Boka Chaul is a native rice of the state of Assam, India, which is well-known for its unique property of preparation by just soaking it in water at room temperature. It is a group name attributed to the entity product with whole rice kernels processed through parboiling the rice grains of a special kind of winter rice called Boka dhan.
Boka Chaul is mostly cultivated in Nalbari, Barpeta, Goalpara, Baksa, Kamrup, Dhubri, Kokrajhar and Darrang districts of lower Assam. It is a winter rice or sali, which is sown from the third and fourth week of June.
Boka chaul in Assamese means soft rice which indicates the state of the rice at the time of eating. Even though its processing method is same as that followed for making parboiled rice eaten in the staple diet, boka chaul needs no cooking unlike parboiled rice.
The peculiarity of this rice is that it attains texture comparable to cooked rice on soaking in lukewarm water for a few minutes. The property of many Boka rice group like Bhari-dhowa Panta a Panta sub-group, requires even less time, say 12-15 minutes of soaking in cold water.
As for this short-grain variant's unique softness, it is a result of its low content of amylose, a starch component that contributes to the hardness of food grains. Compared to the usual 20-25% in most of the regular rice varieties, it contains just 8-12 % amylose. This also makes Boka chaul easily digestible, which is why this fragrant and fluffy rice is light on the stomach
Traditionally in Assamese culture, at the eleventh hour of arrival of guests or during the need of savouring home made light dishes at any undecided moments or at the time of guerrilla warfare in want of hurriedly consuming dishes in the bygone days of swords and arches or at the time of field work in agricultural lands at distant places, Boka Chaul has ever been the first preference that can be easily prepared without requiring any fuel.
Boka Chaul is mostly used in the preparation of traditional Assamese food items or cuisines called Jalpaan where Boka Chaul is generally eaten with curd/milk and jaggery/sugar along with other ingredients. Another traditional dish “Mukh Roshak” is prepared by mixing the Boka Chaul with germinated moong seeds, chopped and fried carrot, some edible oils, chopped chillies, pinch of salts and admixed with little amount of juice from Assam Lemon.
Boka chaul is nowadays also supplied to the defence services for consumption by the armed forces for its unique softening property without cooking. Boka chaul is an eco-friendly product which has various medical values. People sometime use it as their face pack and sometime use it to gumming the fabrics.
Besides, as such food preparation is quick and healthy, it serves perfectly to the people working in the harsh, humid weather of Rain and Sun above and being in the mud and water. It is also eaten by pregnant women due to its high nutritious value and energy content.
GI Tag Registration Date : 30 July 2018
GI Tag Number : 558
Certificate Number : 322
Geographical Area : Assam
Special Cover Release Date : 21 October 2021
Cancellation : Nalbari 781 335
Type : GI Tag Cover
Cover Identification Number : ASM/06/2021
Enlarged View of Illustration
Enlarged View of Cancellation
Back Side Scan
No comments:
Post a Comment