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Once a forgotten staple of traditional Indian cuisine, nutritionally dense millets are becoming popular the world over. So much so that 2023 is being dubbed "the year of millets". T The woman squatting in front of the earthen chulha (stove) fanned the flame with the edge of her sari as she turned the bajra bhakri (flatbread made from pearl millet flour) over and topped it with a generous dollop of ghee. With a shy smile, she handed it to me on a plate with piping-hot zunka (a spicy dry curry made with chickpea flour) on the side. I was in a forest near the city of Nagpur in central India in the middle of winter, and the earthy, slightly sweet flavour of the millets seemed to warm me up from the very inside. Millets are a group of small grains โ technically seeds โ that are grown on lands with poor soil quality or limited access to irrigation. They are versatile ingredients that can be used both in their original grain form in porridges and as rice substitutes, or as flour to make flatbreads and other baked goods. Once a staple in traditional Indian cooking, millets fell out of favour over the years, and have been making a slow comeback in India and across the world. To keep this momentum going, the United Nations has declared 2023 the International Year of Millets. At the announcement ceremony in December 2022, Qu Dongyu, the Director-General of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, spoke about the nutritive value of millets and their invaluable role in empowering small farmers, tackling food security issues and achieving sustainable development. While this may be news for much of the Global North, millets have been staple food in India (and parts of Africa) for several centuries, having come from China at least 5,000 years ago. There are nine kinds of millets cultivated across various regions in India, such as sorghum, finger millet, little millet, kodo millet, foxtail millet and barnyard millet. These vary in colour, size and texture, but share roughly the same nutritional profile. And all of them have local names in many Indian languages, attesting to their historical popularity across regions. Once a staple in traditional Indian cooking, millets have been making a comeback in India and across the world (Credit: pixelfusion3d/Getty Images) Once a staple in traditional Indian cooking, millets have been making a comeback in India and across the world (Credit: pixelfusion3d/Getty Images) Nevertheless, their ubiquity in India waned after the Green Revolution in the 1960s, when the Indian government pushed for hybrid, high-yield varieties of wheat and rice to increase food production for both domestic consumption and export. Being officially called a "coarse grain" didn't help millets' cause either, as this designation signified something less desirable to processed rice and wheat. Millets began to be seen as the food of rural and tribal communities, who ate rustic dishes like ragi mudde (steamed balls made with finger millet) and jowar roti (sorghum flatbread) as cheap and filling meals. However, for pastoral folks, millets were much more than sustenance. For example, they believed that consuming bajra raab (a thin porridge) would help build immunity against winter colds, and they would talk about how just two energy-packed ragi (finger millet) balls โ eaten with a spicy, thin stew in the morning โ would keep farmers fed for the whole day. Women, like the one who fed me the bajra bhakri, would pass the know-how of these dishes down through the generations, keeping the tradition of millet-based meals alive in rural India. Now, mainstream society is beginning to understand and appreciate the long-lost benefits of millets too. Manu Chandra, chef and founder at Manu Chandra Ventures, who has been championing millets for years, rues, "With modernisation and increasing conveniences, we have forgotten what used to be traditional and lost sight of what our grandmothers used to cook. Given that we Indians have the highest rate of diabetes in the world, including millets in our diet just makes sense, but [they have been] sacrificed at the altar of rice and wheat." Millets are a group of small grains โ technically seeds โ that are grown on lands with poor soil quality or limited access to irrigation (Credit: Millet Project) Millets are a group of small grains โ technically seeds โ that are grown on lands with poor soil quality or limited access to irrigation (Credit: Millet Project) According to Mumbai-based holistic nutrition expert Amita Gadre, "Millets are not just naturally gluten-free, they also have much higher levels of iron and calcium than processed wheat and rice. They are also very rich in fibre, which makes