Sunday 26 February 2012

Ondla Jwng Naa Jwng



Ondla Jwng Naa Jwng (Fish curry with rice powder) 


Ondla is another favourite curry of the Bodos. It's an extremely delicious and very healthy dish, basically made of ground rice, can be cooked with fish, chicken or pork. There are many variations to this curry. Following is the recipe to make Fish in Ondla Ingkhree with either baskar bibaar or mwdwmphool bibaar.
A few Bodo terminologies:
1. Ondla: a curry cooked with ground rice.
2. Ingkhree: curry
3. Naa: fish
4. Jwng: with
5. Baskar bibaar:known as Bahek Tita or Tita Bahekor Phool in Assamese. A tiny red flower, tastes a bit bitter, believed to be nutritious.
6. Khaari: alkali,known as Kol Khaar or Kola Khaar in Assamese.Procedure of making:sun dry  peels and trunks of banana plant and burn to collect the ash. Then pour water, keep over night, strain and store the clear brown liquid to use in curries. This is very common and used in a variety of dishes all over the North Eastern part of India.
7. Mwdwmphool bibaar: papaya flower
   
Ondla can be cooked with either meat or fish alone. But adding Baskar bibaar or mwdwmphool bibaar certainly enhances the taste as well as the colour and texture of the curry. This is my observation, over the years, cooking and visiting many Bodo village kitchens. 
To cook Ondla Jwng Naa Jwng,  you need:




Fresh(live if possible) fish 6pieces. Seen in the above picture are pieces of a 'Sole' fish.


1cup baskar bibaar, cleaned and washed.




Baskar bibaar can be replaced by 100g mwdumphool bibaar. 


    1/2 cup rice, soaked for an hour and ground to a fine paste with water. Normally this recipe is made with rice powder. But if not an expert, the curry gets lumpy while cooking. This variation gives a smoothness to the curry.


1tblsp Khaari.


6pods of garlic, ground coarsely. Half tsp turmeric. Salt to taste. Chopped green chilly to taste. 1tblsp oil for the curry and 1/2 cup to fry fish. A bunch of fresh coriander, chopped.


Fry the pieces of fish smeared with turmeric and salt.
Heat oil in a pan and fry baskar bibaar, adding salt, turmeric and chilly. Pour water and cook for about 5mnts.


Now pour out the rice paste into the pan stirring constantly. Cook for another 5mnts.


Put in the fried pieces of fish and cook. Add garlic paste and stir well when fish is cooked, cook for a few more minutes. Finally add Khaari and chopped coriander.


Ondla Ingkhree with fish and baskar bibaar is ready to serve.
This curry can be cooked with a little variation by replacing baskar bibaar with mwdwmphool bibaar, tastes almost same, only colour of the curry is pale.



Method is same, in place of baskar bibaar, fry mwdwmphool bibaar ...


... add water, cook till the bibaars are tender. Pour the rice paste stirring and cooking for a few minutes.


Put in the fried pieces of fish and garlic paste. Cook for sometime and finally, add khaari and chopped coriander.


Ondla Ingkhree with fish and papaya flower is ready.



5 comments:

  1. Is the line "Ondla Jwng Naa Jwng-Baskar Bibaar/Mwdwmphool Bibaar Jwng " written in boro script or Boro language in English ?? What I mean to say is how a non bodo viewer to this page will interpret and read the name of recipe ? Recipe steps is in english and will be well understood by all.
    Excuse me if I am wrong. This particular thing which is used in names also keeps me haunting to speak out and get the answer.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the suggestion Pranoy, I'm certainly going to edit the name. You are right, actually whether one makes this curry with Baskar bibaar or Mwdwmphool bibaar, the name is Ondla.
      Nice of you to take out time and visit this space. Do point out the flaws and keep your suggestions flowing. Thanks once again.

      Delete
  2. God bless you Ruprekha! You make our humble Ondla curry (I guess that is what people are gonna call it once it becomes popular) so classy and an elite dish!

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  3. I am compiling a list of Bodo dishes and will put these into practice in the future. Keep up the good work! And hey don't worry about the username using which I am posting this. That is from an earlier post in response to some political policies I didn't like! :)

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  4. We generally dont use turmeric in khar dishes . Fo Bodos use it ??

    ReplyDelete