Fox tail millet Thinai

Kodo millet- Varagam

Barnyard millet- Kudhirai vali
Little millet-samai
Pearl millet Ragi

NUTRITION INGRAINED: Dishes made with millets


MULTIGRAIN MAGIC: Millets Photo: P. V. Sivakumar


TOPICS
food and dining (general)
vegan
health

Why stick to white on our platter? Geeta Padmanabhan rediscovers the health benefits
of millets that were once part of our traditional diet, besides rice
The ragi string-hoppers (sevai) were a hit. The strings were soft, well-spiced and separate. There was
pride in serving a healthy snack that looked appetising. And, if it hadn't turned out well, I would have
said, Eat it, it's good for you.
Inspiration to try an alternative grain came from Lost Treasures, a colourful stall at the Food Fest
at MOP Vaishnav College. Speaking of the goodness of our ancient grains, the students said, They
need very little water, they're cheap and highly nutritious. Add them to your menu. Final-year MSc
students of Food Technology & Management Roshini RP, Krupa K, Akshaya S, Swetha Sundararajan
and Anila Joseph readily shared their research on these grains.
Losing out on colours
It makes interesting reading. Our plates see only white these days, it starts off. Our breakfast is
made with white rice, lunch is shimmering white rice and dinner is light brown wheat chappati, it
says, adding dramatically, We have lost the colours on our plate. We have known hundreds of
millets, we grow them, yet, only a few like ragi find their way into our porridge. Our fast and furious
lifestyle has made us forget our treasure millets!
Theres ample proof ancient kitchens stocked ragi (Eleusinecoracana), jowar (Sorghum vulgare),
bajra (Pennisetum glaucum), kodo (Paspalum scrobiculatum), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica).
Ragi, which formed an important part of traditional diet in India, is recognised as an excellent source
of calcium (350 mg/100 gram), good for bone health. Ragi mudde (Karnataka) and ragi
koozhu/kanji (Tamil Nadu) were taken with sambar. Ragi was also sprouted, dried and powdered
and served with milk.

Jowar or Sorghum, a staple foodgrain, contains iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, protein and
B-vitamins such as thiamine and riboflavin. It is also a rich source of phytochemicals. Jowar-based
roti, dosa, puttu, khakra, kichadi and paratha have come out of village kitchens for centuries. Bajra
or pearl millet grows in drought-prone areas with low soil fertility and high temperatures. It survives
where rice and wheat cannot. Gluten-free and rich in iron, magnesium, copper, zinc, vitamins-E,
thiamine, riboflavin and niacin, it has disease-fighting phytochemicals that lower cholesterol and
improve our antioxidant status. Bajra maintains blood glucose levels and has bundles of fibre.
Gluten-free
Heard of thinai? The Chinese harvested it in the sixth millennium BC. They probably didnt know it
is gluten-free and a source of B-vitamins as well as iron, manganese, phosphorus and tryptophan,
but must have found it wholesome and healthy. Kodo, aka varugu arisi, rich in dietary fibre, is now
gaining popularity as a rice substitute. Kodo and samai improve nutrition, boost food security, foster
rural development and support sustainable land care. Is it an urban mindset that we use it as
birdseed rather than eat it in the form of bahala bhath, the students ask. Why won't we accept that
millets nourish us and our soil, stand as better options in agriculture with their shorter cultivation
time and longer shelf-life?
Millets are ground as whole grain, have more protein and extra fibre because their skin stays intact,
says Dharini Krishnan, nutritionist. Their vitamins and minerals are preserved. Polished ragi has
traditionally been used as a weaning food for babies. Added to the batter, ragi, bajra and wheat
powders will result in red, green and white dosas colourful for kids! And these don't need any
extra oil. Diabetics can make bajra grit (broken) the main dish by pressure-cooking it with 1:2 water,
she said. It doesn't cause heat, doesn't constipate, but helps lose weight and control cholesterol.
Soak wheat for 24 hours, wash and set it aside for another 24 hours. You will get wheat sprouts that
are tastier and provide far greater health benefits than wheat.
A number of innovative recipes are making millets more acceptable now. Multigrain idli, multigrain
dosa, thinai upma and ragi puttu are all doable dishes. Department stores now stock biscuits,
murukku, cutlets and pizza made of ragi. Bajra powder makes rotis, vadais, fritters and wafers.
Thinai maavu is good for urundai, thepla and murukku. Surprise family and friends with kodo upma
and kodo puttu.

