Skip to main content

All things jowar

Few years ago my friend from Maharashtra introduced me to this thali peeth. I saw her pressing it out in a shallow pan. I saw this jowar pancake video and felt upto the task with a pack of jowar flour lying in my pantry for a long time. My mil suggested making murukulu with this flour when I told her that I have never made jowar roti. With seeds, if jowar pilaf savory can be made, I am sure it will lend to a sweet dish too.
Jowar is a favorite staple of my parents and their parents. When hot, it brings out the flavor of the accompanying curry, with each bite. If they had any leftovers, they would dunk the dried pieces in tea the next day. I should get adventurous and make the roti. I remember my maternal grandmother making the roti on a big flat stone. Within her palms she would take just enough and lay down the little extra onto the side, to include it in the next roti.

10.18.2011
I tried making jowar roti between plastic papers. they turned out thick. That didnt prevent us from eating them gleefully.

10.20.2011
Now that I remember how we liked the crunch, I tried making them in the original way by pressing with my hand. The flour must be old, it wasnt pliable. It would just come apart. Frustrated, I added the jowar flour dough and added it to wheat dough. I could roll these easily. Just for kicks, I tried to spread the roti with hand, like you would a jowar roti. My right upper arm cried. No wonder they use both hands.The rotis turned out thinner and crunchier. Had them with brinjal-potato-tomato curry. And from now on I vow to make only wheat-jowar rotis.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vadi biyyam

Vadi Biyyam We do this for the 21st day of baby's birth. The rice is then cooked in a couple of days, with all neighbours invited for lunch. number of times a woman can receive lap rice odi biyyam songs

Egg Malai Masala

  Egg Malai Masala  Its fun when things turn out as they should. I pureed the onions and then cooked them well. I added the milk for the egg Malai Masala and made chicken curry with other half of the onion base. I used kasoori methi in both. Many times I have felt the onions grainy, but this time I got it right. Patience.

Mohanthal

Today I learnt of Mohanthal from a neighbor at community potluck. One of the dishes was a malai kofta made from mexican squash. Another neighbor spoke about how hard she found to make batura. She said that as she would shape the dough, it would spring back to its original shape. That makes me appreciate the complexity of dishes and the act of cooking. My neighbor impressed with my interest in he sweet, shared some Mohanthal with us. It is truly a sweet from heaven. I was reminded of a sweet from my marriage. Another neighbor quipped about the satisfactoin of eating when very hungry and not as much when you eat on time everyday, which resonated in the following lines of Charles Bukowski in  Wandering in the cage. "the best thing about near-starvation and hunger is that when you finally eat it is such a beautiful and delicious and magical thing. people who eat 3 meals a day throughout life have never really tasted food… "