Tuesday, 07 December 2010 21:37

The evolution of the humble khakhra

Written by  Kamal Shah
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The khakhra is a Gujarati snack. It is probably one of the simplest foods ever. It is basically a chapati that is roasted as crisp as a papad. It is typically made of wheat flour, a little salt and a little oil. A dough is made with these ingredients and then made very similar to a chapati. This is then roasted in a tava by applying pressure with a wooden utensil. Ghee can also be used while roasting the khakhra to make it a little tastier.

The most a good cook would experiment with the khakhra would be by adding a little jeera to the dough to add a touch of flavor to the otherwise bland recipe. A few years back, however, people started experimenting a lot with the khakhra. They started making masala khakhras - basically adding turmeric, chilli and other masalas to make the khakhra quite tasty.

Most people would have the khakhra for breakfast with milk, tea or curd. Some people would also have it as a tea time snack, sometimes with a little pickle. But due to the plain nature of the snack, it would always need an accompaniment like curd or tea. With the masala-isation, however, the khakhra took on an independent identity and people started relishing masala khakhras plain.

Recently, people have started taking experiments with the humble khakhra to another level. You now have a large variety of khakhras. The mangroli khakhra, tomato khakhra, bajra khakhra, bajri-methi to even pani puri and pav bhaji khakhras! You also get a dosa khakhra which actually is dosa batter made into a khakhra!

As people started becoming more and more watchful about what they ate and how healthy it was, the khakhra adopted too. So, you now had seven-grain khakhras and khakhras without ghee!

There are entire stores in Mumbai and Ahmedabad that are devoted to khakhras and allied items.

Take a look at this picture of a variety that I recently saw:


image

The khakhra is shaped like a mobile phone, complete with a keypad on the packing and is called SMS khakhra! It is ideal for people like me for whom the khakhra forms a great 5 p.m. snack at work. Easy to carry as well. The interesting thing about this khakhra is it is labeled 'whole wheat bran diet and health' but at the bottom says 'Ghee sada'! Pray, how can a khakhra that has ghee be branded as a 'diet' khakhra??

... http://www.kamaldshah.com/2010/12/evolution-of-humble-khakhra.html

Kamal Shah

Kamal Shah

Hello, I'm Kamal from Hyderabad, India. I have been on dialysis for the last 13 years, six of them on PD, the rest on hemo. I have been on daily nocturnal home hemodialysis for the last four and half years. I can do pretty much everything myself. I love to travel and do short weekend trips or longer trips to places which have dialysis centers. Goa in India is a personal favorite. It is a great holiday destination and has two very good dialysis centers.

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