It is not as if millets as a food group conventionally evokes the idea of a mouth-watering meal, let
alone something worth paying for. However, some enterprises in the city are challenging this notion
by using millets as a primary ingredient in their preparations, promising both healthy and delectable
food.
Prems Graama Bhojanam (PGB) in Adyar is arguably the citys first restaurant to offer a platter of
rural dishes prepared exclusively from millets.
Samai kuzhipaniyaaram, varagu idli, thinai doasai, kambu roti, kavuni idiyappam, samai thayir
sadham and thoothuvalai rasam saadham are some of the dishes they offer.
Its founder N.S Krishnamoorthi, who has worked in the food industry with Hindustan Lever for over
three decades, says that it took a good nine months to finalise the menu. The challenge was in
ensuring quality and consistency. Both my wife and I conducted many trials for all the dishes.
However, it was cracking our most famous dish - thattu idli - that took the longest time nearly
three months, he says.
Srivatsa N. C., the founder of Food Karma in Besant Nagar which specialises in health food, faced a
similar problem. He says, Cooks these days dont know how to cook with millets. Therefore, we
needed to train them especially in this.

None the less, the demand has been heartening, they say.
Without investing in heavy advertising, Krishnamurthi has managed to attract a wide clientele of
young professionals, students, and senior citizens. Our publicity has been based on word-of-mouth
and through social media. I obsessively keep tabs on food blogs, Zomato and food groups on
Facebook he says.
Muralidhar Shreedharan, who runs a food blog, observes that health food is a niche market waiting
to blossom. Places like PGB and Food Karma can cater to a public that wants both variety and
healthy options he explains.
Nithya Rajasekaran, a food photographer and blogger, however is sceptical. Sustaining your
clientele with a specific ingredient like millets is a challenge. Figuring an optimum pricing is also
something these places will have to grapple with, she says.
Here to stay or not, only time will tell; until then, millets seem to be the flavour of the season.
Keywords: Food, Chennai

For many, the concept of a millet-inclusive diet would mean adapting to a completely new kind of
food habit. However, sticking to your original diet, with just smaller and healthier changes to the food
regimen is possible, says Jayashree S, a homemaker who makes dishes out of millets like thinai,
varagu and kambu at least thrice a week. To begin with my breakfast, there is kambu koozhu, which
is both healthy and refreshing. In just 15 minutes of preparation time, I fix a healthy breakfast, she
says. She shares her quick fix recipe. Grind kambu in a mixie till it becomes a smooth powder. Mix
water and stir it in a heavy-bottom vessel till it becomes a glassy paste, keep stirring till it gets
cooked and then add buttermilk after cooling it. Jayashree also makes thinai pongal every week for a
light dinner. She says, I realised that the regular pongal doesnt reduce the intake of rice, as it is the
same in another form. So, I cut the quantity of ghee and replaced the regular rice with thinai.
For N Choodamani, every dinner is either idli, dosa or the routine pongal. But considering the heavy
intake of carbohydrates, she occasionally adds a little amount of kezhvaragu.
She says, it doesnt alter the taste altogether and at the same time, it is a healthier dinner.
For my mother-in-law, who is in her 80s, it is the same idli or dosa and easily palatable. She doesnt
like any change in her routine, and this is the perfect way to ensure that, adds Choodamani.
For Sandhya K, who fasts on a weekly basis, kezhavaragu adai with jaggery gives the necessary
nourishment to keep her going all day. She says, Adding kezhvaragu with moong dhaal and a little
jaggery makes the dinner lot more wholesome. Just one adai is filling enough.

Fenugreek Porridge or Venthaya Kanji

Ingredients
Sprouts of fenugreek (mulaikatiya venthayam) - 50 grams
Sprouted white jhovar (mulaikatiya vellai cholam) - 100 grams
Ragi - 100 grams
Raw rice - 100 grams
Jaggery -250 grams
Milk - 1 glass or 300 ml

Method:

Take the sprouted fenugreek, white jhovar, ragi and dry it in shade. Take the raw rice and pan fry
before it turns golden brown and grind all ingredients in a mixie. Take two tablespoons of this mixture
and required jaggery and 200ml of water in a pan and boil the content in slow flame till it gets
cooked. Add milk and elaichi for extra flavour and taste. Serve hot. This porridge can also be
prepared with same ingredients without being dried, with salt.
Recipe by Kanthimathi Alaguvel, Owner, Nimmathi Diet In

