Poha Porridge for Malida Ceremony

Continuing in our preparations for this coming Sunday's Wedding and Malida ceremonies, our Edot students prepared a special "porridge"-like dish this past Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. The mixture is made of Poha (the Hindi and Marathi word for flattened rice flakes) soaked in water, unsweetened coconut flakes, sugar and cardemom.

It took us all of 20 minutes to prepare, and the finished product is now sitting in the school refrigerator until Sunday morning, when it will become part of the Malida ritual plate upon which will also be five different fruits eaten during the Malida ceremony.

No matter how simple or quick the food preparation activity is, the students always thoroughly enjoy themselves, as can be noted in the following photos:

After putting one cup of Poha flakes into the bowl, we all waited until I gave the go-ahead, then every group poured in the water over the flakes at the same time.

Now came the hardest part of all - waiting 4 minutes for the flakes to become thoroughly soaked

; waiting....

...still waiting...

Time's up - pour the soaked flakes into the sieve...

...then gently press down on the flakes to drain them as much as possible

Now transfer the flakes over to the empty bowl...

Add in the 1/8 cup sugar and stir it gently with the fork until it's completely absorbed into the soaked flakes

Finally, add in the 1/8 cup unsweetened coconut flakes...

...and stir everything together one last time  - very gently!

That's all folks! We transferred it all into the large tupperware container which is now in our school refrigerator. Sunday morning, I'll add in the cardemom (the mixture has to be very cold when you add it in).

In this unit of study, we've taken the "hands-on" approach to teaching to a new level!