With each passing day, more and more people are ditching the regular wheat flour and maida flour and are opting for healthier flour like finger (ragi) millet flour, soya flour, pearl millet (bajra) flour, sorghum (jowar) flour, semolina and maize flour.
Soyabean flour is an excellent source of protein, maize flour is high in nutrients and has an extended shelf life, jowar flour has high mineral and fibre content and is ideal for diabetic people and the obese population in urban as well as rural society and semolina is high on dietary fibre. Kavitha Reddi, a Hyderabad-based realtor and socialite, says, “Ragi is considered as a panacea to ward off all ill effects of summer heat. In Southern parts of India, paediatricians recommend ragi food for infants till age six for its nutrition value. A healthy and nutritious dish that can be made of ragi is ragi sangati or raagi mudda that is an integral part of Rayalaseema cuisine of Andhra Pradesh. It is very predominant in villages where it’s cultivated and tastes great with non-veg dishes like chicken kurma, mutton pulusu, groundnut chutney or dry red chilli dal (endimirapakaya pappu).”
Ragi Sangati
Ingredients
1 cup ragi flour
½ cup rice
4 cups water
Salt, to taste
Method
Clean and soak rice for 15 minutes. Take water in a saucepan and bring it to boil. Add the drained rice and salt. Cover with a lid and cook the rice until the grains are soft. When the rice is cooked, add the ragi flour and salt. Do not stir at this point. Cover the pan and let it cook on low heat for a few minutes. Now using a rolling pin or any pappu guthi, stir the mixture thoroughly until you see no lumps. Cook for 5-10 minutes on low heat. Now you have to make the balls or mudda. One way to do it is by using a wet plate. You scoop a portion from the saucepan and make it into a ball with your hand. Keep dipping your hand in water to cool it. Another method is to wet an empty vessel with water, scoop a portion into the wet vessel and rotate it. It automatically becomes a ball.
Jowar roti
Ingredients
100 gm jowar flour
Salt, to taste
Hot water as required
Method
Sift the jowar flour. Add hot water and knead into soft dough. Make a round ball and spread it on polythene paper using a rolling pin or by pressing it with one’s palm. Cook it on a pre-headed tawa.
Sprinkle little water on the top while cooking. Change the side and cook till you get a puffed roti.