Dhaan

This is not a recipe but felt it really necessary to share the interesting culture associated with a simple thing like rice. Dhaan is cooked rice. It is a staple in Koli families. Rice is cooked in 2 ways.
Method I
1 cup rice in 4 cups water is boiled together till the rice is cooked. This is called Baitha Dhaan. The rice cooked this way forms a cake and is a bit sticky.

Method II
1 cup rice in 5 cups water boiled together. Check if rice is cooked. Drain through a sieve to get fluffy rice. This is called Yelnicha Dhaan.

In Thal the fisherfolk both men and women are very hard working. So the saying goes a lazy woman will make baitha dhaan but a hard working one will make Yelnicha Dhaan. Another thing if one likes baitha dhan he/ she would be asked are you old? You should be eating Yelnicha dhaan you are not old to just gulp down baitha dhaan.

Then came the era of pressure cookers. Now one get the dirty looks from villagers which silently say you eat cooker rice, what a shame.

Isn't that interesting?