We are now at the 13th letter of Sindhi alphabet, the AlifBe and the consonant is جهہ as in Jhelum or Jhansi. It is written as ‘Jh‘ in Roman and as झ in Devanagari.
Points to note:
Some of you who are learning AlifBe with me have asked why the letters appear to be different when used in words as compare to when written individually. Please note that many Sindhi alphabets are formed differently depending upon their individual position in a word. For instance, just check how جهہ is written varyingly depending on its position in any word.
Since this is primarily a food blog I tend to avoid covering the language part in depth! If you wish to learn more details please connect with me using the contact form or join me @ Facebook or Instagram!
Sindhi Dish starting with ‘Jh’
Coming to the food part of the series, i.e a Sindhi dish starting with ‘Jh’, let me confess that the name is not very popular but the dish is cooked in almost every home.
The dish is called ‘Jhang Pulav’ or ‘Jhang Bhat-u’ and it is popularly known as Junglee pulav/Jungli pulav in Anglo Indian community or in other regional communities.
Traditionally Junglee Pulav is made by cooking meat with onions and whole spices. Gradually vegetables of choice are added followed by water and then soaked rice is added.
The weird name:
The reason of it being called Jungli or Junglee Pulav is not clear. Some say it is called so because one can go wild with choosing any number and varieties of vegetables (and even kabuli chana) and meat that could be added in this dish. Some believe that traditionally foraged vegetables and aromatic herbs were used in this preparation along with meat of hunted animals or birds and hence the term Jungli!
I am yet to figure out why exactly this is called as Jhang Pulav in Sindhi. In Sindhi Jhang or Jhangu means Jungle so perhaps Jhang Pulav is a tweaked name for Junglee Pulav.
There are as many variations of this Pulav/pulao as many cooks since each one tends to add varying combinations of vegetables, leafy greens and meat to this dish. Please don’t ask me how different it is from a regular Pulao because honestly speaking I don’t have a very convincing reply to that.
To make Junglee Pulav you can use 2-3 types of meat or can include eggs along with mandatory onions, peas and potatoes and keep adding other vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, beans, capsicum, corn etc. The primary step is to saute whole spices and onions in ghee/oil and from there onwards the variations happen.
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- You can add ginger garlic or not.
- You can add meat and vegetables or just vegetables.
- You can add beaten curds or lemon juice or even tomatoes.
- You can add leafy greens like spinach or methi.
- You can add cooked rice instead of raw rice, layer rice and cooked vegetables to make Biryani instead of Pulao.
- You can add boiled Chana (Garbanazo beans) or Dhingri (or any mushrooms).
- You can even add leftover non veg curries or dry subzis to it.
Jhang Pulao cooked with ginger garlic and tomatoes Now that you know how wild you can go with the choice of ingredients, just go ahead and make some Jhang Pulao.
Jhang Pulao with Soyabean (Nutrela granules) curry
- Rice 1 cup (Not necessarily Basmati)
- Onion 1 large
- Potatoes 2
- Green peas ¼ th cup
- Carrot 1
- Handful of chopped spinach or Fenugreek
- Green chillies 2-3
- Oil/Ghee 1 tbsp
- Cumin seeds 1 tsp
- Mustard seeds 1 tsp
- Cloves 2-3
- Black cardamom 2
- Dalchini 1 inch stick
- Tejpatta 2
- Turmeric ½ tsp
- Salt as per taste
- Pounded Ginger Garlic 1 tsp (Optional)
- Tomato 1 (or can use half cup of curds or some lemon juice)
- Other vegetables like Apple gourd, Cauliflower, capsicum etc could be added (Optional)
- Rinse a cup of rice with water till the water runs clean. Soak in water for 30 minutes or so.
- In a Sipri (a degh like vessel) or in any large pan, heat a tbsp of oil or ghee.
- Add cumin and mustard seeds followed by whole spices.
- Toss spices till aromatic and add sliced onion.
- Cook onion till translucent and add potato cubes. If using ginger garlic, add it before adding potatoes.
- Add other vegetables (including spinach) and some salt. Add chopped chillies and turmeric.
- Add chopped tomato or beaten curds and bhuno well. Alternatively you can skip tomatoes and curds and add lemon juice later.
- Add soaked and drained rice and mix gently. Add some more salt.
- Bhuno rice for 2 minutes or so but be very gentle.
- Add water (double the quantity of rice, but depends on variety of rice used). Add lemon juice here if you skipped tomatoes or curds.
- Please note: You can first add hot water and then rice and skip the bhunoing part.
- Cook first on high heat and when the water is almost absorbed, cover the pan with a lid and allow rice to cook on low flame till done.
- Serve hot!
And here is a small video to help you understand how the alphabet جهہ is written:
