Malar (Popped Rice)

Malar or Popped rice is an inevitable part in our poojas. Its very good for our stomach too.
English:Popped rice

Malayalam:Malar

Sanskrit:Laja

Water boiled with malar is given as a refreshing drink in ayurvedic medications. Malar kanji is also a great rejuvanator.

'Malar nanachathu' is an easy snack. Even if we are calling this snack as 'malar nanachathu' we don't have to add any water to it.

Malar-3 cups

Scraped coconut-1 cup

sugar-1/4 cup

Mix all these ingredients and squeeze them to soak the malr. It can be made within 5 minutes. It may be the most nutritious homemade snack within a short preparation time.

PS: You may heard about these words' Oru malar podikkarante swapnam'

Its a small folk story about our fascinations. Now I am attaching this story with this recipe because the main item in this story is 'Malar podi'

This story is about a man who is selling 'Malar podi' for his living. One day he had made a pot full of 'Malar podi' for the sale of next day. Then he thought that after selling this full pot malar podi he can buy a hen. After some calculations about the eggs, he thought he can buy a goat by selling that eggs. The thoughts continued and the last he reached at a point where he had a herd of cows from this pot full of malar podi. At this time in his dream he picked a stick and swayed it to redirect his cows. But in real life also he picked a stick near to his bed and swayed like in the dream but on the top of the bed he had that pot filled with malar podi. He had beaten that pot with the stick and the whole dream finished. His body and face filled with malar podi. This story is from my lovely ammoomma. There may be slight variations from the original. Its a famous saying in malayalam'Malar podikkarante swapnam pole' about an event that can not be happen or the possibility will be less and someone dreaming so impractical.

In those days people will place food in pots and they will hang from the rope with the help of ropes. This way is used to protect the food from ants and insects. These type of storing method is called 'Uri' in malayalam. In this story he had stored the popped rice powder in 'uri' . My ammoomma always tell about these small things in detail and duirng his story telling process always move her fingers over my hair. Every story has some nostalgic memories.