Yumm....Slurp....Yumm... Slurp.....!!!!Thats how i go when i think of Methi na Dhebra with garmagaram Cha. It also reminds me of Rasika Ba (Ba means mother or grandma in gujarati) - our beloved next-door neighbour in Ahmedabad. I cant put it in words what she means to us. This dear old gutsy lady is like a grandma to us- she is from Kathiawad and in the real sense an Annapurna. We remember running over to her house as kids whenever we got a whiff of the aroma of whatever it was that she cooked in her small kitchen. And she would graciously partake of whatever she cooked and some more and regale us with stories of kings and queens from Kathiawad and Rajasthan (she was second-in-line to the throne of the province known as Malia) and some words of wisdom. So, this one is for you Ba.

Well, for all you non-Gujaratis out there, this is a Gujarati snack dish made from Fenugreek leaves (methi) and millet flour (bajri no lot- "lot" in guajrati means flour). When Mallugirl asked me a couple of days back whether theplas are made with millet flour, it instantly reminded me of Dhebras. As far as i know, theplas are spicy indian vegetable stuffed parathas (similar to soft tortillas) made with regular whole wheat flour whereas dhebras are small fried vadas stuffed with vegetables and made from millet flour.

This is the second dish that i made for P yesterday. P likes to munch on something when he has his morning tea. Since we were out of breakfast snacks, i made these. I knew he would love it. And i wasnt wrong. If you have never tried these, i would recommend making them-they taste absolutely heavenly when you have it with a cup of hot tea or coffee in the morning or simply as an afternoon snack.

Dhebras are not thin like puris...its just that i made them like i woould make puris. Generally Dhebras are patted out to be thick as a patty.

Here goes the recipe:

Makes 22-24 dhebras

Ingredients

2 cups millet/bajra flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp semolina/rava

3 tbsp besan (gram flour)

2 tsp sesame seeds

1 cup fenugreek leaves (usually fresh ones are used, but since i couldnt get any, i used kasuri methi)

salt to taste

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/3 tsp turmeric

1/2 to 3/4 cup yoghurt

To be made into paste

5 green chilies

1 inch piece of ginger

2 cloves of garlic

1. Add all the ingredients except yoghurt and the ground paste and mix well. This ensures that the spices are uniformly mixed.

2. Now add the green chili-ginger-garlic paste and mix well.

3. Next start making a dough using yoghurt (the yoghurt should be sour- khatta in taste). You might not need all 3/4 cup of yoghurt. Make a firm but semi-soft dough (like you would make for puris) and leave it aside for atleast 30 minutes to an hour.

4. After an hour, get some oil ready for frying in a kadai. Make medium sized balls (like you would make for puris).

5. Start patting out the balls with hand or rolling with a pin on a plastic wrap ( i used some wheat flour to dunk the balls in- it made the job easier) into medium sized patties and gently slip them into the kadai for frying.

6. When the vadas puff up and turn brown all over remove them and let drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Let cool. (Stored well in the refrigerator, they last atleast a week) You can reheat in the microwave before you eat.

7. Serve hot with coffee or tea or simply with golkeri (a sweet gujarati mango pickle made using jaggery)