The brown and the beautiful grain of Karnataka


Karnataka’s brown top millet is sustainable, tasty and healthy, and it is about time we bring it back to our plates

I came upon farmer Raghu and his team in an open tent at a festival, where they had set up a mini kitchen with stoves, chappati dough, plates and all. They had mounds of coconut, peanuts, onion, green chillies and coriander, all ready for their chutney. More interestingly, the women were deftly shaping the dough by hand into large, round, traditional bhakris on a wooden board.

It all looked so simple and easy. As soon as the bhakri was made, it was smoothly transferred to a tawa and came out looking perfect. We all relished it with the spicy chutney, the recipe of which Raghu shared. We learnt that the bhakri rotis were made with the elusive brown top millet, called koralu in Kannada.

I came back home, determined to prepare the bhakris, and bit dust. The dough stuck stubbornly to the rolling board and my fingers, and had to be peeled off and flung, thick and shapeless, on the pan. It bore no resemblance to the ones made at Raghu’s kitchen. But the saving grace was the taste; even I couldn’t ruin the taste of the bhakris. It was delicious and, of all the millet bhakris I have ever eaten, were by far the best, and kept well even up to a month.....Read more

 

Source web page: The Hindu


Comments (0)



Please Login or Register to join groups