I learned to eat Bajra, the right way!
Growing up in Jaipur, the capital and the most cosmopolitan city of Rajasthan, I had a distaste for Bajra (aka pearl millet). Every winter, my grandmother and mother would spend their afternoons cleaning and grounding bajra in hamam-dasta (traditional mortar & pestle). Hours were spent on this process followed by slowly cooking ‘Bajre ka Khichda’ for dinner. I still remember the unpleasant tingling I would feel every time my mother ladled out the piping hot khichda in a thaali, topped with desi ghee and jaggery. The combination that made everybody in the family happy and nostalgic, was (almost) lethal for me.
To my defense, I always felt bloated after eating bajra. And my sister reconfirmed the same feeling, hence it was concluded in the family that bajra is not for “these modern kids”.
Years later, when I started researching and advocating our hyper-local ingredients at The Kindness Meal — I was still wary of Bajra. My conviction that it is not apt for the modern palate was really strong.
But this is also the space where we consciously break our conditioning and go back to the roots. Thankfully, Vinayak (@hungryhitchhiker), our in-house food innovator was all praises for Bajra. Having completed a cycling journey across the interiors of Rajasthan, Vinayak had experienced the magic of Bajra firsthand. When we started researching, my conditioning started breaking too.
How to eat bajre ka khichda?
I found out exactly why I felt bloated all these years. I ate bajre ka khichda with a heavy amount of desi ghee (very much unlike my everyday meals) and then I would go to bed. My body was not used to such unusual amounts of ghee and bajra both. And then, I was eating it with a spoon which was the main problem. Here’s how ‘Bajre ka Khichda’ was traditionally eaten:
On a plate, pour some hot bajre ka khichda and put ghee in the center.
Use your hands to eat. It adds to the flavor and also aids digestion.
Start from the outer edge, slowly mixing the ghee with the khichda until it becomes one, turns white, and is gooey. This emulsion of ghee is really important.
In some regions of Rajasthan, it is also paired with Imalvaani, a cumin-spiced tamarind water. Both cumin and tamarind are cooling in nature balancing the warm nature of bajra, ghee, and jaggery.
Back to our research about pearl millet, we were working on a Bajra forward menu for our special dining experience as a part of ‘Warming up to Winters’ hosted in collaboration with Jaipur MODERN. Sharing 4 amazing bajra recipes, palatable for modern diets in the next blog!
