Friday, March 09, 2007

Bajarichi Bhakari

When there is a craving for good food take a bite of stale bhakari with a consciousness-

Shree Brahmachaitanya Gondavlekar Maharaj

The Bhakari Tutorial
(updated : 12th Mar 06)

Step 1

Boil 1 cup water. Add 1 heaped cup flour to the boiling water, mix well to get the ukad ie boiled flour. This would give you 3 bhakaris of 8 inch each.

I have used Bajara flour here. You could use any other flour like sorghum (Jowar), Finger millet (Ragi or Nanchni), Rice too. It is even good to mix two different flours or even a multigrain bhakari is a good idea.

Anita :) see no cheating done you just need a good ukad. The boiling water brings out the gluten in the flour as this flour is essentially a low gluten one and you cannot get the same effect with cold water. See the ukad in the vessel below.

Step 2

Turn out the dough on the counter and knead for a while to get a nice smooth pliable ball. Divide it into 3 equal parts. Lightly flour the counter and pat the ball with circular motion as you spin it around. The ukad making makes this very easy. If you use cold water the bhakari cracks while shaping and crumbles into pieces while roasting.

Step 3

Lift gently the bhakari and turn it onto the tava heated on high heat and then reduced to medium. The direction of the bhakari should be the same as when you patted it. The side with finger marks face upside and the smooth side down. Sprinkle water and coat it evenly on the surface with circular motion. Now this step is important. Before the wet surface dries up completely lift the bhakari from the tava with a flat ladel and change the sides. In the picture below the surface has gone dry a bit by the time I took the it. The sides have to be changed just before this.

Step 4

Now you see one side roasted here.

Step 5

Once both the sides are roasted change sides. This time to puff up the bhakari. Use a twice folded napkin or oven glove to apply a bit of pressure to puff it up.

Here is the fully puffed up bhakari.

Remove it on a grill for the slightly crunchy type if you like it that way. Else fold it twice and tuck it into a box lined with a napkin if you like it soft. Both taste great depending on ones mood on the day.



It is so frustrating this IE is corrupt it threw me out and all the typed matter is gone. I'll come back to this later but for now I have had enough!

So finally I have updated the post and here I am replying to all your queries:


Yes Archana, Bee stale bhakari taste good too upto 2 days.

Anita in my struggle with the tyre I have switched to bhakari as a choice and eat it regularly with all vegetables. Yes for special menus it could be dry zunka, thecha, pithale, lasanachi chutney, vangyachi rasa bhaaji or greens stir fry like Asha mentioned. Yet as you suggested its a good idea to mix atta with bajari for the novices.

Asha yes Belgaum is famous for the Jolad roti aka bhakari. They even roast it to extra crispness and dry it in the sun for a day and stock up for a month. Their art of roti making is par excelence. They make paper thin ones just like khakara. At the time of serving these rotis are just roasted once like papads on direct flame and served.

Bee Besides the above techniques to for good shelf life what one can do is if the bhakari becomes hard for consumption say after 2 days and one needs a really soft bhakari. All you got to do is pack it in a box and put the box in a pressure cooker and allow one whistle. You have really soft and warm bhakaris again. Though they might not hold shape. Remember bhakari in a dry box and water on the outside in the pressure cooker.

Vee welcome here! Bhakari is now rustic chic. Growing up as a mumbai kid I hated bhakari but now I love it. Its almost a staple at my home. We use Ragi/ Nanchni, Jowar, Rice etc besides this Bajari. Sure go ahead! I will watch out on MBP.

Ushi its myth that its tough try it.

Trupti Urad daal is something I will have to train myself on. It turns me off due to the slime.

HKJ Ho Lonyacha Gola aani mag barech divas upvas! Ha ha ha. After removing from tava further roasting on low flame for few seconds does help puffing it up more. But if not fimiliar with bhakari roasting one needs to watch ones hand else might end up with a nasty burn from the steam that get released due to any tears. I too need to try making ladoos with Stale Bhakari.

Shilpa try with the ukad trust me they puff real good. Make smaller ones first then you can try with a larger size.

Dilipbhai mara ghere jamava aavjo virtual thi pet no bhare :) ;)!

24 comments:

  1. Anjali,
    I have never been able to make bhakri at all. Yours looks so round and puffed up.
    Among the different type of breads Bhakri tastes the best :)
    Did you use warm water to knead ?
    Stale bhakri tastes good too :)

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  2. I can never make my bhakari puff up like that! Are you sure you did not cheat and add a little bit of regulat atta? :)
    And whachha serve it with? Jhunka?

