Old customs are rare in rice milling and eating

In days gone by, the paddy harvested was stored in a ‘Bissa’ and in large walauwwa houses indoors adjacent to the kitchen in large wooden boxes referred to as ‘wee pettiya’ The paddy was put in from the top and taken out from the bottom.

This paddy was first par boiled in a muttiya and then dried and once cooled, milled at home in a ‘wangediya’ using the ‘molegaha’. In this process, the red rice kept all its goodness as even the whole of the redness was left intact.

Today, we mill that redness to give a pink hue for parboiled rice, as consumers don’t like the ‘goodness’ in the redness. Doctors prescribe red parboiled for diabetes patients as being the best rice for them, but few eat it.

For the first time, I parboiled my paddy at home and used this method to mill at home, to make some rice to eat, to see how it tastes. It tasted so different. I can eat it on its own.It needs getting used to as the grain is all red before cooking, but I can get used to it in the long term and should be offered in classy restaurants.Hand milled par boiled red rice.