When a routine blood test revealed that she was a pre-dia betic, Saradha Venugopal decided
that she had to give her diet a serious overhaul. Cutting out white rice, processed food and

colas, she began incorporating thinai (foxtail millet) adai and kambu (pearl millet) dosa into
her daily menu.
"Initially, I thought it may not taste as good as the regular dosa and adai but it turned out to
be delicious," says the 41-year-old software engineer. "And now my family loves it."
With an increasing focus on eating healthy and staying fit, and a growing awareness of the
nutritional benefits of millets, people across the city are turning to traditional recipes. What
was once considered the poor man's food is now gaining popularity in urban areas.While
organic stores have come up with recipe booklets to aid customers shopping for varagu
(kodo millet), samai (little millet), thinai (foxtail millet), and kudiraivali (barnyard millet),
specialised restaurants are re-introducing Chennaiites to traditional fare.
"When we launched reStore in 2007, we managed to sell 100kg to 200kg of all the grains
put together," says Ananthoo, one of the founder of reStore, a not-for-profit organic outlet
in Kottivakkam. "Today we sell about 1,000kg a month."
Millets, small seeded grasses, have been the region's traditional food. "Two generations ago,
millets constituted 40% of our food, at least in rural areas," says Madhusudanan K who runs
the organic store Dhanyam, along with his wife Thendral. "After the Green Revolu tion in
the 1960s, the government focused more on enhancing the production of rice and wheat,
and millets took a backseat. Since rice and wheat were easily available, it slowly acquired a
disproportionate amount on the food plate."
However it came with its own set of problems-on the agrarian and consumer side. "The
extensive focus on rice and wheat increased the cost of farming as rice is a waterintensive
crop. Millets, on the other hand, don't require much water. Use of fertilizer is also higher
while cultivating rice," he says.
For the consumer, the variety in food consumed also came down drastically. "You may think
you are eating a diverse range of dishes, but if you go to the base, it's the same grain," says
Madhusudanan.
And that has health implications as polished rice doesn't have much ibre, most of it is
starch, and converts fast into sugar."
Millets have a host of nutritional benefits - they are high in pro tein, have a low glycemic
index, making it ideal for diabetics; are gluten-free, and a good source of B vitamins as well
as minerals such as magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese.
"I began using millets about a year ago as my son wanted to lose weight and cut out white
rice from his diet," says Hemalatha, who has her own business. "Since I am also a prediabetic, it helped." She began making pongal with thinai, and added spoonfulls of ground

millet to flour used for making chappatis and even dosa batter.
"All the traditional rice dishes -upma, kesari, pongal, dosa, adai -and even pulao can be
made with millets," says Chithra Viswanathan, an ardent foodie who has a cookery app to
her credit. She began using millets four years ago, when it was not so popular in the
city."While I was growing up in Madurai, our domestic help used to cultivate millets on their
land. So I was familiar with its benefits though then it was considered the labourer's food
while rice was considered the meal of the upper class," she says.
To help urban folk who do not know how to cook millets, outlets like reStore and Dhanyam
stock recipe booklets. And specialty restaurants have come up to cater to those who want a
taste of the food before they decide to switch to it.
Prems Graama Bhojanam, launched by N S Krishnamoorthi last September, serves only
milletbased food. "We don't use white rice, maida, vanaspati, or sugar, and all our dishes are
made with only rice bran oil," says Krishnamoorthi.
A foodie, when he decided to start his own business after 34 years in the corporate world,
Krishnamoorthi knew it had to be something unique. "I wanted whatever I served to be tasty
, novel, healthy, and affordable," he says. Having grown up on millets in his village near
Hosur, Krishnamoorthi decided to introduce it to Chennaiites. "If I advertised it as just
healthy food, I was sure people wouldn't give it a try , so I marketed it as village food. I
decided to give them familiar dishes but make sure that my product with millets is better
than what they normally eat," he says.
So at this restaurant you get Tumkur thatte idli (made of varagu or kodo millet), and
Davangere Benne dosa (made of varagu, samai and topped with a dollop of butter."When it
launched, I thought more elderly people would come but I am happy to say that 70% of my
clients are young adults," he says. They are very mobile, willing to try out new things and the
response has been great."

