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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Makhana’s moment
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Makhana’s moment

How a heartland winter favourite was reinvented as the millennial snack of choice

A mixed vegetable tart with ‘makhana’ brittle at Indian Accent. Photo: Indian AccentPremium
A mixed vegetable tart with ‘makhana’ brittle at Indian Accent. Photo: Indian Accent

It’s everywhere, in natty jars and vacuum-sealed reusable bags. At parties and during tea-breaks, at work or on university campuses. Like savoury? Choose from wasabi, peri peri, mint, cheese and tomato, smoky barbecue or chaat masala-spiked, all punchy and binge-worthy. To feed a sweet tooth, there’s caramel, gur or chocolate-coated, all selling for Rs100-130 for 100g at speciality food stores, airports, in corporate offices and cafés across the country. Select cinema chains are next on the cards, with popping machines to complete the experience.

The humble makhana has come a long way. Its story is as stunning as it is little known.

Uninspiring in appearance—misshapen, off-white balls with specks of brown or black—and chewy and tasteless when had as is, the makhana has long been a teatime favourite, roasted in ghee and lightly seasoned, in Bihar (where it primarily grows) and pockets of Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. It faded away in the 1990s as the markets opened up and were flooded by newer, ready-to-eat snacks sold by multinational brands. Widespread water pollution contributed to its disappearance: Makhana—also known as foxnut or lotus seed—grows in stagnant water, ensconced in the pomegranate-sized fruits of the aquatic plant Euryale ferox. As cultivation went down, prices shot up and it all but made an exit from the heartland’s kirana stores.

If credit for its resurrection can be laid at a single door, it belongs to Satyajit Kumar Singh. Around 2002, the Jamui-born, Patna-based Singh—then the owner of a BPL white goods agency—met Janardhan (he goes by one name) on a Delhi-Patna flight. “He was then the principal scientist at the Research Centre for Makhana, Darbhanga, under the Indian Council for Agricultural Research," says Singh. “He was the one who told me that makhana, if given time and dedication, could become a big industry."

Over the next few years, Singh diligently visited makhana-growing areas, including Madhubani, Katihar, Sitamarhi, Purnia and Samastipur, registering farmers and setting up procurement centres. In 2006, Singh founded a processing unit called Shakti Sudha in the Pataliputra industrial area and began buying kilos of makhana, sun-dried, roasted and traditionally popped. Today, Shakti Sudha procures, processes and packages makhana in various forms (powder, whole, flakes) and sells it both wholesale and retail.

“The makhana industry can add big money to the Bihar economy," says Singh, who is now tied up with 15,000 farmers across a little over 12,000 hectares (with each hectare yielding a little less than 1 tonne of makhana annually) and claims they get paid Rs250 for a kilogram, up from Rs50 a decade ago. “If we tap the online market inside and outside the country, gorgon nut—which is what it’s being called for export purposes—can grow from a Rs100 crore to a Rs1,000 crore product."

What works for makhana is its easy fit in the modern lifestyle, ticking all the boxes for consumers who like quick-fix but wholesome snacks and, now, enough variety to keep boredom at bay. Being odourless and bland, it takes on any flavour one chooses to dress it with. “Awareness of makhana’s nutrition content is catching on as well," says Singh. “It’s a high-energy, fat-free, high-quality carb-loaded snack."

‘Matar makhana malai’ with duck ‘khurchan’ at Indian Accent. Photo: Indian Accent
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‘Matar makhana malai’ with duck ‘khurchan’ at Indian Accent. Photo: Indian Accent

At Divinutty, a Delhi-based dry fruit brand, owner Vishal Jain is also convinced makhana is a gamechanger. It is currently his flagship product, available across the National Capital Region, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru. “When we did a pilot launch two years ago, we found that makhana was a hit with the younger lot, especially those who shop in premium stores, but are looking for healthy snacking options. At that time, there were very few local players and the packaging was very low-profile," Jain says. “Of late, though, the trend has caught on and there is a flood of new players."

For instance, Sattviko, a company founded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee students Ankush Sharma and Prasoon Gupta in 2013 to glamorize healthy snacks. Now established, with cafés in Jaipur, Delhi and Gandhinagar, Sattviko launched flavoured makhana four months ago. “Our focus is on a blend of taste and tradition. Makhana has been traditionally used as fasting food, and somehow got lost in modern ways of eating because there wasn’t perhaps an appealing way of serving or preparing it. So we wanted to fill that gap. People are realizing that it can be used as an everyday food. Since makhana is being sold as an alternative to junk, it seems to appeal to parents who want to encourage healthy eating habits in their kids," says Sharma, who will be adding makhana kheer and makhana chaat to the menu at the Sattviko chain of cafés soon.

In the fine-dining arena, chefs like Manish Mehrotra and Vikas Khanna have been scooping it up for a while now. It makes appearances at Indian Accent, New Delhi and New York, in dishes like the Mixed Vegetable Tart as a brittle and in matar-makhana malai served with the duck khurchan. Khanna’s Junoon, in New York City, showcases it in the Nadru Matar Makhana, while Puja Sahu and Vivita Relan’s restaurant The Potbelly in New Delhi gives it the hero’s role in the Makhana Thali and Makhana Kheer.

“I even had a makhana kheer brûlée on my menu a few years ago. It’s a completely unique ingredient, especially outside India, where it isn’t well known. It works very well in fine-dining because it gives an impressive, fluffy look with its black spots, and a good crunch. It adds a nice texture to the dish, and it absorbs juices and flavours in curries very well," explains Mehrotra, who, being Patna-born, had regular helpings of dal moth makhana, makhana barfi, and gur makhana patti while growing up. “It’s interesting to see the growing buzz around it and makhana in all the potato chips flavours."

It’s probably true that home-roasted, ghee-coated makhana will rule in the hearts of purists, but there’s a whole other generation munching on the new-age version for the very first time. If it has made it this far, it’s because makhana is best-seller material—no one can eat just one.

Spiced makhana. Photo: Neha Bhatt
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Spiced makhana. Photo: Neha Bhatt

Makhana any time

■Roast with ghee, salt and pepper, pair with roasted poha, dal moth or any other namkeen.

■Roast and grind into small pieces to make kheer or dunk in a bowl of milk and muesli.

■Powder and use in dough for a dose of easy-to-digest carbs in rotis or parathas.

■Use in curries with potato, paneer, peas, etc.

■Garnish just about any dish with roasted makhana for a good crunch!

■Try makhana in new avatars of peri peri, wasabi, cheese and tomato, mint, caramel, gur.

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Published: 16 Dec 2016, 02:57 PM IST
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