What does the poor farmer eat for his lunch, while toiling so hard in the fields ?
In the Concept of the Month the current topic is LESS IS MORE
which is all about minimalistic cooking.
(This is my last recipe for this month’s concept which I dedicate to our farmers)
Quite often, the one thing that sets me thinking is WHY DO INDIAN FARMERS who create food for the rest of mankind end up eating such humble meals ?
Shows their plight isn’t it ?
But how wonderfully, they draw enough strength from these standard meals to keep them going through the day. No protein shakes, no fancy diets, no gym equipments and yet they look so chiselled and can put a gym workout body to shame. Such is the power of minimalistic and yet nutritious food combined with hard labour. As a food blogger, who is constantly trying new recipes and researching as much as I can about the wonderful world of food – I cannot stress enough how much we owe them.
They don’t know if the weather will be their friend or foe or will they get their much deserved MSP (Minimum Support Price) for the crop or no.
Though their challenges seem unending, yet we see that they happily and energetically walk up to their fields at the break of dawn and face all those challenges with a braveheart – every single day.
This brings to my mind a quote by the most prestigious developer and founder of Microsoft – Bill Gates.
He once said :
“I know there’s a farmer out there somewhere who never wants a PC and that’s fine with me.”
Speaking of what the farmers eat on a daily basis, this minimalistic food as seen in the pic is my absolute favourite – The Millet roti (handbread) and thecha.
For the farmers in Maharashtra Thecha and Bhakri is a staple.
They eat this on their farms at lunchtime, with some raw onions. Then maybe after a short nap they get on with their work in the fields.
There are many ways to make the THECHA. It depends on which part of Maharashtra you live.
If you go to the Vidarbha region of this State (which is the pleateau), the thecha is made from peanuts, whereas Coconut is used in the Konkan belt which is towards the coastal area of the State.
In some regions you will find groundnuts are added, while some use coconut. Usually the spice in a plain chilli garlic thecha is too hot to handle. But with the addition of groundnuts or coconut you can bring down the spice quotient. If we talk about taste, you will pause at the first bite and then you won’t stop eating.
Green Chilli Thecha
Ingredients :
- 15 green chillies , chopped
- 10 cloves garlic , chopped
- 1 teaspoon Oil
- 2 tbsp roasted peanuts
- Rock Salt, to taste
Method :
- In a pan add 1 tsp oil and roast the chillies and cloves on a medium to high heat for 10 minutes.
- Then grind together the green chillies, garlic, groundnuts and salt to a coarse paste in a mortar and pestle or a blender.
- Serve alongwith millet bhakri Bajra and Nachni (Indian flatbread)
When we talk about minimalistic approach to food THECHA is a fine example.
Simply eaten with bhakri (Indian flat bread) made of millets – jowar or bajra or ragi, it is a magically tasty chutney, which you must try to make. Usually, a raw onion is what goes along with this .
