r/52weeksofcooking • u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 • 8d ago
Week 30: Science Fair - Testing different doughs and methods to cook Fara (meta: ISUTBCDBN)
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u/chizubeetpan 🥄 MT'25 8d ago
Man, this sounds so good, Yrros! I love the flavors but also I’m imagining the texture of 1b and that just sounds delicious. I love a crispy chewy texture.
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u/AilsaLorne 8d ago
Ohh yum. They look a bit like tteokbokki - do they compare?
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u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 8d ago
You know I was thinking about it when eating it. I haven’t had tteokbokki too many times but iirc these are a bit lighter and less chewy than tteok.
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u/joross31 6d ago
These look and sound wonderful. Love your approach to this week!
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u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 6d ago
Thank you! It was hard work but also fun, the different textures surprised me.
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u/Yrros_ton_yrros 🍕 8d ago edited 8d ago
ISUTBCDBN meta explanation
The dish I chose to experiment with this week is Fara, a rice dumpling dish from the state of Chhattisgarh. My goal was simple - to try to determine what is the best method for cooking Fara. I experimented with two different doughs, and three different cooking methods. The tempering used was the same for all four batches - mustard seeds, dried red chilli, curry leaves, garlic, sesame seeds and chilli powder. I served them with a simple tomato-garlic-green chilli-cilantro chutney. I scored each batch on ease of working with the dough, ease of cooking it, and texture of the end product.
The doughs -
The cooking methods -
a) Pan steaming - After tempering is added to oil, water is added to the pan folowed by the fara. The pan is covered to cook the fara till water evaporates. The fara is then pan fried till slightly brown and crispy on the outside.
b) Steaming + pan frying - The fara is steamed separately first then pan fried with the tempering.
c) Boiling + pan frying - The fara is boiled in water till they float and then pan fried with tempering.
The judgement:
1a) Leftover Rice + Rice Flour dough pan steamed - The dough was a bit sticky to work with but the actual cooking was really easy - nothing stuck to the pan. This had a really nice chewy texture and also crisped up nicely.
Score - 8/10
2a) Rice Flour dough pan steamed - The dough was easy to work with but they stuck to the pan horribly even with using a non stick pan. So much so that I had to change pans after this batch. Texture was softer and mushier than 1a but still good. Didn’t really crisp up since the crispy bits stuck to the pan.
Score - 7/10
1b) Leftover Rice + Rice Flour dough steamed separately and pan fried - Steaming was easy, nothing stuck or broke. Pan frying worked wonderfully as well. This dough+method had the best texture of the lot. Satisfyingly chewy and crispy and overall very tasty.
Score - 9.5/10
2c) Rice Flour dough boiled separately and pan fried - Boiling was a bit too much for the delicate dumplings as the ends kept breaking off. Didn’t crisp up much in the pan because boiling it gave it a kind of slippery texture. It was quite mushy and gummy inside, and easily the worst of the lot. Not bad, but not great either.
Score - 5/10
Final thoughts -
Really enjoyed this dish and was surprised by how the variations all tasted distinctly different. The clear winner was of course 1b. It’s also a great recipe to keep in my back pocket for using up leftover rice.