Floored by rice flour

Made from finely milled rice, this flour is popular as it is gluten-free, contains choline and is a rich source of insoluble fibre, writes Anu Abraham

Rice flour is a staple ingredient most South Indian kitchens stock on a regular basis to dish out breakfast delicacies like puttu, appam, idiyappam, neer dosa and idli and for delicious snacks like murukku, thattai, ribbon pakodas and kozhukattai. The list of dishes you can prepare is endless and so is the nutritive value of this gluten-free flour. Rice flour is a staple food in India and also in South-East Asian countries. You can use either white or brown rice to make this flour, but the nutritive value is undoubtedly high if it is brown since it is a good source of fibre and has been shown to reduce cholesterol.

The benefits of rice flour are numerous as it is gluten-free and with the increasing need for gluten-free food it can be a good choice for those who suffer from gluten intolerance and autoimmune conditions such as Celiac. It also contains choline that prevents the build-up of fat and cholesterol in your liver and hence helps maintain a healthy liver. Rice flour is rich in calcium, making it an excellent food choice to maintain good bone and skeletal health.

Our bodies rely on insoluble fibres to get rid of body waste and hence the body needs food rich in insoluble fibre. Rice flour is also considered a healthy substitute for cornstarch. We cannot forget the benefits it has on our skin as it helps reduce signs of ageing and removes sun damage caused on the skin.

If you would like to make rice flour at home, do not hesitate as the dishes made with homemade flour taste and have a better texture. Preparing rice flour is simple. Soak 1 kg rice for 3-4 hours. Drain the rice and air dry the rice for half an hour. Grind the rice into flour in small batches. To store at room temperature, dry roast the rice flour until it becomes light and easy to stir. Store in an airtight jar.

(The writer is the author of the cookbook Manna: Your Guide to Indian & Continental Cooking which is a result of her culinary journey during which she documented some of the most sought-after heritage recipes of India and elsewhere.)

More power to mor

Mor Koozh has some cherishable childhood memories every time I savour this classic heirloom recipe. When we were children, my mother would wait for an evening when my father travelled for work or was at an official dinner. She would inform us with an apology and half excitement that we would be having her favourite meal for dinner, mor koozh which is the Tamil version of the relished North Indian khichdi. Apparently, my father never developed a taste for its texture, but we grew to love it and would enthusiastically welcome the idea. But there were some prerequisites to having mor koozh for dinner. Vatha kuzhambu had to be made for lunch, as it was the perfect accompaniment. It is a spicy tamarind sauce usually flavoured with drumsticks or dried berries.

My grandmother, a stickler for tradition, insisted on using rice flour, but my mother experimented with wheat flour, saying it’s lighter on the stomach. Although both are equally tasty, the rice flour has an advantage as we get a crispy golden crust at the bottom. My mother would say the final dish should be firm enough to wobble on its own.
A lip-smacking delicacy of a niche community, the Nazi Tamils, mor means buttermilk and koozh means something soft yet firm, velvety in texture yet with crunchy interludes, a savoury halwa, so to say. It came to be made at first for the old and toothless in the family, who wanted something easy to eat, but more filling and satisfying than a porridge.

Mor Koozh
Ingredients
Rice Flour (or wheat
flour): 2 cups
Thick curd slightly sour: ½ cup
Salt to taste; Water
Seasoning
Gingelly Oil: ½ cup
Mustard seeds: ½ teaspoon
Urad dal: 1 to 2 teaspoons
Methi seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Hing a pinch
Ginger: ½ teaspoon
Green chillies: 2 chopped
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Curd chillies: 4 to 5
Method
Make a batter of the flour, curd, salt and water and keep aside. In a heavy-bottomed pan add mustard seeds and allow to splutter. Add urad, methi, ginger, chillies and hing. Cook till urad dal turns golden brown. Now add curry leaves and pour into the batter. Stir till you get a thick batter. Cover and cook on low heat till the koozh changes colour and leaves the sides of the pan. Fry dried curd chillies in a little oil till they turn very dark and serve as an accompaniment along with vatha kuzhambu and appalams.

(Recipe courtesy Malathi Ramachandran)

One ingredient, one recipe

This column will celebrate food and explore the possibility of forming an invisible chain that will bind us together as a family. Picking the most important ingredient of ‘love,’ we would want readers to send us a unique recipe that has either a childhood memory attached to it or, an interesting fact, or even a food philosophy they learned from their ancestors. We will hand-pick one unique recipe and publish it along with this column the following month. Please share your heritage recipe and story in 300 words with “Food Family: Love” mentioned in the subject line to [e-mail] by September 27.