The fragrance of Kanika

Kanika has a fragrance that entices. When I visited Odisha in Jan 2024 and tasted this rice as part of the bhog at the Lingaraj temple sitting on the stone floor of the temple it was a moment that connected me to my Sanatani roots like never before. In Maharashtra there are few old stone temples and certainly none serves food on the premises! 

Hot food was served on disposable plates. Sai Priya of  mycookingcanvas my dear friend and Chef was making sure I was getting to taste the best of Utkal. Later I also enjoyed it at the Jagannath temple.

A morsel of it on the tongue and the spices and sweetness did a dance on my palate. 

Sai Priya has been doing Odisha temple food pop ups across the country and I have been tempted to go attend but alas! 

After a couple of days of drooling on her posts on Instagram finally I got into the kitchen to make Kanika. I would have loved pachedi too but I had other saved food in the fridge. 

Here’s how I made it after going through a few recipes online. 

Ingredients 

1 measure small grain rice like ambe mohor or Gobindo bhog

1/4 measure of jaggery

2 green elaichi

1 black cardamom or badi elaichi

1 tej patta

4 cloves 

1/4 teaspoon dalchini powder

10 peppercorns or miri

1 tablespoon Ghee

1 pinch saindhav / rock salt 

Handful of cashews 

Handful of golden raisins

Terracotta pot is a must for temple food cooked in Odisha style.

Begin with rinsing the raw rice. Then soaking it for 20 mins. 

Heat the Terracotta pot. Add ghee and let it melt. Once heated. Fry the cashews to golden and keep aside. Then fry the spices till aromatic. 

Now the rice that is soaked for 20 mins is drained on a sieve. Add this drained rice to the hot aromatic ghee with spices. Sauté for 2 mins. Add a pinch of Saindhav or rock salt. Top up with 3 measures water. Cook the rice till grains are fluffy about 15 mins. At the end add jaggery. Give the rice a nice mix and cover and cook another 5 mins. Remove cover fluff rice. If it looks slightly sticky no worries. As it cools the grains will separate and become fluffy as the jaggery and ghee coat the rice and stop further cooking. Now the final garnish is done with fried cashews and golden raisins. 

Serve and enjoy the flavours of temple food in the comfort of your home.