Recipes | Millet Flat-bread and Garlic Spread – The delightful world of food blogs
Thanks to some real-life social engagements, I went off-line for a couple of days and enjoyed the leisure time with family and friends. The self-exile did help in bringing some balance back into life .
Getting back to work again after a break can feel daunting. I was trying to re-sync my internet-based social media engagements and checking the in-boxes for any messages.
As I was trying to settle into the rhythm, a message popped up. It was from a friend ‘Raji‘ who congratulated me for a lovely feature in an Indian daily ‘The Tribune’. She also attached a copy (below) of that page with a small note at the end, “would you mind sharing the recipe of that Garlic spread (Lasun cutney) I had with millet flat breads (bajra roti) at your home…please..please”.
I checked the online link on the site of a popular Indian newspaper ‘The Tribune’ which published my interview a couple of days back. I was reading that article and grinning from ear to ear, as if I had just won the lottery 🙂
And why wouldn’t I, the article about food bloggers in India starts with a few snippets from ‘my journey into the world of food blogging‘ and ends with a sentence from my about page!
Following your dream is never easy, but these are the times when the efforts you put in, to realize your dreams feel worth.
1. Spicy Millet Flat-breads or Bajre ki Roti
So, here are the two traditional Rajasthani recipes my friend ‘R’ asked for, these flat-breads are a favorite breakfast at my home.
Millet flat-breads or Bajra rotis are widely eaten in rural India during winter season. As millet lack gluten, the dough becomes quite difficult to handle and makes it hard to roll the roti on a board without breaking it.
To easy my work during morning rush hours, I combine millet (bajra), sorghum (jowar), wheat (gehun) and store the flour. Gluten present in wheat helps in two ways, it keeps the rotis soft in the lunchbox and also makes it easy to roll the rotis without breaking.
Villagers prefer to eat these filling Rotis with spicy garlic chutney after a days hard work in field. They don’t need any modern gadgets to grind the chutney or a griddle to cook rotis. Just a few wooden sticks to light the fire, a stone to grind the chutney and their day is done.
I still remember the earthy taste of the millet rotis my caretaker, an old lady in her seventies used to bring and share with me. She would cook the millet rotis on a wooden hearth at her home, wrap them in a muslin cloth and bring for her lunch.
She used to sit in a corner and gently open the folds of the aged muslin cloth to take out the warm rotis and eat them with sliced onion and a green chilly. Life is really simple, the piles of stuffs we gather to simplify it actually make it more complicated.
Ingredients;
(makes about 6-7 rotis)
- 1 cup Millet (bajra) flour
- 1/2 cup Sorghum (jowar) flour
- 1/2 cup wheat flour
- 1 medium onion
- 1 green chilly
- 1/2 tsp. red chilly powder
- 3 tbsp. chopped coriander leaves
- 1 tsp Carom (ajwain) seeds
- Salt to taste
- water as required
Method; Peel and chop onion very finely. Dice green chilly into small pieces. Take a large bowl and add all the three varieties of fours in it.
Add all ingredients except water and combine to mix well.
Pour water little by little and knead a soft dough.
It is quite easy to roll these rotis in between two sheets of plastic or butter paper as shown in this recipe. Pinch small balls of dough and roll into circular rotis. These rotis will roll out slightly thicker and will not puff up like chapattis or phulkas.
Heat a griddle, place the roti on it and toast for a few seconds till the texture and colour of roti changes. Press the rotis lightly with the back of a spatula.
Flip again and toast it for another minute. Serve these healthy and filling Spicy Millet flat-breads or bajre ki Rotis with garlic spread (Lasun chutney) and yogurt raita (curd).
2. Spicy Chilly-Garlic Spread or Lasun ki chutney
Ingredients;
(serves 3-4)
- 20-25 garlic cloves
- 10 red chilly
- 4-5 tbsp. oil
- 1 cup Warm water
- Salt to taste
- Spices;
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tsp. mustard seeds
Method; soak red chilly in warm water for an hour. Remove the stalks from each chilly, if you wish.
Peel garlic, 2-3 whole pods of garlic (lasun) are good enough to get 20-25 cloves.
Drain the water from chilly and grind it with garlic cloves and salt into fine paste.
Add a little water if you find it difficult to grind the paste.
Heat oil and crackle mustard seeds, add fenugreek seeds (methi dana) and immediately pour the garlic paste into it.
Cook on medium heat till oil separates from the garlic and chilly paste.
This spicy-garlic spread or chutney stays good for a month in refrigerator.
Check the Glossary for names of ingredients in Hindi and English here.
Notes;
- Use warm water for soft and more pliable dough.
- Wheat flour in the dough helps rolling the rotis easier.
- Knead the dough a day before and refrigerate. It stays good for 3-4 days.
- Add 1 boiled and mashed potato for another healthy variation of this roti recipe.
- Use dry red chilly powder if you need to make instant garlic spread and don’t have time to soak the chilies.
I love the fact that you use millets to the greatest extent possible. And oh! how delish that garlic spread looks.Perfect for those cold nights.
Delicious and lovely to look at Millet. Wonderfully prepared. Very healthy preparation indeed.
Deepa
CONGRATS Sanjeeta! Wonderful write up! And wonderful recipes!
My mom makes coconut roti and I always try to duplicate hers, but I don’t know what it is about mom’s cooking – its very hard to replicate exactly!
I am so looking forward to trying out these spicy rotis!
When deliciousness combines with healthy it is indeed awesome 😀
Congrats so much on being featured in The Tribune. Keep it up!
Outstanding photography…it’s so perfect Sanjeeta.
Congratulations on being featured at ‘The Tribune’
Great article and once again – absolutely lovely pictures!!! Now this is a flatbread and spread that I could eat for lunch every day! That chilli-garlic spread has my mouthwatering already.
Divine! I could munch this all weekend long. With a side of chai 🙂
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