Dhebras in Gujarati literally mean ‘lumps or rough thick chunks’.

Dhebras are unleavened bread therefore, which are rolled thick; unlike the chapatti or roti and cooked on a griddle.

You have probably tried the Sweet Dhebras, which Dhebras are made purely of wheat, uni-grained bread. The Savoury Dhebras uses more than one grain and is quite different in its preparation, taste and use. The Savoury Dhebras can is eaten at any meal or as a snack. It makes excellent ‘travel food’; tasty, filling and long shelf-life.

Try it with the Ripe Mango Curry (Fajeto), or good old Buttermilk or any Lassi, tea or coffee or other beverage or cooked meat or vegetable. The Savoury Dhebras, Doesn’t do too well with Salads, but goes well with Soups especially soups with a stronger flavour like a Tomato soup or Mulligatawny.

For 6 Savoury Dhebras:

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup gram flour (Channa ka Atta/ Chick pea Flour);

1 cup Pearl millet flour (Bajra ka Atta);

1 small bunch fresh coriander leaves, chopped fine;

6 green chilies, chopped fine;

2 cloves garlic;

1 inch piece ginger;

1 tbsp Sesame seeds (Til) OPTIONAL;

Salt and ground Black Pepper to taste

1 tablespoon ghee or oil or as needed (Ghee gives it a distinct and traditionally accepted flavour.).

METHOD:

Sieve together the Gram flour, Millet flour, and salt.

Peel and grind the ginger and garlic together into a smooth paste.

Now With water, knead the flour into soft fairly pliable dough.

Do not add Ghee to the dough

Add:  finely chopped fresh green coriander and Chilies, ginger-garlic paste, ground black pepper, Sesame (if using) and knead further.

Roll out into 6” roundels about 1/8^th of an inch / 0.3 cms/3 mm Thick.

Heat a griddle (preferably made of iron),

Brush ghee on both sides of the Savoury Dhebras,

Cook the Savoury Dhebras one at a time on the hot griddle on a medium flame,

Till the one side is brown,

Flip the Savoury Dhebras to cook on the other side equally brown,

Flip once again, and remove within 5 seconds.

Your Savoury Dhebras is ready to eat.

As a VARIATION and a more pungent version, one may replace the green chilies and the ginger-garlic paste with a paste of garlic, dry red chilies

pungent

and salt. In this case adjust the amount of salt added to the dough.

OR

For a more mellow taste, replace the green chillies with coarsely (very roughly) ground Cumin or Coriander Seeds or even whole Cumin or Coriander Seeds.

Summer Potatoes — Quick and Easy Cool Parsi Recipe, for  your ever hungry brood’s summer vacation this year. Simple and delicious, leaves one asking for more.

Summer Potatoes is light and lovely, cooling, tasty and filling, a recipe so easy to make and so quick to serve. Summer Potatoes are an excellent accompaniment to your meats and other meals or it may be used as a main dish by itself, eaten with Dhebras.

‘Parsis love their potatoes’ and amongst the family recipes from as early as mid-1800s, other than the Summer Potatoes, I discovered at least four other Potato Salads; including the old German Kartofel Salad. I will share them all with you in due course.

INGREDIENTS:

PER PERSON:

2 large potatoes (if for a main dish, add 2 more  per person);

100 Gms curds or 150 ml buttermilk per person (use Yogurt, if you prefer; though Yogurt is not so cooling a food);

¼ tsp cumin powder or freshly, roughly crushed roasted cumin seeds;

¼ tsp black pepper powder or a sprinkle of freshly ground pepper (powder tastes better);

1 tsp finely cut fresh coriander leaves;

2 mints leaves (optional);

1 green chili or as preferred (CHECK {*} in the recipe below).

METHOD:

1) Boil or steam the potatoes whole,

Since in the old recipe the potatoes were put in a pottery vessel (matti nu vaasan) and buried in the embers of the wood stove, we at our place bake the potatoes whole. However, this is time consuming and steamed potatoes do just as well. Boiled potatoes turn up an equally tasty dish and save a lot of time. Any of the three ways will do.

2) Poke a knife into each potato to see if fully cooked all the way to the center. The knife must slide in easily. Any resistance means the potato is not ready.

3) When done, cooked and soft enough take off the fire, drain and run in cold water,

4) When cool enough to handle take the skins off.

5) Cut into cubes and put aside,

6) When the cubes cool completely:

6 a) Sprinkle fine cut coriander and mint leaves (ensure the leaves have been thoroughly washed before adding),

6 b) Add Washed and finely cut green chilies ( * if you want to reduce the zest of the chili, add slit the green chilies length-wise, leave                       then in the salad for five to seven minutes and then remove them from the salad and discard),

6 c) Sprinkle salt and Cumin powder and black pepper powder and salt;

7) Toss to mix well,     

8) Add curds mix with a spoon to coat the potatoes evenly (do this just before serving. Curds tends to become very sour if added before hand and kept. even if you refrigerate it),

9) Place into a serving bowl Sprinkle a little more coriander on top,

Serve Summer Potatoes cold, refrigerated or room temperature. If serving as a main course, Summer Potatoes taste marvelous with Sweet Dhebras.

VARIATION: A Few bits of left over pineapple or finely cut bits of Murabba make a delicious variation.

Sweet Dhebras recipe at:

Sweet Dhebras — Flat, Unleavened, Griddle-Cooked Parsi Bread