By Barnali Dutta
Published April 11, 2014
Sabu Makha Falahar is a traditional Bengali summer breakfast and fasting recipe prepared with soaked pearl tapioca, banana, grated coconut, batasa and sandesh. Traditionally enjoyed during hot summer mornings and religious fasting days, it is often served with refreshing Daber Sarbat (tender coconut drink), making it one of Bengal's simplest seasonal meals.
Sattvic foods are light and easy to digest, so this natural and healthy food may be enjoyed not only as part of rituals or customs, but also as a seasonal meal when we do not feel like eating much. Nowadays, when many of us prefer nutritionally rich and lower-calorie summer meals, such foods remain especially relevant. In my family, whenever we followed a long-term diet plan before a special occasion, with the goal of becoming slimmer, we often preferred this type of meal without feeling deprived.
Bengali culture has some remarkable food preparations associated with fasting rituals, many of which are also well suited to tropical climatic regions. These include doi chira, or yogurt with flattened rice, and doi khoi, or yogurt with popped rice, which are traditionally eaten before marriages or pujas as part of rituals known as Dadhikarma or Dadhimangal.
Other examples include jober chhatu with muri—barley sattu with puffed rice—traditionally eaten on Chaitra Sankranti; doodh sabu, made with pearl tapioca, milk, Bengali sandesh and fruits, and commonly prepared on fasting days such as Navratri, Shravan, Mahashivratri, Janmashtami and Ekadashi; chaal kola, made with soaked Gobindobhog rice and banana; gota mung dal makha, prepared on Neel Shasthi with ginger, lemon, grated coconut and seasonal fruits; and sinni, made with unboiled milk, fruits and wheat as prasad for Satyanarayan Puja or weekly Lakshmi Puja.
Here is one such traditional diet preparation for busy summer days.
Sabu Makha Falahar
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pearl tapioca
- Water, as required for soaking
- 5 to 6 batasa or sugar candies
- 2 teaspoons grated coconut, approximately 10 g
- 1/2 banana, mashed
- 1 banana, cut into cubes
- 3 teaspoons milk, approximately 15 ml
- 2 sweet basil leaves
- Salt, 1 pinch or as required
- 1 sandesh per person, optional
Method
Soak the pearl tapioca in sufficient water for 30 minutes. It will puff up to approximately one cup. Mix all the ingredients together and serve.
Yield: 2 servings.
Daber Sarbat — Green Coconut Malai Sorbet
Collect two tender green coconuts with soft kernels (নেয়াপাতি ডাব). Remove the tender coconut meat from the shell with the help of a spoon.
Take half of the coconut kernel, mix it well with the coconut water and chill. Before serving, shake the coconut water with crushed ice, a few drops of rose essence and one lemon leaf for 4 to 5 minutes.
After shaking, remove the lemon leaf. Garnish with the remaining soft coconut kernel and a lemon or basil leaf, and serve in chilled glasses. Keep the empty glasses in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Enjoy your summer morning breakfast and stay light and cool throughout the day. The combination of these two dishes will make your day, I promise.
Manohara Sweet Recipe
In Bengal, two or three excellent sweet shops can be found in almost every neighbourhood, and countless varieties of the famous Bengali sweet sandesh are easily available. This recipe information is especially useful for those who live away from Bengal and miss traditional Bengali sweets.
Manohara is a traditional sugar-coated Bengali sweet associated with more than one regional confectionery tradition. Janai in Hooghly is especially famous for its Manohara, while another Manohara tradition is associated with the Saha sweet-making community of Beldanga in Murshidabad district, West Bengal. The word Manohara means captivating, making it an appropriate name for this desirable Bengali sweet.
Ingredients
- The thin layer of milk or দুধের সর (sar)
- Reduced milk or kheer
- 2 to 3 teaspoons dried rose petals
- 1/2 teaspoon powdered green cardamom
- 1 tablespoon roughly crushed peanuts, optional
- 250 g sugar for coating
- Water, as required
Preparation
Boil one litre of full-cream milk in a heavy-duty, thick-bottomed hammered steel pan, such as a paella pan. Simmer it over low heat and do not stir the milk.
After 5 to 6 minutes, you will see a thin film forming on the surface of the milk. Collect the film each time and store it in layers at one side of the pan.
In this way, within one hour, the milk will reduce sufficiently and you will obtain approximately 100 g of sar, or thin films of milk.
Allow the remaining milk to reduce over low heat for another 20 minutes. Stir it occasionally at this stage. This reduced milk is called kheer in Bengal.
Take the kheer and the collected layers of milk film and mix them well. Add the dried rose petals and green cardamom powder. You may also add roughly crushed peanuts.
Shape the mixture into small balls. You should obtain approximately 20 small balls from one litre of milk.
Prepare a thick sugar syrup with 250 g sugar and the required amount of water. Remove it from the heat. Let it cool slightly, until you can safely touch the syrup with your finger.
Place the balls on a perforated ladle in batches. Dip the ladle with the balls into the syrup and remove it immediately.
Keep the coated balls separately on a plate and allow them to cool. The sugar-coated Manohara sweets will then be ready to eat.
The shape of a traditional Manohara is round, while the lower side is slightly flat.
