Manipur is one of the ‘Seven Sisters State’, besides Sikkim in North East India. Its capital is Imphal. Manipur is known as the ‘Land of gems’ because it is surrounded by nine hills and an oval shaped valley at the centre.
It is famous for the beautiful unique floating islands on the Loktak Lake. The lake spans for approximately 240 sq kilometer. The floating islands are just matted vegetables and soil. The local people call them phumdis. The huts are made with very light materials. People use small country boats as their means for transportation to the main land.
Manipur shares the international boundary with Myanmar in the east. The state is bounded by Nagaland in the north, Mizoram in the south and Assam in the west.
Food:
The staple food of Manipur is rice served with meat, fish and vegetable cooked with variety of herbs such as garlic chives and other spices.
Our first attempt:
We chose Sagolhawai uti dal from Manipur. We cooked and sent the picture to one of our friends from Manipur.
“It looks fine, but what are the coriander leaves doing there?” was her polite remark.
“Without garlic chives you will never get the actual flavor of Sagolhawai uti,” said she.
We used coriander leaves, because garlic chives were not available in the market at that time.
So, we grew our own garlic chives at home and used it for the recipe.
Sagolhawai uti (Black gram dal dish)
Sagolhawai uti is an authentic and traditional dish from Manipur. The dal dish is slightly alkaline because we are using soda bicarbonate. One can use any dal (lentil) and any vegetable. We are using taro. According to the Manipuri people this a very good combination with garlic chives which is a must. Uti is, almost mandatory in all festivals and social gatherings. We loved it. Hope you would love it too.
You need:
150 gm black gram dal
125 gm taro (In India it is called Arbi, Arvi, Kochu or Kosu,)
1” piece of ginger
20 gm garlic chives
2-3 green chillies (optional)
¼ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp of mustard oil
Salt to taste
Method:
- Wash and peel the taros.
- Wash and peel the ginger. Grate it finely.
- Wash the garlic chives and cut them into 2” long pieces. And keep them aside.
4. Wash the urad dal and place it in a pressure cooker.
5. Add the taro, garlic chives, ginger and salt to it.
6. Add 1 ½ cup of water and cook.
7. After the first whistle lower the heat to simmer and cook for 2 minutes. And allow the cooker to cool down by itself.
8. In the meantime, peel, wash and slice the onion.
9. Wash the chillies, cut off the stem and make a small slit on the broader side.
10. Open the lid of the cooker and check the dal.
11. If it is cooked add 1 cup of warm water.
12. Add ¼ tsp of cooking soda and stir gently. Place the cooker back onto stove and let it simmer.
Tempering the dal
13. Heat a pan and add the mustard oil.
14. Allow it to smoke. (It is important for the oil to smoke. When it smokes the raw smell of mustard oil disappears.)
15. When it smokes, switch off the heat.
16. Add the chillies and chopped onions and saute until golden.
17. Pour the tempering mixture into the cooked dal and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
18. Adjust the salt and pour into a serving dish and serve with cooked rice.
Happy Cooking !
Coming up next ………………. Dal from Meghalaya.
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Dal On The Table 
Such a detailed and informative article! 👌
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Thank you Akanksha.
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Such a lovely recipe…All the ingredients are easily available and the instructions are easy and well described..Even beginners will be able to prepare it and get complimented.
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Thank you Hrishika. Keep following …
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the recipe is too simple that anyone can cook..thank you 😀
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