Panta bhat facts for kids
Panta Ilish - a traditional platter of Panta bhat with fried Ilish slice, supplemented with dried fish (Shutki), pickles (Achar), dal, green chillies and onion - is a popular serving for the Pahela Baishakh festival.
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| Alternative names | poita bhat (Assamese), ponta bhat (Assamese, Kamta), zokra bhat (Kamrupi Assamese), zokora bhat (Central Assamese), Pazhaya Sadam (Tamil) |
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| Course | Main course |
| Place of origin | India Bangladesh |
| Region or state | Bengal region Assam |
| Associated national cuisine | Bengali cuisine Assamese cuisine |
| Main ingredients | Rice, water |
| Variations | Pakhala |
Panta bhat or poitabhat is a special dish made from cooked rice that is soaked and fermented in water. The watery part is called Toraṇi. People usually make it by soaking leftover cooked rice in water overnight.
This dish is often served in the morning. It's usually eaten with simple ingredients like salt, onion, chili, and mashed potatoes (called "Alu Bhorta"). Panta bhat is popular in eastern Indian states like West Bengal, Odisha (Pakhala), Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam, and Tripura. It's also very common in Bangladesh. It's a favorite dish for the Pahela Baishakh festival, which is the Bengali new year. This unique rice dish has been enjoyed for a long time, with records showing it existed as far back as the 17th century. Panta bhat is known to have more healthy nutrients than freshly cooked rice.
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History of Panta Bhat
Panta bhat has a long history, especially in South Asia. Some experts believe that ancient people in this region started eating panta bhat because they often cooked their meals only once a day, in the evening. Soaking the rice helped preserve it for the next day.
During the time of the Mughal Empire, people would gather for outdoor concerts and enjoy traditional foods, including panta bhat. A traveler named Fray Sebastien Manrique visited Bengal in the 17th century. He wrote that most people, no matter their background, were happy eating a daily meal of rice, often panta bhat, with salt and green vegetables. Richer people would add things like ghee (clarified butter), milk, and sweets to their meals.
A rice expert named Mahabub Hossain explains that in the past, farmers preferred a type of rice that was bold and brown. This kind of rice was better for soaking in water and provided more nutrition. However, as more people moved to cities, the demand for farm work and this type of rice decreased. Today, even with polished rice being common, some rice types are still popular because they are good for making panta bhat.
How to Prepare Panta Bhat
There are different ways to make panta bhat, but they all involve soaking cooked rice in water overnight. Here are the basic steps:
- First, cook the rice as you normally would.
- Then, drain away the extra starchy water, called phaen.
- Let the cooked rice cool down to room temperature for about 3 to 4 hours.
- After it cools, add cool water to the rice. Make sure there's about an inch of water covering the rice.
- Cover the dish with a light cloth to keep it clean.
- After 12 to 24 hours, your panta bhat is ready to eat! It can stay fresh and tasty for 2 to 3 days.
The liquid part of the dish is called amani or torani. Sometimes, this liquid is prepared specially. It's important to keep the dish covered while it's soaking to prevent anything from getting into it.
Serving Panta Bhat
People usually eat the soaked rice in the morning. It's often served with salt, lime, chili (either raw or roasted), and sliced or whole onions for extra flavor.
Panta bhat can also be served with many other tasty sides, such as:
- Fried fish or vegetable curry.
- Flattened rice (chira).
- Dried cane or palm molasses (jaggery or guda).
- Milk curd (doi).
- Sometimes, a little edible oil is added.
The water is usually drained away before eating. Panta bhat is often topped with mustard oil, onion, chilli, and pickle. It's commonly eaten with:
- shutki mach (dried fish).
- machher jhol (fish curry), especially shorshe Ilish (ilish fish cooked with mustard seeds).
- aloo bhorta or aloo pitika (mashed potato).
- begun bhorta (mashed brinjal).
- Other bhorta or pitika (mashed foods).