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  3. Looks great.When we were in Belgaum,my mom used to ask our washer woman to make Bhakris like these bcos we were not familiar with this kind of bread,It tasted great with Greens stir-fry:))
    Change to Firefox,IE gave me lot of trouble too.

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  4. anjali, does this bhakri keep well? does it get hard if not consumed right away?

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  5. jali, I found you through your comment on Dining Hall. I cannot believe I have never been here before!

    You have a great blog. Keep up the good work. I was especially glad to see this post on Bhakari. I remember eating this at my neighbors place growing up and have longed for it for so long. However, many of my marathi friends don't make this anymore. I get the feeling that it is considered (at least for them) too 'rural' for them.
    I am going to try this very soon (as soon as you type the recipe, that is. :) Don't you hate it when IE does that?) and maybe send this as my entry to blog patrolling!!

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  6. Bhakari looks nice with nice illustration of puffed snaps...

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  7. Wonderful tutorial! Bajrais so healthy. This would go well with some Urad daal...

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  8. Where is the Lonyacha Gola and Mirchicha Thecha and Zhunka or Pithale ?
    Without them it's not complete.

    After removing from Tava, you should put it on Gas Burner on low flame for few seconds.(Excuse my poor english)

    Archana

    Have you tries making ladoos with Stale Bhakari ?

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  9. Ohh wow. bhakri looks great Anjali. Nice pictures. I will visit later to see the entire content.

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  10. Wonderful bhakari...not easy to make a good bhakari...yours looks heavenly...wanna take a bite...~smile~...

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  11. So sweet of you Anjali to have explained it so well. That ukad part I did not know :) and those little tips you have given are so useful. I think I can make a bhakri now...with some practice :)
    I have not tried making ladoos with bhakri but with roti yes :)

    By the way if you know how to prepare jhunka, please give a post on that :)

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  12. Anjali, is bajra and joLa(kannada) same? I make jolad rotti in similar way(by boiling the flour), then I roll them with rolling pin instead of rolling by hand and they work like a charm always. I have seen a bajra flour and jowar flour both in Indian store. I always thought they were different :(. Please let me know

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  13. Shilpa yes they are different.I think I got you confused with my reply to Asha.

    Jola is Jowar/ Sorghum - white pearl like

    Bajari/ Millet is greyish green tiny seed

    Ragi/ Nachani/ Finger millet

    English is a funny language and sometimes all three are called Millet.

    The bhakari making procedure is the same for all three.

    Yeah rolling too is a good option but patting imparts a different taste that is so subtle. It is a nuance that makes a difference. Try patting Shilpa and let me know the.

    Archana I will post zunka recipe sometime soon.

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  14. Hi Anjali, So glad to see such a thorough write-up of this locally loved dish. You have shown us how they look at every stage on the pan. Great presentation. It just tastes so yummy - brings back flavours.

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  15. pritya welcome here. Pedatha is on my to do list.

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  16. Did i miss something? Anjali, is this regular gehu ka aata? I've been wanting to make the maharashtrian style POLI! This bhakri seems to be a good start, please let me know what flour is used here.

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  17. Nandita

    What I used here is Bajara aata. maharashtrian style POLI is nothing but chapati.

    Puranpoli is stuffed sweet one that I had shared before in an earlier post here.

    I've updated the blog now.

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  18. Thanks a lot for the detail recipe with the pictures. That was really some effort from you and its worth it!!

    I tried same bhakri as per your instructions and it came out quite nice. Of course nothing compared to yours, The Experts' :-) But much better than broken pieces when I did it last time with cold water.

    Regards,
    Nitin

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  19. Nitin that is such a sweet comment. I am happy you were successful and hope more people learn to appreciate bhakri. What did you pair it up with?

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  20. Hello Anjali,

    I tried the bhakris your way and they were excellent. Now I know the ukad really really works. Ofcourse I couldnt pat perfect bhakris like you, but atleast they didnt break. Mine didnt puff up much maybe because I used too much flour to pat the bhakris. But what a wondeful treat, thanks to you and for your wonderful blog. Thanks a lot.

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  21. Sapna you get a pat on the back for it....keep going you will make perfect ones too:).

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  22. Bhakris are wholesome food items from India and that culture must be preserved. Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe of Bhakri in so much details.

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  23. Hi,

    Nice recipe on making those complicated rotti. Please tell me how to make them extra crispy like jowar kayak rotti.

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    Replies
    1. Sahana Jowar is a different flour. I have illustrated with bajara flour. You can use the same technique and roast on very slow till crisp and light. Then dry them in direct sunlight if you want to store them up. Katak jola rotti is very popular in North Karnataka. In Maharashtra the bhakari is always soft or crisp and is eaten fresh or max stale of 2 days not beyond that.

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