Food R. Rajamurugans recipe book Nalla Soru revives old millet recipes and
innovates new ones
His 80-year-old paati gave him the recipe for porivilangai urundai. Made with cereals, pulses,
nuts and jaggery, this multi-grain laddoo is rich in fibre, proteins, vitamins and minerals, and
packs energy. It has all the ingredients that are prescribed in a modern day health mix. Our
ancestors always consumed organic food which they cultivated in their fertilizer-free farms and
stayed healthy, says R. Rajamurugan. He has come out with a Tamil recipe book Nalla Soru that
revives some of the tried and tested recipes made from thinai, varagu, saamai, kudiravaali,
panivaragu, kambu, cholam and kaelvaragu from the millet family. He has innovated some of the
recipes to suit modern day cooking. For example, kambu and raagi kali recipes that can be made
in a pressure cooker. The millets are cultivated on vaanam paartha bhoomi (rain fed farms) that
dont need any fertilizers. They are unpolished and rich in fibre, he says and warns that the
market is flooded with polished varieties. Organic varagu is brown in colour, while thinai and
panivaragu are yellow, saamai and kudiravaali are greyish. The polished ones are white in colour.
Buy your organic food from the right place.
BACK TO OLD TIMES

A catering student, Rajamurugan has been researching millets for over nine years. He has a small
organic farm at Tiruchengode where he grows organic cholam and groundnut. Besides farming,
he visits schools and colleges regularly to create awareness on organic food. I have incorporated
traditional millet recipes which I learnt from our ancestors from villages in Madurai, Theni,
Dindigul, Palani, and Oddanchathiram.
He says as the awareness on millets is picking up it was a good time to come up with a recipe
book. There are over 90 recipes in it. They have been classified under kali, kanji, thinpandangal
(snacks), sweets, sitrundi (tiffin items) and soru vagaigal (rice).
Thinai paruthi paal made from thinai rice, paruthi seeds, jaggery and sukku is a traditional
preparation. So is kaelvaragu puttu. And, ottarai adai made with kelvaragu, onions and curry
leaves (kaaram) and with jaggery (sweet). Kambu dosai, saamai dosai, and kaelvaragu idli are
new recipes. So is pongal, kozhukattai, kesari, says Rajamurugan. Among sweets,
Rajamurugan experimented with kollu laddoo, kaelvaragu urundai, and kaelvaragu halwa. We
prepared kollu laddoo for over 100 people and everyone loved the taste. Our elders were happy
with adirasam. They also made thinai and ellu maavu urundai with jaggery for the cold
December months as it gives warmth to the body. Rajamurugan recalls the traditional kali
preparation. They made kali from kaelvaragu, kambu, raagi, and cholam. Achatti was clamped
with the help of a kaavakuchi (a y-shaped stick) and they mixed the kali with a
wooden thuduppu. Now, we make it in a pressure cooker. Though the taste differs, health
benefits remain the same.
New additions include recipes on saamai murukku, thinai parappattai paniyaram, thinai
pooranam kozhukattai, varagu vadai, varagu bonda and more. Thinai suiyyam is a sweet. Our
elders always used sukku and milagu in sweet preparations to ensure that it helped in digestion,
he mentions.

To get a copy of the book, call him at 098426-72439.

Keywords: Nalla Soru recipe book, traditional tamil recipes, author R.
Rajamurugan, organic healthy millet recipes
lifestyle and leisure
food and dining (general)

