Millets – The Strongest Proponents to Re-Kindling Traditional Cooking Methods

As the conversation around the consumption of millets and about traditional methods of cooking grows, we need to be aware of the facts that it’s happening in an era of quick hyper-local deliveries and increasing options for fast food.

The understanding is that the current generation of creators & consumers (youth and old both) want things at the click of their fingers. At the same time, not many want to spend time in their kitchens or invest in food that takes a long time to be prepared.

The leads us to a question - “Are traditional foods and methods of cooking irrelevant?”

There is no black and white answer to this question.

But the answer is surely not YES

There is an ever-growing community that is exploring these options while going back into their kitchen to try ancient grains and traditional methods of cooking.

Talking about Mumbai, where I belong – there are active communities conversing about lifestyle, food, farming, nutrition & zero-waste. All of these lead to reigniting the importance of going back in time for inspiration while rethinking how we shape our future.

Also, the restaurant industry in Mumbai, propelled by young and well travelled chefs, is now actively creating menus using traditional ingredients and methods of cooking. May it be fermentation, slow-cooking, wood-fired ovens or using of stone mortar-pestels for grinding – it’s not just about taste anymore. Tradition and Nutrition is a core part of what is presented to the consumers.

There is evidently a momentum to understand the importance of our traditional foods and techniques, but the question is WHY?

Two primary reasons for this are the increasing cases of -

• Nutritional deficiency

• Health problems

The medical industry, consumers & creators have realized the importance of nutrition and how food is a holistic solution to curing or containing major health problems obesity, heart diseases & type-2 diabetes.

This has made us rethink the way we prepare and how we can incorporate traditional foods into our diets.

MILLETS & TRADITIONAL METHODS OF COOKING -

In recent times, most of my conversations around food, nutrition and health have led towards millets. One in five conversations at the local farmers market in Mumbai are about a consumer wanting to try millets or already having them as part of their diet.

And there is one common question across all conversations – “How do I consume millets”?

This is where millets are helping us rekindle our traditional cooking methods.

We are surely moving towards millets and it’s primarily from a nutritional stand point. Now, let’s combine the question “HOW DO I CONSUME MILLETS?” with “HOW DO I GET THE MAXIMUM NUTRITIONAL BENEFIT FROM MILLETS I CONSUME?”

The answer to this is “Traditional methods of cooking”.

At my house, which has been a millet consuming household, there are 4 specific techniques which are used whenever we consume millets -

1. Overnight soaking of millets

2. Freshly grinding millet flours.

3. Making millet flour dough using warm water

4. Making millet rotis (bhakhris) using clay pans (tawa’s)

While points 2, 3 & 4 are strictly optional or could vary as per your convenience and comfort, soaking of millets overnight (or at least for 6 hours) is of utmost importance while consuming millets.

“Soaking millets overnight ensures better digestion of millets, better absorption of nutrients while also making them easier to cook.

You must have heard instances about people feeling bloated after consuming millets. Also, there has been a strong wave of conversation that it is difficult to digest millets.

It’s not millets that need to be substituted; it’s just going back in time and understanding how they were prepared.

It has also scientifically been proven that soaking of the millets breaks down the phytic acid in them. Phytic acid if not broken down, impairs the absorption of minerals like iron, zinc and calcium and makes it difficult to digest millets.”

So as we move towards millets with all our rigour and effort, we need to make sure we consume them in the right manner.

Similarly, there is another general complaint about millet flours catching pests too soon.

It’s the nature of the grain and we just need to get to a habit of milling them as fresh as possible to avoid the same.

In earlier times, each household had a stone-grinding mill, later replaced by community level flour mills. These flour mills still exist across every city and town in the country.

Millets have made to look difficult and unworthy mostly for reasons that did not support the changing habits of generations. But when we sit back and think as to how important these grains are – these habitual changes do not seem that difficult.

Now that we have started thinking millets, we need to start thinking about a few traditional methods of cooking and we will never move away from millets or these methods ever again.

India has been a land that has done things holistically, supported by science whenever asked to prove.

So as I always say, whenever I have any questions about food – I go back to Indian traditional wisdom and always find the right answers.