Kerala Raw Red Rice (Chamba Pachari)
All Kerala red rice is not consumed only as parboiled rice . The red rice is also popular as raw rice.
This is called Chamba pachari ( chamba literally means copper hued and pachari means raw rice ). Towards north Kerala this is called Unakkalari ( unakkal means dried or drying and Ari means rice ) meaning rice that is milled after drying the paddy and not after parboiling the paddy.
Bio Basics Kerala red raw rice ( Chamba Pachari) is from a single PGS-certified organic farm in Palakkad. The farm is PGS certified organic and the paddy is dried and milled in small batches in a nearby mill. The bran content is around 25-30% and may show slight variation from batch to batch because the rice is manually processed by adjusting the blade of the polisher. Since its relatively lower bran the rice has a pink hue after it is cooked.
During rice processing, after the paddy is cleaned, it is run through a sheller where the husk of the paddy is removed. In this unpolished stage, the rice has 100% bran and is fully red in color. This unpolished rice may be difficult for daily consumption or for urban palates unless you are very committed to eating full fiber red rice. Unpolished rice is an excellent option for those who are prediabetic or diabetic.
This organically grown rice is good to use as table rice, it is quite soft to eat and easy to cook. In Kerala it is usually used for making payasams and eaten on days of fasting ( as most Keralites like to eat parboiled rice on a daily basis).
This is also floured to make tiffin items like puttu, idiyappam, ela adai and others.
The rice can be cooked in an open vessel with 1:3.5 water. After water comes to a boil, cook on low fire.