is simple you can check it out here but for my own reference, I prefer to write it down here.

Greens North East Indian Style

Greens cooked North East Indian Style

Recipe Source: Aakhol Ghor and My Kitchen Trails

Ingredients:

1 bundle methi washed and picked ( I did not cut it)
Oil
½ teaspoon paas puran(optional not in original recipe )
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
½ inch piece of ginger grated
1 onion chopped
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a kadhai/wok.
Add the paas puran when it splutters add the ginger garlic. Fry till you get an aroma.
Add the onion and greens. Let the greens wilt a bit.( this gives me a better idea of the amount of salt to use).
Cover and let it cook under the lid, say 5 minutes.
Serve hot with the rice.

As for hmarcha rawt wait until tomorrow!!

Hmarcha Rawt

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Comments

Priya Suresh says

April 18, 2014 at 8:32 am

Wonderful spread there, not only u all of us are seriously terrified coz of their way of eating, some foods disturbed me a lot.

Srivalli says

April 18, 2014 at 8:38 am

Archana, I was so tempted to make this rice..only since I didn't get any side dish I dropped the idea..very nice one..and same pinch on the chutney.

Usha says

April 18, 2014 at 1:03 pm

The greens look are so inviting and but have taste awesome with that the corn rice. Looking forward to see how you made hmarcha rawt.

vaishali sabnani says

April 18, 2014 at 1:08 pm

so you found the treasure buried deep in…lucky you..the whole set up looks gorgeous..lovely colours and well served.

The Pumpkin Farm says

April 18, 2014 at 4:49 pm

he he …i will do same pinch tomorrow :), rest of the dishes look like a complete meal, which is so rare for NE states

Varadas Kitchen says

April 19, 2014 at 1:56 am

Reading through pages to find one paragraph or description of a dish that can be replicated. This was one hard state to find recipes for. The rice looks colorful and the whole platter looks great.

Harini-Jaya R says

April 21, 2014 at 12:48 pm

Excellent research Archana. Interesting recipes here!

Nivedhanams Sowmya says

April 21, 2014 at 1:24 pm

beautiful spread!!! well presented!!

Jayanthi Padmanabhan says

April 22, 2014 at 2:38 pm

makes a nice complete meal.. it happens to me also.. our profound cooking experiments get mistaken for trash 🙂

Gayathri Kumar says

April 25, 2014 at 10:42 am

Archana, these NE states are driving us nuts. Nice experience though. Your spread looks simple yet delicious…

Pavani N says

April 29, 2014 at 2:04 am

Such a simple and delicious dishes from Meghalaya.

Chef Mireille says

May 03, 2014 at 8:05 pm

so simple perfect meal when you are short on time

Manjula Bharath says

May 27, 2014 at 9:31 pm

wow glad you were able to bring a spread from this NE state dear 🙂 Corn pulao looks very delicious.. It was a nice experience to hunt for recipes from these states that too veg once 🙂

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