them a good choice for those trying to control blood sugar or manage insulin resistance." One hundred grams of ragi grain, for instance, contains 344mg of calcium, compared to only 33mg in rice and 30mg in wheat. And then there's also the agricultural benefits of growing millets. Amrita Hazra, associate professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune and founder of The Millet Project at the University of California Berkeley, explained that millets are hardy crops that don't need much water or fertiliser, and can be grown in arid conditions. "Lands that can't sustain anything else can still have millets growing on them," she said. "They have a short cycle and can be grown between major crop seasons, and they also enrich the soil with their own set of micronutrients." Given this, over the last decade the Indian government has begun to encourage the growth and consumption of millets, starting with rebranding millets as "nutricereals" instead of calling them "coarse grains". A diplomatic push at the international level to promote millets globally soon followed, with the intent of making India a major hub for millet production. Four millets salad from Toast & Tonic, with locations in Mumbai and Bangalore (Credit: Toast & Tonic) Four millets salad from Toast & Tonic, with locations in Mumbai and Bangalore (Credit: Toast & Tonic) Millets are now slowly finding their way back into Indian diets across the social spectrum, from affluent consumers who look to trendy foods (like quinoa and kale) in their search for wellness to middle-class mothers who are finding clever ways to sneak the nutritious grains into family meals. Influential restaurant chefs have also been giving them a fillip through fusion recipes. The menu at The Bombay Canteen in Mumbai, for example, often features millet dishes such as barley and jowar (sorghum) salad, and vegetarian haleem with a mix of kodo, proso and foxtail millets (a savoury porridge usually made with meat, wheat and lentils). Nearby, Noon serves a range of millet tortillas and dosa, while Soam offers jowar pita pockets and ragi pancakes. In Bangalore, Go Native serves up rustic millet khichdi (a porridge usually made with rice and lentils) and ragi pizzas. And at Toast & Tonic, with locations in Mumbai and Bangalore, millet is added to arancini and kibbeh. According to Chandra, "For millets to become truly broad-based, they need to be presented in a form that is more acceptable for today's generation instead of holding on to traditional recipes and ways of cooking." Different kinds of millets, varying in colour, size and texture, are cultivated in India (Credit: Toast & Tonic) Different kinds of millets, varying in colour, size and texture, are cultivated in India (Credit: Toast & Tonic) Millet companies such as Tata Soulfull and Slurrp Farms are doing just this, in the form of snacks and ready-made meals such as chips, chakli (a savoury fried snack usually made of ground rice and lentils), noodles, pancake mixes and breakfast cereals. Prashant Parameswaran, managing director at Tata Soulfull, says that the inspiration for creating the brand came from the growing interest in eating quinoa he observed more than a decade ago when he lived in the United States. "I thought, why not our Indian millets?" he said. All of this is adding to what Gadre calls "diversity on the plate", as she considers millets, along with other staples like rice and wheat, to be crucial for a balanced and varied diet. Other experts agree. According to food writer and nutritionist Nandita Iyer, "Millets are part of the larger biodiversity story in Indiaโฆ Along with the added fibre that helps control sharp spikes in blood sugar levels, eating millets also gives us more varied tastes and textures in our meals." Millets are part of the larger biodiversity story in India There are even millet-based beers offered by microbreweries and gastropubs across the country to wash all these millet dishes and snacks down. At his craft brewery, Great State Aleworks in the city of Pune, Nakul Bhonsle aims to "always have one millet beer pouring, and create a new one every three months". Currently in the pipeline is a new jowar pilsner. "I wanted my craft beer to be local in every way, and millets fit into our vision because they are cultivated in Maharashtra [the state in which Pune is located]," he said. "Globally, millet beers are about being gluten free, but for us, it is about working with the farmers." Great State Aleworks in the city of Pune is creating millet-based beers (Credit: Great State Aleworks) Great State Aleworks in the city of Pune is creating millet-based beers (Credit: Great State Aleworks) Parameswaran sums up what many consider the significance of millets: "Millets are good not just for the consumer, but also for the farmer and for the environment. [Embracing millets] enables conscious consumers to say, 'this is my way of contributing to climate change'. So, this is more than a "super food", it is a smart food." Given that India is already the largest producer and one of the biggest exporters of millets, the global attention on millets this year is sure to come as boost for Indian farmers. As for consumers, the classic cycle of what's traditional becoming trendy again, has already begun. |
