Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Thalipeeth Just Zakas !




We went on a 5 day tour last week covering South /West Karnataka. We enjoyed the typical Southern fare only to return home with a craving for Marathi food. What can be more Marathi than thalipeeth. We returned home in the morning hours so it had to be a filling one as we planned to catch up on sleep post breakfast as we had travelled all night in a bus and we had fatigue.

The good things about Thalipeeth are it is multigrain, high fibre and yummy a perfect power packed breakfast.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of five flours ( rice, wheat, chickpea, finger millet, pearl millet)
2 onions
2-3 green chilies (I used ripe red chilies)
2 handfuls chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
1/2 teaspoon red turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
2 cups water


Mix all the ingredients and make a soft dough. Take a small wok/ kadhai and oil it generously. Preferably use a non-stick wok. Divide the dough into four parts and line it on the walls of the wok by patting the dough ball with the palm of your hand. Make holes in the thalipeeth to avoid puffing. A good thatlipith has to be crisp so it needs to remain flat. See below




Keep the wok on medium heat, cover and roast the thalipeeth till the inside dries out. Check the inside, if its golden it is done. Remove from the wok and serve hot with coconut chutney. Traditionally thalipth is served with a blob of homemade unclarified butter called LOni in Marathi or Benne in Kannada arrey yaar it's Makhan in Hindi.


One tip to remember thalipth can be served only one at a time. Do not make thalipeeth in batches. It looses taste once cooled. To enjoy it thoroughly it has to be eaten hot.


Also the thalipeeth has to be lined up in a cooled vessel else spreading the dough ball is difficult. Else you can use two woks so by the time one is cooled other one is cooking.

I bet you will comment Thalipeeth Just Zakas !

Happy Childrens day to all the kids as well as the adults for I know all adults wish they could be kids again!

All my kiddos, Pranav, Anushka, Anshika, Nirbhay and Sujal.

Have fun. (@)>--

A Marathi saying for this day:

LahaN_PaN Dega Deva Mungi Sakhare_cha Rava.

Which means: God give me the humility of an ant so that I can enjoy the sweetness in life.

Updated:
My friend Vinaya tells us thalipeeth is called sthaalpishtashtakam in Sanskrit. I guess sthaal means place-pishta means carbohydrates-shtakam means pancake. Vinaya is the broken sandhi correct? I haven't studied sanskrit but love to play with the words. If I am wrong thank me for a laugh, I know you will.
vinaya said...

hey! a very good try indeed. (A: Thats my friend ). The break was suchsthaala (thaali)+ pishta (peeth /carbs) + ashtakam ( eight verse poem)It was actually a eight verse poem which described how intricate and interesting the process of making a thalipeeth is.. grains are roasted at different heat levels ( some more, some less) how they are ground on a "jaate", and how a lovely thalipeeth is made, which tastes divine with loni. I guess the poet must have been a foodie himself, and just might have a food blog of his/her own in those days.

11 comments:

  1. One at a time... But one is all I can eat. Do you grind millet at home?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey you brought back so many lovely memories of the thalipeeth. Will vouch for this "poorna - anna" anyday !

    When i was in 10th, we even had a sanskrit textbook lesson on thalipeeth (sthaalpishtashtakam)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Suganya do you cook just for yourself? No I get it ground at the nearby flour mill.

    Wow Vinaya you learnt sanskrit, and a lesson on Thalipeeth, how cool is that!

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOVE Thalipeeth - just last week a friend and me descended into a Marathi restaurant in Shivaji Park and ordered for what else but Thaalipeeth - it was served with sweetened dahi and a spoonful of white butter - tasted divine, although i suspect it was deep fried -
    I do get the ready flour for this in my supermarket - want to try it out...but one doubt, you don't mention turning it to other side and crisping, or did i miss anything?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah Nandita in restaurants the thalipith is always deep fried. Thats because if they roasted in the traditional way it would be difficult to do business.

    The ready mixed flour is quite good. When thalipith is made in a wok it cannot be turned over as it is crisp and breaks into pieces so traditionally it is roasted on one side but if done on a tava you can roast it on both sides.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I thought it's a cake at first looking at the first photo. Looks fabulous!:))

    ReplyDelete
  7. so if i read this correctly it need to cook on just one side? i love that lahan pun song. i remember the tune. i have it on CD by kishori amonkar.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Asha oh is it. I just turned it out upside down from the wok. :).

    Yes Bee it is roasted on one side while it gets steamed on the other as we cover and cook it. So it is cooked on both the side one side roasted one side steamed, I hope this is not confusing ;).

    ReplyDelete
  9. hey! a very good try indeed. the break was such
    sthaala (thaali)+ pishta (peeth /carbs) + ashtakam ( eight verse poem)

    It was actually a eight verse poem which described how intricate and interesting the process of making a thalipeeth is.. grains are roasted at different heat levels ( some more, some less) how they are ground on a "jaate", and how a lovely thalipeeth is made, which tastes divine with loni. I guess the poet must have been a foodie himself, and just might have a food blog of his/her own in those days

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Anjali,

    Fine & hope so the same dear.Hey this recipe seems to be very new to me,,,but very interesting....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Does someone have access to this 8 verse poem called Sthalpishtashtakam? I remember having read this in XII textbook at one point.. would love to read it or listen to it again..

    ReplyDelete

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