I really love Khoi. It takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of my grandmother. She used to bring it to our city house when she visited us. Typically khoi is eaten in the country sides, as they are prepared in most conventional way – with hot sand. Khoi or popped rice, puffed rice, sesame balls, sugar balls all these are so connected to the village life of Bangladesh. As a kid, I used to eat Khoi with a glass of warm milk or sometimes with fresh coconut. There are different ways of eating Khoi but today I am sharing a sweet popped rice recipe with you, which can be preserved for a long time.

For this recipe, we only need two ingredients – Khoi and Gur (molasses). And some water! I am really happy to say that both molasses and popped rice are from Bangladesh! It’s not very difficult to find molasses in Denmark but I have never seen popped rice in any Asian groceries so far.

Before cooking, we need to remove all the rice husk one by one from Khoi. It takes a while and some patience too. Then sieve khoi with a strainer, so all dirt gets removed. Do not skip these two steps as you don’t want husk and sand while eating khoi.

Now it is time to start cooking. In a big pot, I added some water and some gur. Make sure that you did not cook anything spicy or too oily with the same pan before. That’s why I always keep my dessert pan and dessert spoon separated from rest of the cooking utensils.

When gur got totally melted in the water, I increased the heat a bit more and kept on stirring. The gur-water solution started to get bubbled. We are going to wait until all waters get evaporated and the solution get sticky.

The easy way to check the stickiness of the gur solution is to take some of it in a spoon, let it cool down a bit, then touch it with index finger and rub it with thumb. Then see if they make any thread like between fingers (like in the pics). Then you know the gur solution is ready.

Now you can add the cleaned khoi to the gur solution. The tips is to add a little bit at a time and stir. Then add little more again and stir. This way all parts of khoi gets to covered with gur solution.

Towards the end, you can add extra khoi to create a contrast look. It will not hamper the taste but would look so pretty! You can serve the dish as it is or with ‘Tiler Naru’ , ‘Goja’ or ‘Murli’ – all Bangladeshi snacks. I am sure you will feel the vibes of traditional village lives of Bangladesh.

Recipe: 10 person

Ingredients: Khoi (Popped Rice)- 250g Gur (Molasses) – 250g Some water

Instruction: 1. Add gur and water in a big wok or deep pan. Let the gur melt completely. 2. Let the gur-water solution boil until it creates stickiness. 3. Add Khoi little by little until they soak all gur-water solutions. 4. When ready, take down from pan and cool down. Store them in glass container.