Gujarati Khakhra

Gujarati Khakhra

Khaman Dhokla is a brand name of Gujarati. Low calorie, high taste. Those who are losing calcium from the skeleton, facing a problem of parathyroid secretion, deficient in Vit K2, can enjoy khaman dhokla as medicine. After Mr. NaMo became PM, the snacks served in the meetings of Delhi carry brand name Khaman Dhokla. However, the cover of Khaman Dhokla carry potato chips and panir pakoda inside.

Khakhra is another popular snacks of Gujarat. The way others enjoy morning tea with biscuits, Gujarati enjoy tea with Khakhra. All Gujarati carry Khakhra and mango achar in all domestic as well as international tours. You may read many brands: masi na khakhra, foi (bua) na khakhra, Maniben na khakhra, Sonalben na khakhra, etc. Khakhra and Papad together is a big business of Gujarat, that gives employment to hundreds of women in the city slums and rural areas. Now machines are replacing human hands due to the increasing demands of Khakhra.

Khakhra name comes from the leaves of Palas tree. Have you seen Palas leaves? Tendu/bidi patta? They are used in making bidis or biodegradable plates and bowels. The dry leaves are stiff and crunchy. Similarly the khakhra made from wheat flour are thin, stiff and crunchy. It carries many flavours: plain, masala, kothmir marcha, methi, jeera, etc. Now you get toppings of chat masala over it. Makers imagine the demands of human saliva and make new flavours. 

Generally, Khakhras are made from wheat flour. But have you heard about Khakhra of Bajara (pearl millet)? Our Kutchi madu, whether living in Gujarat or Mumbai or abroad, do eat Bajara Khakhra with tea or curd in the morning. For them, It's a taste of motherland.

Have you seen Bajara rotala? It has two layers, the thick layer (90%) and the thin layer(10%). The thin layer is hard and very tasty to bite. The women cut this thin layer from each rotala and make a packet of Bajara Khakhra. 

If thin layer is separated and packed than who will eat those thick stuff of hundreds of rotala? If the maker families can't consume, then where will it go? 90% is a big loss. My mind was wondering whenever I eat Bajara Khakhra.

Finally, I went to the village in Rapar taluka of Kutch district, where women are making bajara khakhra. And when I saw them making it, I was surprised with their indigenous technique. No machine in the world can do that. They make bajara rotala like traditional way, but when they put the rotala over the tava, they roast it on one side, then turn to the back and when the two layers get separated, slowly remove the thick layer with the help of knife and mix it with the flour to make the another rotala. The thin layer is the khakhra. One after another, a woman can make 250-300 khakhra in a day. They attend their daily household works too. Hats off to their passions and artistic skills of making Khakhra of Bajara.

Have you ever tasted it? Do try. It is very tasty to enjoy with curd/milk/tea/chatni.

By the way bajara khakhra and curd is a good breakfast for the hemoglobin deficient population. Bajara is iron and curd is a folic acid (that digest the iron). The lactobacillus of curd cures the amoebiasis. Instead of spending huge health budget, if we make the bajara and curd compulsory in breakfast of all families, many health problems of our human resource can be solved.

My mother used to say a proverb to describe poverty. "Khakhra ni Khiskoli Papad no swad shu jane?" A squirrel of Palas (living in poverty) won't understand the taste of Papad (richness). 

Khakhra is rich in flavours and nutritive. Do enjoy Gujarati khakhra!

Punamchand
5 April 2016