Dehrori: Chhattisgarh's Rice Gulab Jamun

Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand celebrate Holi with sweets made with humble pantry staples of rice, watery milk and jaggery. Anushka explores the humble dudhauri and dehrori, two sweets made using everyday kitchen staples.

A cousin of dudhauri, exalted as the rice gulab jamun, hails from Chhattisgarh.

Dehrori is etymologically derived from the word dehri, which translates as threshold, associated with worshipping the deities at the threshold of the house. The process for making this begins with a rice flour batter made with water, semolina, curd and a whiff of ghee, which once leavened for a couple of hours turns light and fluffy. Next, little spoonfuls of the same are deep-fried in oil, then soaked in jaggery syrup where they puff up and float delicately on the surface. Fermenting the batter overnight gives them a slight tartness that beautifully complements the sweetness of the jaggery.

My roommate from Korba tells me that this dessert sets the mood for Holi in her house. Although her mother, Sapna Gupta, now uses sugar syrup, she still has the original recipe with jaggery written down.

As Holi marks the herald of the summer and the change in season, it is is celebrated with tartness that comes from the fermented batter of dehrori.

SAPNA GUPTA’S RECIPE FOR DEHRORI

Ingredients

250g Arwa rice
250g plain yoghurt
50g semolina
1 tsp ghee (optional)
500g jaggery
3-5 cardamom pods

Method

Grind the rice coarsely until the particles resemble semolina.
To the ground rice, add in yoghurt, ghee and some water to make a thick batter.
Leave it to ferment for a couple of hours or even overnight until the batter turns light and fluffy.
Fry spoonfuls of the batter in oil on a medium flame until crispy, golden balls come into form.
As with dudhauri above, soak them in hot jaggery syrup until they soften, puff up and rise to the surface.
They are ready to serve immediately after.

From contributing to her school magazine to writing ad copy for start-ups such as Woman Ambassadors in Chicago, Anushka has always been writing. Now twenty-two and fresh from an internship at Siyahi, a prominent literary agency, she is now working at her family's hospitality venture, Mistwood Holidays and Resorts.

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