Chef Rajesh Radhakrishnan traces the history of the pizza and talks about what is yet
to come in the evolution of this world-famous course
Countries are beginning to recognise how powerful a tool food is when it comes to spreading
awareness about themselves through their cuisine and food shows. Food is, after all, a soft power.
One of the best examples of popularising a country through its cuisine would arguably be Italy, with
two of its national dishes that have become an international phenomenon pasta and of course,
pizza. While Indians consider thick crust pan pizza and thin crust as the two types of pizza, Italians
would tell you the only types are Italian and non-Italian!
The word pizza is thought to have come from the Latin word pinso, meaning beat or pound or to
have been derived from the Greek word pitta, which is a flatbread or pie. Pizza, in its most basic
form, is a seasoned flatbread with a long history in the Mediterranean.
Pizzas were traditionally a poor mans food and took decades to be accepted by the rest of society. It
is very amusing that tomatoes, considered an integral part of Italian cuisine, were considered
poisonous and thus not consumed. The introduction of Indian water buffaloes to Italy led to the
production of mozzarella cheese that became popular only by the mid-18 century. Thus, the two
ingredients that are today an essential part of pizza were not used till the 18 century.
The popularity of pizza sky-rocketed once the local aristocracy got fond of it. The first pizzeria was
officially opened by 1830 and the story goes on that in 1889, when Italys queen Margarita visited
Naples, a Pizzaiolo (pizza chef in Italian) by the name Raffaele Esposito created a patriotic pizza
combining mozzarella, basil and tomatoes signifying the Italian flag and named it Pizza Margarita.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Pizza was taken across the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by migrating
Italians. By the 1950s, American corporate giants realised the potential of pizza and popularised the
thick-crust, deep-pan pizza.
By 1980s, some American chefs started the trend of gourmet California style pizza which were thincrust and had fancy toppings ranging from crme fraiche to caviar. As pizza became more entrenched
in local cultures, the toppings and styles became more varied. Today, one can order pizza topped
with kimchee in Korea, chicken tikka in India. In Chennai, you could even stumble upon a chicken
chettinad or mutton sukka pizza. Sweet variations have also emerged with toppings of chocolate,
nutella, fruits or honey. Pizzas entered the Indian food market around the 1980s but it was not until
1996 that some American fast food chains set up shop with their pan pizzas. Till then, pizza, for most
Indians, was a bread base topped with tomato ketchup and processed cheese. The popularisation of
the thick-crust pan pizza in India led to many indigenous pizza chains.

In 1998, Chennai's first stand-alone Italian restaurant, Bella Ciao, serving true Italian pastas and
pizzas, opened in Besant Nagar. They built their own pizza oven and Chennaites got the first taste of
real Italian pizzas. Although most ovens were directly imported from Italy at that time, a few Italians
in Pondicherry had started manufacturing indigenous wood-fired pizza ovens using fire bricks, clay
and concrete. Mango wood was the choice of wood for lending the smoky aroma. Ingredient
availability was a big challenge then, and many, be it good quality olive oils, flour or meats, were
simply not accessible! Le Royal Meridien was the first to install a pizza oven in their coffee shop. In
2002, 601 at The Park, with Chef Willi at the helm of the kitchens, kick-started the artisan and
gourmet thin-crust pizza trend. These pizzas were hand-made, had a thinner crust and featured
better quality mozzarella and fresh, high-quality toppings. 601 experimented with fusion pizzas like
the Hoisin Chicken pizza and Tandoori prawn pizza that had an Indian twist. Speciality Italian
ingredients were also becoming more easily available commercially at this time. Little Italy, which
came to Chennai in 2004, was successful in capturing the pure vegetarian market segment. Chef
Willi went on to team up with Vipin Sachdev to create Tuscana Pizzeria, where the core idea revolved
around the wood-fired pizza oven.
Given the success of these Italian restaurants, pizzas have found their way onto the menus of most
five-star hotel restaurants in the city.
Pizza is a popular category of food and rightly so. Today though, there is a growing concern around
the world that pizza is fuelling obesity, specifically childhood obesity. Most fast food pizzas are high
on fat, calories and sodium, which definitely have adverse effects on health. Rather than branding
pizza as a villain, improving the nutritional content of pizza and reducing the quantity consumed are
more viable options. This is where artisanal pizzas come into play.
Fresh, high-quality, local and organic ingredients are finding their way onto pizza menus. Many
ingredients, ranging from whole wheat flour to rye, soya bean or lentil flours or even ethnic millets
like ragi (finger millet), or thinai (foxtail millet) flours could be incorporated into the dough to make
pizzas nutritionally richer. Low-fat mozzarella is becoming popular as a reduced calorie option.
Topping pizzas with a variety of fresh vegetables could well be a smart way of getting them to eat
vegetables. People with gluten allergy neednt lose heart too, as gluten-free pizzas are now available.
Going forward, you may be able to even find pizzas incorporated with super foods such as flax seeds,
chia seeds or even goji berries. This decade may well bring about many evolutionary tranformations.
Long live pizza!
The writer is the Area Director, Food Production of The Park, Chennai.
Keywords: artisan pizza