Similar Dishes
There are similar dishes in other parts of India and Asia:
- In the Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh, a similar dish is called Pakhala. It's a bit different because sometimes yogurt is added before the rice ferments.
- Pazhedhu saadham, meaning "old rice," is a similar dish from Tamil Nadu.
- In East and Southeast Asia, you can find similar dishes, like Jiuniang in China.
Popularity of Panta Bhat
Panta bhat is very popular in villages, where it's often eaten with just salt, raw onion, and green chili. It's usually a breakfast meal, but people also eat it for lunch or dinner. It's a simple, filling food that helps people feel full between meals.
Panta bhat is known as a "cool dish" in Bengal. This means it helps people stay cool during the hot summer months. Because it's cold and wet, it's perfect for summer mornings. In winter, people often prefer dry foods like chira (flattened rice) and muri (puffed rice).
Festivals and Traditions
In West Bengal and Bangladesh, panta bhat is a big part of the Pahela Baishakh (Bengali new year festival) celebrations. On this day, many people in cities eat it for breakfast. Even fancy restaurants in Bangladesh and West Bengal serve panta bhat on this special day. Food stalls run by student groups at fairs also offer panta-ilish (panta bhat with fried hilsha fish).
However, eating hilsha fish during Pahela Baishakh can harm the fish population, especially during their breeding season. Because of this, the Bangladesh government banned hilsha fishing and selling during Pahela Boishakh since 2016. Government officials and social media campaigns now encourage people to enjoy panta bhat without ilish to protect the fish.
Among Hindu Bengalis, panta bhat is eaten during the Ranna Puja (a Bengali cooking festival). During Ranna Puja, panta bhat is offered to Manasa, the snake goddess, along with other fried vegetables and curries. On the Vijayadashami day of Durga Puja, panta bhat is offered to the goddess Durga.
In Assam, a special version called Dudh Panta (milk with stale water-soaked rice) is part of wedding traditions. In Northeast India, some people believe that eating painta or panta bhat gives you the strength of a tiger! Panta bhat is also popular among people living in slums in Dhaka because it's easy to eat with just salt, an onion, or a chili.
Many restaurants along NH34 in India serve panta bhat in the summer with various side dishes. Some Bengali restaurants, like Nabanno Hyderabad in Hyderabad, serve panta bhat all year round.
Nutrition and Health Benefits
Studies have shown that panta bhat is very good for you! Researchers at the Assam Agricultural University found that cooking rice usually makes it harder for our bodies to absorb minerals like iron, potassium, sodium, and calcium. However, when rice is fermented to make panta bhat, special bacteria break down the things that block these minerals. This greatly increases the amount of minerals available.
For example, 100 grams of cooked rice has only about 3.4 milligrams of iron. But if that same amount of rice is fermented for 12 hours, the iron content can jump to 73.91 milligrams! Similarly, calcium can increase from 21 milligrams to 850 milligrams. Sodium levels also go down, and potassium levels go up. Fermentation also helps our bodies use minerals like iron and zinc better and increases vitamins like riboflavin and vitamin B.
Panta bhat is also thought to have some healing properties. In Ayurveda traditions, it's considered a "cold food," while plain boiled rice is neutral. This makes it a good food for children who have a fever. Panta bhat also contains a tiny amount of alcohol because of the fermentation process.
However, it's important to prepare panta bhat carefully. Sometimes, if not handled cleanly, it can get contaminated with bacteria. This is more likely if there's a long delay between preparing and eating it, or during the rainy season. So, it's always best to make sure your panta bhat is prepared in a clean way. If someone has diarrhoea, it's better to give them freshly boiled rice or rice-water instead of stale panta bhat.
Images for kids
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Panta Ilish - a traditional platter of Panta bhat with fried Ilish slice, supplemented with dried fish (Shutki), pickles (Achar), dal, green chillies and onion - is a popular serving for the Pahela Baishakh festival.
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A regular serving of panta bhat
See also
In Spanish: Panta bhat para niños
