Sama ki poori or deep fried Barnyard Millet Flatbread is gluten free bread which is perfect to be eaten during fasting!
As with every other festival, my memories of Navratri are mainly about food. This Sama ki poori is one of my favorite ‘fasting’ food to eat! Turns out I was a glutton then as well 😉
My dad has always been a religious kind of guy, specially around a few customs he sticks to. Like everyday morning, he gives water to the sun and then lights that diya in the small portable temple we have at home. Like come what may, he will buy that boondi prasad every Tuesday, put bhog (a symbolism for making God taste the prasad) and distribute it to kids. A lot of times, I have wondered if these are more habits than the real feeling of devotion and religion, but to him they seem to bring calm.
Similarly, one thing he follows every year is the Navratri customs. For those 9 days, no garlic and onion would be used in anything made at home. He would even give up his beloved scotch a day. Though now he doesn’t fast, when we were growing up, he used to fast on all nine days and if work was very busy, he would at least keep the fast on the first and last day. My sister and I wouldn’t fast but would still look forward to those 9 days, because dad fasting meant delicious and different food. He was a terrible faster and needed to eat something every hour, far more than he would eat on a normal day 🙂
There would be vrat walli patti which were essentially rajigira (amaranath bars), there would be sabudana vada and namkeen. There would be kuttu ke pakore (buckwheat fritters) and makhane ki kheer (foxnut & milk pudding) and there would be tons of aloo, dahi walle aloo, dry roasted aloo, fried aloo, aloo chaat and more.
Among this all there was this swaang ke chawal or sama or Samavat Rice, which both me and dad used to love. Mum would make khichdi out of it or kheer and on the last day of Navratra without a fail she would make Sama ki Poori and serve it along with aloo ki sabji and curd. I think I started keeping the fast at one point only for eating this food. I don’t fast anymore (and I am fast turning into an atheist I feel, of course I can never give up festivals because they mean food) but this is one food I still make every year.
Upon a little research, I figured that sama ke chawal is a strain of Barnyard millet and extremely healthy gluten free millet, it did made me wonder if traditionally these nine days were actually a way to cleanse your gut. Essentially a lot of food that was eaten was clean, high calorie yes, but clean local food be it amaranth or buckwheat or the Barnyard millet.
And of if you are really worried about the deep frying and making pooris out of it, the paranthas come out pretty nice as well!
Also coming up next : How did my navratri memories changed once I married into a south Indian household 🙂
Sama ki poori | Barnyard Millet Flatbread
Ingredients
- 2 cups atta Sama ka (Barnyard Millet Flour)
- 1 potato boiled , mashed
- water Warm for kneading
- to taste salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together mashed potato, salt and the sama ka atta.
- Slowly add warm water to it and knead to form a soft dough
- Make small balls of the dough and let it sit for 2 minutes.
- Either using hands flatten the balls in a small disc ready to fry or use a ziploc which has been cut from the sides and roll the ball by placing in between the ziploc layers.
- If making poori, deep fry in hot oil or cook it on the tawa till crisp
- Serve hot with tamatar aloo or dahi walle aloo
The navratri is the prelude to the greatest festival of Bengalis – Durga Puja and will you hate me if I say that we never fast during these days rather the eating increases. And I guess both of us love Durga Puja so it does not matter whether we keep fast or not. Nice one as usual
Ha ha ha Anindya. Like I said I don’t fast either. I digged into a meal of prawns, fish and mutton just day before 😀 This is all memories from childhood and I do like this food as well