Recipes with finger millet

3 recipes that use finger millet, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Kurakkan thalapa, takes 20 minutes. It is most often cooked with cabbage, coconut and coconut milk.

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Kurakkan thalapa

In the dry zone villages behind Hambantota and Tissamaharama, kurakkan thalapa is the old-fashioned lunch of farmers: finger millet flour stirred into boiling salted water until it becomes a smooth, heavy, purplish-brown dough, shaped into balls and eaten by hand. Traditionally it is torn and dipped into a sour, black-peppery fish ambulthiyal, but it is just as good with a vegetable curry, kiri hodi or a fiery lunu miris for a vegan meal. The taste is mild and earthy, and it keeps you full for hours. The most common mistake is tipping all the flour in at once, which leaves dry lumps that never smooth out; add it in stages, beating hard with a wooden spoon. Chef's tip: once the dough comes together, cover the pan and let it steam over a very low heat for five minutes; that is what removes the raw, floury taste.

20 min

Sri Lankan Rice & Grains

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kurakkan roti

Kurakkan, finger millet, was the grain of the dry chena plots and the hill villages long before white bread arrived, and these brown, nutty roti are still what many farming families around Badulla and Monaragala eat for breakfast or dinner. The flour is kneaded with plenty of fresh grated coconut and just enough water to hold, patted flat by hand and cooked on a dry clay pan until speckled and firm. They are dense and earthy, with a faint sweetness from the coconut, and taste best hot with a sharp spoonful of lunu miris or a mild dhal. Pressing the dough too thin is a classic error, because millet has no gluten and the roti crack and break; keep them about 5 mm thick. Chef's tip: shape them on a piece of oiled banana leaf or baking paper and flip them straight onto the pan, which saves them from tearing. Millet is naturally gluten free, but check the packet if you are cooking for coeliacs.

40 min

Sri Lankan Breads & Parathas

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Zan

Zan is the millet porridge of Arunachal Pradesh, eaten by the Monpa, Sherdukpen and other hill communities for breakfast or dinner on cold days. Finger millet (ragi) flour is stirred into boiling water with vegetables, ginger and chilli until thick and smooth, then served with a chilli chutney or butter. Some families cook it with meat; this is the vegetable version. It is warming, filling and earthy-tasting, a little like a savoury polenta. Chef's tip: sprinkle the millet flour in with one hand while whisking with the other, or it forms lumps that never cook out.

35 min

Indian Rice & Grains

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kurakkan thalapa

Kurakkan roti

Zan

Goes well with finger millet