Thalipeeth - Maharashtrian cuisine

Another favourite from Maharashtra is thalipeeth. The first time I had it was when M and I had shopped at Hindmata at Parel. She brought along with her some flat paratha like discs with a hole in the centre. It looked like Madhur vadais but was a little darker in colour. I tasted them and got hooked - I guess I am in love with food :)

I found the recipe from G. Aunty (M's mom) and tried it with a ready mix thalipeeth flour (known as bhajni) by K-Pra. It was very tasty. Once I even went through the entire process of roasting the pulses(use whichever you like and also add millet flour or besan as a base - only thing try to keep it restrained to gluten free things - here and here for more on gluten free info.), and getting them ground to create my own mixture. But I really find the routine taxing and now its again over to ready flour mix - K-Pra, and Bedekar are both good.

The good thing about homemade flour is that you get to decide which grams you want more - I prefer chickpea flour or besan as they have a nice aroma! You may add kalathpodi / molagapodi / kargapulai podi etc. to spice it up as you like - its flexible - so just go ahead and add whatever you like taking care that there is no gluten!! The stickiness will spoil the taste!

My method of making thalipeeth:

You may use roasted and ground:
peanuts, green gram dal, green grams, chick peas, white peas, green garbanzos (Not kidney beans or rajma), urad dal, chana dal, horse grams, flax seeds etc.

Ingredients:

Kalathpodi (Spiced gram mix - typically Palakkad dish) - 1/2 cup
Molaga podi (Spicy dry chutney taken with idli or dosa) - 1tsp.
Grate and add any vegetable you like such as radish, carrots, chopped spinach, boiled potatoes etc - 1/4 cup. (This time I haven't used any veg.)
Water - as needed - about 1 cup for the quantity of flours I used
green chillies - 1 chopped
onion (Chopped fine) - 1 medium
ginger - 1/2" (finely grated)
Kasuri methi (Fenugreek leaves dried) - 1tbsp. (Optional)
Coriander (Chopped fine)- 2 to 3 stems
Butter/oil - 1 tsp. (Optional - not used)
salt - to taste

Method:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together.


2. Use warm water to gather the flour into a soft dough. Since it is gluten free it will not be exactly firm. The texture will be more crumbly. Add enough water other wise the end product will be tough.
3. Take a golf sized ball of dough, and pat into a thing disc (about 2mm thick) on a wet plastic or wet plantain leaf. Top with a thin greasing of water.


4. Slowly drop it into the other palm and lay greased side up on the heated griddle.


5. Pour a tsp. of oil all around and allow to roast. The top will inflate a little.

6. Flip and roast the other side similarly till dotted with brown specks.


Note:The hole in the middle is to ensure even cooking. If you are a little unsure make more holes anywhere you please - many thalipeeth makers make two or three holes and pour a little oil in each one apart from the outside edge so that the entire area gets surely cooked!

Serve with pickle, chutney, yogurt/curd. Tastes best with a pat of table butter. It is a good evening snack that can be prepared in advance, can be had cold or hot, and is a tasty option of gluten sensitive people.