Preparation time : 15 minutes
Cooking time       : nil
Serves                 : 3 members

Description:

Batkals a small Muslim community from the state of Karnataka. I didn’t know such an community existed until my bahu mentioned about them. Wanting to know more about them, I googled to find out their history. It’s said that, The Nawayaths arrived on the West Coast of India from countries including Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, as traders of spices, leather, jewelry and Arabian horses. They chose to settle there and married into another trading community of India, the Jains, who had been converted to Islam more than 1,000 years before. This led to the emergence of a new community. The people belonging to this community were characterized by facial features typical of Arabs and the fair skin of the Jains. It’s so interesting to know how a community is born. I was so fascinated with my new finding of a community that I never knew before. I grabbed  the opportunity to do a batkal special ten recipe feature for a Tamil monthly magazine. That is when I got to know more about them. Their food culture is meat dominated with a lot of local produce like coconut, cucumber and other regional ingredients added to it. This one simple recipe was the best liked by me. It’s fresh, light, aromatic and apt to beat the summer heat.

Recipe

Gord faw / cucumber poha

Ingredients

Method

• In a bowl, mix Poha  and cucumber. Set aside for ten minutes . Add coconut + sugar and mix well.
• Sprinkle rose water + rose essence and mix well. Serve.