Alright, let’s talk about this flour thing in Indian food, you know, the kind they use in them fancy New York Times recipes. I ain’t no fancy cook, but I know a thing or two about eatin’ and makin’ food. My ma and grandma, they taught me good, real good.
First off, there’s this atta stuff. That’s the real deal, the whole wheat flour. You use it for makin’ roti. You know, those flatbreads? Yeah, the ones you eat with everything. They also use atta for chapati, paratha, poori, and phulka. Sounds fancy, but it ain’t. Just different ways of makin’ the same kinda bread, you see. Some thicker, some thinner, some fried, some not. It all depends on what you’re feelin’ like eatin’ that day.
Then there’s this other stuff, maida. They call it all-purpose flour, or plain flour sometimes. It’s white, real white. Like the snow, but not as cold, ha! This maida, it’s for makin’ things like naan. You had naan before, right? That fluffy bread they cook in them hot ovens? Yeah, that’s maida. And bhatura, too. That’s a fried bread, real puffy and greasy. Good stuff, though, fills you right up. They also use maida for luchi and kulcha. And muffins, too, I hear. But I ain’t never made no muffins, not my kinda thing.
- Atta: Whole wheat flour, for roti, chapati, paratha, poori, phulka.
- Maida: All-purpose flour, for naan, bhatura, luchi, kulcha, muffins.
Now, they got all sorts of other flours too, you know. For folks who can’t eat the regular stuff, or for special times of the year. They talk about gluten-free this and fastin’ flour that. I don’t know much about that. Back in my day, we just ate what we had. But these days, folks got all sorts of choices, which ain’t a bad thing, I guess. They got flours with names I can’t even say. Hindi names, Tamil names, Telugu names. All sounds like gibberish to me, but I’m sure it’s good stuff if they’re usin’ it.
This New York Times lady, Tejal Rao, she writes about Indian food. Says she learned to cook in her family’s kitchen, far from India. Well, good for her. I learned in my ma’s kitchen, right here, and that’s good enough for me. She talks about these ten essential Indian recipes. I bet she uses atta and maida in a lot of ’em. You can’t make good Indian food without those flours, that’s for sure.
And these crossword puzzles, they always got questions about flour. “Flour in Indian cuisine, nyt,” they say. Well, honey, it’s atta or maida, most likely. Sometimes they ask in September, sometimes in October. They like to keep us on our toes, I guess. But it’s always the same answer, pretty much.
So there you have it. Flour in Indian food, it ain’t that complicated. Just atta and maida mostly. And a whole lot of other stuff if you’re fancy. But for me, I’ll stick to what I know. Good old atta and maida, that’s all you need to make a good meal. Now, go on and make yourself some roti, you hear?
Tags: Indian cuisine, Indian Flour, Atta, Maida, Roti, Naan, Chapati, Paratha, Poori, Phulka, Bhatura, Luchi, Kulcha, Gluten-free Flour, Fasting Flour, NYT Cooking, Indian Recipes, New York Times.
