Straining cooked rice the Goan way

Have you ever seen, witnessed or heard about this Goan way of straining rice?

Well, now due to Morden technologies, electronic appliances and beautifully designed modular kitchens, the interiors of our “Ranchikud” have been totally changed/modernised. In the course of completing household activities, we have gradually forgotten the traditional practises used by our ancestors, as nowadays time is a very important factor and we all have various tasks assigned to complete work in that particular time frame.

Vaano is a 4 legged wooden structure, designed and made by the carpenters who were locally known as “Mest”. These vaano were cheaply available as normally they were made of jungle wood and in various sizes as per the size of the utensil. The boiling of rice, Straining it ( Valap) process was easy but time-consuming and this could be one of the reasons that people avoided Vaano and now switched to pressure cookers, where everything was swift and with not much effort.

The utensile which was used to boil rice was known as “Aadan” and it was generally made out of copper and copper being a good conductor of heat the water would also boil fast resulting in quick preparation but it has to be on firewood. The rice was then washed separately and poured into the aadan for boiling, once the rice was cooked a white cotton cloth( Baanshiro) was tied around the Aadan and this aadan was finally placed on the Vaano in a tilted position so that the water ( Nival) was separated and hot steaming rice was ready to be served.

Well, this was today’s exercise at home which also created a little mess all around, but it was a good experience …….😅
My love for Heritage never ends……❤️

Content & Pics credit: Tejas Pandit