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Named for the colourless nature of foods like pastas and tarts, cucina bianca is a pastoral cuisine that has fallen out of favour. However, one chef is breathing life back into it. T To make sรผgeli, a fresh shell-shaped pasta, chef Patrick Teisseire first takes a tiny round of dough, rolls it in flour, and with his thumb, presses it flat and slides it along a large circular wooden board. After pressing along the ridged board, a soft, contoured shell with seven fine pleats emerges. It's a finely-honed technique that Teisseire described as the "skill of sรผgeli". He repeats the process until his dough has disappeared, replaced by neat rows of pasta shells ready to be fed into a deep saucepan of boiling water. Composed of flour, water, salt and olive oil, sรผgeli is one of the main dishes of cucina bianca (white cuisine), the food of the pastoral transalpine communities in the high valleys of Piedmont, Liguria and the Alpes-Maritimes in what is today south-eastern France and north-western Italy. Named for the "colourless" nature of staple ingredients, such as flour, potatoes, leeks, turnips, dairy products and legumes, it's a cuisine that shares little resemblance to the bright reds, greens and yellows of the tomato, pepper and courgette-infused dishes of the coastal Mediterranean cuisine typically associated with the region. "An absence of colour doesn't mean an absence of taste, however," Teisseire was keen to emphasise as he expertly manipulated more sรผgeli shells from a new batch of dough in front of me. A short time later, having swapped his small basement workspace for the dining room above it, I was ready to test his theory. Served alongside a succulent osso bucco-style veal shank and drizzled with the cooking juices of the meat, I scooped up a forkful of sรผgeli. Similar in size and shape to southern Italy's orecchiette pasta, but with the texture and taste of a dumpling, the shells were the ideal shape to mop up the salty, flavoursome broth-like sauce. Inscribed on the list of France's patrimoine culturel immatรฉriel (intangible cultural heritage) since 2009, sรผgeli is cucina bianca's most celebrated dish. Other "more elaborate" recipes, as Teisseire described them, include green, lasagne-like strips called lausagne made from wild spinach, eggs, flour, salt and small quantities of potato and olive oil; and tantiflusa, a tart filled with potatoes, leeks and squash. Of course, cheese from local sheep figures prominently, too: alongside the hard tomme-style variety, brousse, a pungent cream cheese made from whey is a speciality of the local Brigasque breed and is often melted down into a sauce to accompany sรผgeli. Sรผgeli is one of the main dishes of cucina bianca (Credit: Auberge Saint Martin) Sรผgeli is one of the main dishes of cucina bianca (Credit: Auberge Saint Martin) I had made the 80km, or one-and-a-half-hour journey, from my home near Nice to the Auberge Saint Martin, Teisseire's hotel and restaurant in the small mountain village of La Brigue, in the days before the property shuttered for winter last November (the new season starts in April). By the time I arrived, the early afternoon sun had already disappeared behind the towering mountains that frame the village's riverside setting, but the warm yellows and pinks and pastel blues and greens of the Italianate trompe l'oeil facades saved the cobbled streets from feeling dark and shaded. According to modern border lines, La Brigue is one of France's most eastern outposts. Italy is within touching distance โ less than 8km away as the crow flies. In reality, however, the concept of nationality is much more fluid for the current population of 800, some of whom were born before the village passed from Italian into French hands in a post-World War Two treaty signed in 1947. When it did, a collection of six mountain hamlet communities, including La Brigue, was cut in two administratively but not culturally. This was evident, as tables of Algerian War (1954-62) veterans and their wives sharing the dining room with me at lunchtime proved. As they gathered to mark Armistice Day (November 11), their renditions of traditional Piedmontese