In common parlance, kushka food is akin to the eponymous biryani, yet vastly different from it. Biryani is the invader’s import into the potpourri now called Indian cuisine and fairly recent compared to kushka rice defined in the 60,000 years old Indian cuisine text, the Bhagashastra. However, in current day culinary books and restaurants, kushka rice has become synonymous with biryani, the aromatic rice served mostly in South Indian restaurants. Kushka dishes are prepared in an excited and fun way. In the original text of the Bhagashastra, it is eaten using curd, milk, sugar, lemon and the like. Kushka rice cannot be combined with such dishes as dal soup, rasam or kootu which is either tangy or spicy or bitter.

Preparation

Kushka, is a rice dish made with spices, aromatic rice such as the basmati, or small rice such as jasmine or jeera variety and ghee. A present day Kushka is a lunch dish, primarily served with kurma or korma and very popular in Southern India. The spices and condiments used in it could include cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, coriander and mint leaves, apart from ghee, ginger, onions. The dish retains the white color of rice even with the light seasoning of spices.

In the Bhagashastra, the Kushka rice dishes uses simpler and authentic ingredients for aroma. For e.g. a recipe described below uses actual fragrant flowers such as the jasmine in the rice preparation, rather than the flavored rice used in modern day recipes.

Kushka rice dishes have to be cooked in such a way that each grain must be separate and not become a solid mass or mushy. The grains should not stick to the finger. The process, as you will notice from the recipes below, requires patience, as they are long, tedious and need a lot of care in their preparation.

Keelani Kushka

• ½ padi Rice
• 1½ padi Water
• 1¾ palam Salt
• 2½ palam Thick Curd
• 1 Big Lemon
• 1¾ palam Ghee
• 1 New Mud Pan
• veesam 1/16 padi + veesam 1/16 padi Milk

1. Wash and clean the rice with water and filter the water completely.

2. Boil the water in a vessel which is rust free. Then add the cleaned rice and cover it with a lid.
3. After some time when the rice has half cooked add the powdered salt mix it and when it again starts to boil add the lemon juice,ghee and curd one by one and stir it.

4. When the rice has completely cooked take it out from the fire and filter it using a clean white cloth.

5. Take a clean new mud pan and keep it on the stove. Then sprinkle the milk on all sides of the pan . When the milk has reduced, add the cooked rice.

6. Then add the milk and stir it. Keep it covered so that rice gets cooked properly. During this process the flame should be low to medium.

7. When the rice is cooked to the right consistency(flower like) take it out and serve.