Puffed Rice is a Beloved Ingredient across India
Hello Origin Foragers!
In this week's newsletter, we eat a favorite street snack found throughout India, then check in with Christa Barfield, aka “FarmerJawn” to understand her perspective on the balance between success and sacrifice as an entrepreneur. From HONE, check out Alicia Kennedy’s book tour dates and details for her newly released book, No Meat Required! Go, Alicia!
From Rasa Magazine
The Unassuming Heft of Murmura by Shirin Mehrotra
The first mention of puffed rice in South Asia occurs in post-Rig Vedic texts written between 1200 to 1000 BCE. Laja, the Sanskrit name for puffed rice, was made by slow roasting soaked and unhusked paddy in hot sand.
On the streets of Kolkata, jhal muri attracts large crowds. Puffed rice is mixed with roasted gram (chickpeas), peanuts, onions, green chillies, mustard oil and a generous dose of lime juice.
Crisp and light, puffed rice is eaten in various forms across India. It is also known by many names, including laiya, pori and murmura.
Today, the significance of puffed rice is evident in its uses beyond the culinary world. In Tamil Nadu for example, pori urundai, or laddoos made of puffed rice and jaggery, are offered to Lord Murugan during Kartikeya Puja.
While puffed rice can be used in sacred offerings, the ingredient also appears in everyday settings. In Mumbai, bhel puri is a common after work snack made of puffed rice mixed with peanuts, roasted gram, chopped onions, green chillies, boiled potato and more.
For Rasa Magazine, Shirin Mehrotra writes about the unassuming heft of murmura.
Though not without delays, Rasa Magazine Volume 2 will resume this fall!! More to come soon. We are grateful for your support and patience.
Hone Talent Spotlight: Alicia Kennedy!
No Meat Required: Book Tour
We are ecstatic our friend Alicia Kennedy can now officially add the title of author to her distinguished writing career. Alicia is the author of No Meat Required: A Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating.
As is always the case with Alicia, her writing is genuinely intellectually provocative, deeply researched and points well woven. As almost everyone notes who has encountered her work, a common theme is a variation of this: “No one has made me think more critically about my diet.”
Author Mayukh Sen perfectly articulates this phenomenon in a recent EATER review:
Kennedy’s thinking on this very topic [vegetarianism] — spread across her popular weekly newsletter and her writing for various publications (including Eater), and now crystallized in this book — has made this transition feel less spiritually daunting. Kennedy, a vegetarian, resists wagging her finger at her reader. She understands that some in her audience may be omnivores; that generosity courses through this book.
Come see Alicia on the road!
Baltimore (9/17), Washington D.C., (9/18), and Sommerville, MA (9/20).
Find more details and locations here.
You can purchase a copy of No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating here. And if you’re a fan of this newsletter, check out From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy too.
The Mother Earth
Episode 2 of The Stephen Satterfield Show: Christa Barfield
Christa is a kindred spirit; and a forceful one. Five years ago she had not ever planted a mere houseplant or even touched soil. Just five years later, she’s running a 128-acre farm! Christa is the founder of FarmerJawn Agriculture, and has developed a line of “earth-born brands” based in regenerative agriculture. Inspired by a solo vacation, Christa returned to her hometown of Philadelphia with the mission is to train and educate the nation’s next Black and brown agricultural entrepreneurs.
On episode 2 of The Stephen Satterfield Show, Stephen and Christa discuss her career shift into farming after spending years working as a healthcare administrator. In a striking, but very real moment, Christa describes the balance of motherhood, success, and sacrifice.
Listen to the full episode now streaming whenever you get your podcast.
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