songs were a rousing soundtrack to my meal. "This is still an important local custom because, until 1947, the village was part of Piedmont," Teisseire told me. Teisseire, who was born and raised in La Brigue, ran the local pizzeria until the opportunity came to take over the inn on the main square eight years ago. This new start gave him pause to reflect. "I asked myself, what exactly is our local cuisine?" he explained. Patrick Teisseire serves sรผgeli with an osso bucco-style veal shank (Credit: Rรฉmy Cortin) Patrick Teisseire serves sรผgeli with an osso bucco-style veal shank (Credit: Rรฉmy Cortin) The answer was just outside his door, in the high pre-alpine pastures where the Brigasque still graze during the warmer months. "I realised that absolutely all the cuisine that is practised here has a link with milk, sheep, shepherds and transhumance," he said. "So, I decided to bring that back to the kitchen and showcase it." At the heart of cucina bianca is the practice of transhumance, or moving herds from the mountains to the coast. In autumn, after a summer spent grazing on grassy mountain slopes, shepherds and their families would traditionally guide their flocks towards the warmer coastal pastures for winter. By spring, they would be ready to return back inland. I realised that absolutely all the cuisine that is practised here has a link with milk, sheep, shepherds and transhumance. To feed their families along the way, shepherds' wives cooked over a chimney fire in rustic shelters called malghe dotted along the route. With 1kg of flour alone, these resourceful women could make enough food to feed 10 people. "Meals usually involved just one dish that wasn't complicated or time-consuming to prepare, but still required a certain savoir-faire," Teisseire said. Cucina bianca is characterised by ingredients like flour, potatoes, leeks and dairy (Credit: Auberge Saint Martin) Cucina bianca is characterised by ingredients like flour, potatoes, leeks and dairy (Credit: Auberge Saint Martin) Wild herbs collected along their path, such as nettles and borage, seasoned the dishes. By nature, it was a diet almost totally free of meat, save for the occasional rabbit or game, the latter when it was hunting season. Olive oil was another precious commodity to be used sparingly, replaced by butter or, more commonly, milk. Transhumance was at its height in the Roya valley during the 19th and early-20th Centuries, but the practice started to die out with the post-World War One rural exodus (at its most populated in 1848, La Brigue had 4,047 residents). With her husband, Francis, Martine Lanteri is one of the few remaining Brigasque sheep breeders. "We've been the only ones to continue with transhumance for about 25 years now. The only other local family stopped in the 1990s," said Lanteri. Although four-wheeled trucks have long replaced two feet to cover the distance, the couple continued to move their herd to the Cรดte d'Azur towards Cannes for winter until health reasons stopped them two years ago. But today, Teisseire keeps them busy. "Every week, he's coming back for more brousse," she laughed. Auberge Saint Martin is located in the small mountain village of La Brigue (Credit: Pango Visual) Auberge Saint Martin is located in the small mountain village of La Brigue (Credit: Pango Visual) For Teisseire, amid the current economic challenges and the climate crisis, this simple cuisine made from locally grown ingredients is more relevant than ever. "Cucina bianca is built around using only what is necessary and wasting nothing," he said. "It proves that people, at the time, were much more adapted to the land and what they had to cook." And, as he breathes life back into a forgotten cuisine, he is also helping to revive a region that was cut off from the rest of France by devastating flash floods in 2020. The recovery from Storm Alex โ which wiped out homes and infrastructure in the Roya valley and its neighbouring Vรฉsubie valley and claimed 10 lives in the Alpes Maritimes โ has been slow. But the promise of cucina bianca is drawing visitors back into the furthest corners of the valley. This summer, in partnership with a local tour operator, Teisseire is launching a week-long slow tourism itinerary along La Route de Cucina Bianca, an alpine route that links traditional transhumance communities on both sides of the French and Italian border. "He's created a lot of work for himself," Lanteri said affectionately of her friend Teisseire. But driven by a passion for keeping his community and its traditions alive, he wouldn't change anything. "For me, cucina bianca is about reconnecting with nature," Teisseire said. "That's what I love about it." |
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