Mandia Pej: A Summer Millet Recipe from the Chuktia Bhunjia Tribe of Odisha
Finger millet is a beloved staple in the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe, and features prominently in many of their traditional dishes. One such summer delicacy is mandia pej, a refreshing meal prepared with finger millet flour and rice, ubiquitous to every Chuktia Bhunjia household during the hotter months. Abhijit Mohanty shares a recipe for this seasonal favourite.
The Boden block in Western Odisha’s Nuapada district is home to the Chuktia Bhunjia tribe, a particularly vulnerable tribal group in the state. Traditionally, the community sustained their livelihood from rain-fed agriculture, livestock and minor forest produce. Their food basket is diverse, ranging from millets, pulses, and cereals, to vegetables that they grow under a mixed system of organic farming, a method invented by their ancestors hundreds of years ago. In addition, they collect wild edibles from forests such as greens, flowers, tubers, roots, mushrooms, honey, fruits, berries and insects.
Every household in Chuktia Bhunjia constructs a sacred kitchen shed, separate from the main dwelling house, called lal ghar. Men are forbidden to enter this space.
Rukhi Bhujia has been cooking mandia pej for over three decades.
Women in the Chuktia Bhunjia community play a crucial role in ensuring food and nutritional security. They pass down their knowledge of traditional recipes over generations, utilising locally available produce and ingredients. Mandia pej is one such traditional dish. Rukhi Bhujia, 46, is a Chuktia Bhunjia woman who lives in Sethjampani village in the Boden block of Nuapada. She has been cooking mandia pej for over three decades. When Rukhi was about 8 years old, she would assist her mother prepare food in the lal ghar. Every household in Chuktia Bhunjia constructs a sacred kitchen shed, separate from the main dwelling house. It is called the lal ghar. Male members from the community are prohibited from entering the. If they do enter it, the women set fire and destroy the lal ghar.
“It is in this lal ghar, when I was a child, I learned the first recipe from my mother. And it was mandia pej, our beloved staple,” recalls Rukhi, her face beaming.
RUKHI BHUJIA’S RECIPE FOR MANDIA PEJ
Ingredients
100 g finger millet flour
200 g rice
Salt, to taste
Method
Heat water in a pot until it boils. Wash the rice and add into the boiling water.
Boil until the rice is cooked perfectly.
In a separate bowl, mix the finger millet flour with water to make a slurry, ensuring there are no lumps.
Gradually pour the finger millet slurry into the boiling rice, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.
Add salt, to taste, mixing everything thoroughly. Cook for another 8-10 minutes.
Serve the mandia pej along with greens or vegetable stir fry.
Abhijit Mohanty is a Bhubaneswar-based independent journalist. For over a decade, he has reported on food and nutritional security, culture, livelihood and environment issues of tribal and other marginalised communities in India.
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