Congee - India

India

In Tamil Nadu, a plain rice porridge, or the thick supernatant water from overcooked rice, is known as kanji. Kanji or Congee is also prepared with different grains available in different parts of Tamil Nadu, for example minor millet or pearl millet, finger millet, broken wheat, maize.The people of Kerala also call this preparation of rice in a watery state kanji, and it is eaten as a porridge with green lentils or chutney. Kanji is prepared with rice or ragi. Nuts and spices are added to the kanji depending on the economic status or health requirements. Rice kanji is prepared by boiling rice in large amounts of water. To this preparation, either milk and sugar (usually jaggery) or curd (yoghurt) and salt are added. Ragi kanji is prepared by drying ragi sprouts in shade, and then grinding them into a smooth powder. This powder is added to water and cooked. Milk and brown sugar are added to this cooked preparation for taste. Ragi kanji can be given to infants after six months. Another kanji preparation uses jevvarisi (sago in English, sabudana in Hindi) in kanji. Sago is dry roasted and powdered with/ without sugar. Powdered sago is boiled in water until cooked. This is eaten by all ages from adults to infants as young as three months.

In the state of Kerala, during the malayalam month of Karkkidakam, a medicinal kanji is made using Ayurvedic herbs, milk and jaggery. Karkkidakam is known as the month of diseases since the monsoon starts during Karkkidakam. Karikkidaka Kanji is eaten to promote the immune system.

According to the Indian writer Madhur Jaffrey, kanji is, or is derived from, a Tamil word for "boilings", referring to the porridge and also to any water in which rice has been cooked.

In the Goa, Udupi and Mangalore districts, people usually eat rice ganji in a variant manner made by Kannada-speaking, Tulu-speaking or Konkani people in and around Udupi and Mangalore (Karnataka, South India). There, parboiled rice (kocheel akki in Kannada, oorpel aari black rice bulenta aari white rice in Tulu or ukadey tandool in Konkani) is steamed with a large amount of water. Jain ganji matt are famous in these districts. Usually, simple ganji with pickle and milk are served, in jain matts. Fresh coconut is grated, and the resulting milk skimmed and added to the ganji (called pej in Konkani), which is served hot with fish curry, coconut chutney, or Indian pickles. In Goa, it is normally served with dried or fresh cooked fish, papad or vegetables.

In the state of Andhra Pradesh, it is called ganji in Telugu and mostly eaten by the very poor.

Pakhal bhat is an authentic and traditional Oriya dish. People in Orissa like it because of its unique taste. It is a soup-based dish like dal, but tastes a little sour. This is a very healthy dish as lots of vegetables and curd are used as main ingredients.