In the morning the cloth comes off the pot, and the thin rice gruel from the night before has thickened. It is now glossy, pale and slow to drip from the spoon, and it is sweet. Madhubhat comes from Chattogram, in southeastern Bangladesh. Its name sounds like "honey rice", but no honey goes into it. The sweetness comes from jala flour, a coarse meal ground from sprouted paddy. Stirred into hot rice and left overnight, the flour turns the rice soft and sweet, close to payesh or firni. People eat it in the morning with freshly grated coconut and a few raisins.
Honey Rice Without Honey: A Chattogram Summer Dish
The whole dish depends on jala flour, and without it there is no madhubhat. Paddy (rice still in its husk) is soaked until it sprouts, dried, kept covered for days and then ground coarse. That flour does the work honey would do in a dish named for honey. Whether anything else should sweeten the pot is an open question. Some Chattogram kitchens add sugar and milk along with the flour. Others add no sugar at all and let the sprouted grain carry all the sweetness.
Madhu means honey and bhat means rice, so the name reads as "honey rice". No honey goes into the sprouted-flour version. A richer festive dish is also described under the name Modhu Vaat, made with coconut milk, ghee, cinnamon, cardamom and date-palm jaggery or honey. This article follows the sprouted-flour madhubhat.
The season and the gift
Madhubhat belongs to the wet months, Asharh through Bhadra, roughly June to September. It is said to taste sweetest in Bhadra. It also travels as a gift. In the first year of a marriage, a pot of madhubhat goes to the in-laws. One belief says it should be cooked quietly at night. The custom is fading, and fewer households now go through the days of sprouting and drying the paddy.
Where the dish began is not settled. It has been linked to Sufi traditions and to the Arakan period, but neither link is documented. You can learn more about the country's food on the Bangladesh page.
Ingredients
These amounts make one large batch. Leave out the milk and sugar if you are making the version sweetened only by the flour.
This dish can contain milk (when added), coconut and, if used as a topping, nuts.
Equipment
- A large, deep pot with a lid
- A wooden paddle or long wooden spoon
- A clean cloth or plastic sheet, plus string to tie it around the rim
- A flat tray (bamboo is traditional) for drying the sprouted paddy
- A stone grinder or mill that grinds coarse
Choosing the Rice and the Flour
Jala flour has no replacement. Rice koji and malt powder are different products. Do not treat either one as the same thing. The flour is made from sprouted paddy as described in step 1. Without it the dish is not madhubhat.
Bini is a sticky rice, and it gives the dish its clinging texture. When bini is hard to find, fragrant new-crop atap rice takes its place. Atap is raw white rice that has not been parboiled. Do not use parboiled rice. Grate the coconut fresh on the morning you serve. Its clean, milky crunch is the contrast the soft rice needs.
Stop grinding while the jala flour is still gritty. Do not grind it too fine.
Method
The work happens over days. The jala flour is made well ahead: the paddy sprouts, dries and then sits covered for 10 to 15 days before you grind it. On cooking day the rice is boiled to a thin gruel in the evening. The flour goes in while the rice is hot, and the pot is sealed overnight. Serving happens in the morning, and the clock starts once the pot is opened.
Sealing cooked rice in a pot at room temperature for 10 to 12 hours carries a risk that bacteria such as Bacillus cereus grow in the warm rice. Steps 5 and 6 describe how madhubhat is made in Chattogram. Do not use them as a home method to copy.
When It Goes Wrong
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Sour taste | The pot sat open too long, or the batch has turned | Serve it soon after opening. Discard any pot that smells sharp and sour when you uncover it |
Serving and Keeping
Madhubhat is a morning dish. It comes to the table as breakfast, in the bowl with coconut, raisins and bay leaf. In the first year of a marriage, a second pot goes out wrapped in cloth as a gift to the in-laws.
Variations
- Flour only, no sugar or milk. The sweetness comes from the sprouted grain alone. The rice tastes cleaner and more of grain, and the colour stays paler.
- With sugar and milk. The pot is richer and sweeter, and closer to a milk pudding.
- Festive Modhu Vaat. Rice cooked with coconut milk, ghee, cinnamon, cardamom and date-palm jaggery or honey, with nuts and raisins. This is a different description of the name, not the sprouted-flour method used here.
Keeping
Serve what you need once the pot is open. Put any leftovers in a covered container and refrigerate them promptly.
Frequently asked questions
Should madhubhat be eaten warm or cold?
It is traditionally eaten warm, straight from the pot in the morning. Many people now chill it and eat it cold. Either way, it is the same dish.
Can I use rice koji or malt powder instead of jala flour?
No. Neither is jala flour, and the dish depends on that coarse sprouted-paddy meal. Make or buy the real flour.
Can I add sugar at the table?
Yes. In households that cook it without sugar, some people stir a little into their bowl as they eat. This lets each person choose how sweet their bowl is, while the pot keeps its grain sweetness.
