The delicious dishes prepared for evening iftar and pre-dawn suhour meals during the Islamic month of Ramzan have become a subject of food tourism, especially on social media, where kebabs, samosas, rolls and a myriad other fried snacks rule the roost, alongside sugary milkshakes and juices.
But crowning it all, quietly, is the nonbu kanji, a mushy porridge that is prepared fresh every day in Muslim households and mosques across southern India.
Consumed only during iftar, when the day’s fast comes to an end, nonbu kanji is comfort food for the abstaining soul, aromatic like biryani, but without the grease and curried aesthetics of the rice dish. It is considered to be easier to digest after long hours of abstinence from food and water.
The kanji’s variants include the Arab gruel ‘harees’, and, closer home, the Hyderabadi ‘haleem’ and ‘khichra’. All these recipes involve slow cooking wheat and lentils with butter and seasoned mutton, beef or poultry to a mash.
The nonbu kanji’s warm and fuzzy presence on the iftar table makes it the perfect foil for accompaniments like samosas, pakodas, mint chutney, or pickles.
Kaima Urundai (Meatball) Kanji by Hazena Sayed. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A Ramzan staple
“No matter how many dishes one makes, the nonbu kanji remains a staple of the iftar menu. In South India, where it is regularly prepared in neighbourhood mosques as well as homes during Ramzan, each street can have its own distinctive style and flavour,” says Hazena Sayed, a food blogger from Tirunelveli who has documented 300 traditional recipes of the Ravuther Muslim community, and runs the sautefrynbake.com website.
“My knowledge of cooking is a blend of my mother’s recipes, with a link to her Keralite heritage, and my mother-in-law’s Tamil style of food preparation,” says Hazena, who grew up in Coimbatore.
Her fondest memory is of ‘jeeraga kanji’, made by her grandmother, with the porridge of samba rice and moong dal thickened using ground coconut paste towards the end. With the delicate seasoning of ‘jeeragam’ (cumin), the kanji would once make for a sumptuous start to iftar, she recalls.
“The use of ingredients depends on the region. Kanji is made with coconut milk extract rather than paste in the coastal town of Kayalpattinam, which we have picked up in Tirunelveli too, whereas in some of the interior towns, kanji is tempered with mint leaves flash-fried in hot ghee. Coconut and fresh mint are essential to the kanji flavour profile,” she says.
Chutneys are a must. “Brinjal is boiled or char-grilled, and then mashed with spices into a paste. We also use boiled yam and colocasia, or shallots and dried red chillies to make chutneys,” says Hazena.
Among her own spins to the kanji, are a version that uses oats and cabbage instead of rice, and the kaima urundai kanji where mincemeat balls are cooked in coconut milk before they are added to the basmati rice gruel.
Kaima Urundai (Meatball) Kanji by Hazena Sayed. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Easy to share
“Ramzan is not just about feasting. It is more about sharing our food with the less privileged, and a dish like nonbu kanji is the ideal example of this,” says Zulfia Syed, an engineer-turned-YouTuber who creates culinary content from Tirunelveli and the United Arab Emirates through her channel Zulfia’s Recipes.
“It is not easy to make a small serving, because a cup of rice cooked as kanji can feed at least eight people. Since the quantity can be scaled up, nonbu kanji is best for mass catering during Ramzan, especially in mosques. The pressure cooker has made it easier for home cooks to make kanji at home in smaller measures. Caterers usually prepare the gruel over firewood stoves and leave it on ‘dum’ (heat compress) for a few hours before serving it t. This gives a different taste to the final dish,” she says.
Kanji can be a meal in itself, which is why Zulfia advises home cooks to be sparing with the measurements when making it at home. “A small family of four needs only a few heaped tablespoons of rice and lentils to make a generous serving,” she says.
“The fragrance of nonbu kanji announces to the world that something special is being cooked. The biryani-like aroma tantalises people living next door, even though it is just a simple gruel that is being prepared. We add carrots and beans to the rice mixture, to make it more nutritious and suitable for our vegetarian friends,” says Ayesha Begum, a Tiruchi-based homemaker.
Zulfia Syed with nonbu kanji. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Ingredients for Nonbu Kanji. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
CHENNAI, TAMILNADU, 12/03/2024: Nombu Kanji being poured in to dishes on the first day of month of Ramzan . A Scenes at the mosque in Ellis Road in Chennai on Tuesday. Photo. Ragu R / The Hindu | Photo Credit: RAGU R
CHENNAI, TAMILNADU, 12/03/2024: Nombu Kanji being poured in to dishes on the first day of month of Ramzan . A Scenes at the mosque in Ellis Road in Chennai on Tuesday. Photo. Ragu R / The Hindu | Photo Credit: RAGU R
