A cup of kanji for Ramzan
Home chefs share their takes on nonbu kanji, the gruel that is eaten for iftar during the holy month in South India
he delicious dishes prepared for evening iftar and predawn suhour meals during the month of Ramzan have become a subject of food tourism, especially on social media, where kebabs, samosas, rolls and myriad other fried snacks rule the roost, alongside sugary milkshakes and juices.
But crowning it all, quietly, is the nonbu kanji, a mushy porridge that is prepared fresh every day in Muslim households and mosques across southern India.
Consumed only during iftar, when the day’s fast comes to an end, nonbu kanji is comfort food for the abstaining soul, aromatic like biryani, but without the grease and curried aesthetics of the rice dish. It is considered to be easier to digest after long hours of abstinence from food and water.
The kanji’s variants include the Arab gruel ‘harees’, and, closer home, the Hyderabadi ‘haleem’. All these recipes involve slow cooking wheat and lentils with butter and seasoned
Tmutton, beef or poultry to a mash.
“In South India, where it is regularly prepared in neighbourhood mosques as well as homes during Ramzan, each street can have its own distinctive style and flavour,” says Hazena Sayed, a food blogger from Tirunelveli who has documented 300 traditional recipes of the Ravuther Muslim community, and runs the sautefrynbake.com website.
A staple
Her fondest memory is of jeeraga kanji, made by her grandmother, with the porridge of samba rice and moong dal thickened using ground coconut paste towards the end. With the delicate seasoning of jeeragam
(cumin), the kanji would once make for a sumptuous start to iftar, she recalls.
“The use of ingredients depends on the region. Kanji is made with coconut milk extract rather than paste in the coastal town of Kayalpattinam, which we have picked up in Tirunelveli too. Coconut and fresh mint are essential to the flavour profile,” she says.
Chutneys are a must.“Brinjal is boiled or chargrilled, and then mashed with spices into a paste. We also use boiled yam and colocasia, or shallots and dried red chillies to make chutneys,” says Hazena.
Among her own spins to the kanji, are a version that uses oats and cabbage instead of rice, and the kaima urundai kanji where mincemeat balls are cooked in coconut milk before they are added to the basmati rice gruel. “Ramzan is not just about feasting. It is more about sharing our food with the less privileged, and a dish like nonbu kanji is the ideal example of this,” says Zulfia Syed, a YouTuber who creates culinary content from Tirunelveli and the United Arab Emirates through her channel Zulfia’s Recipes.
“Since its quantity can be scaled up, nonbu kanji is best for mass catering during Ramzan, especially in mosques,” she says. Caterers usually prepare the gruel over firewood stoves and leave it on ‘dum’ for a few hours before serving.
“The fragrance of nonbu kanji announces to the world that something special is being cooked. The biryanilike aroma tantalises people living next door, even though it is just a simple gruel that is being prepared. We add carrots and beans to the mixture, when we make it for our vegetarian friends,” says Tiruchibased homemaker Ayesha Begum.