Navratri Flours & Grains

When the fast rules out wheat and rice, these are the flours that take their place in our Navratri groceries. Rajgira is amaranth seed flour, light and slightly nutty. Singhara atta is milled from dried water chestnuts and has a soft, sweet taste. Kuttu is buckwheat, a seed and no relation to wheat, with a deep earthy flavour. Moraiyo is barnyard millet, called samo or sama ke chawal in the north and vari or bhagar in Maharashtra, sold whole as a grain and milled as flour.

Each has its dish. Rajgira makes thin puris and thepla, kuttu is rolled into rotis or whisked into batter for kuttu ke pakode, and singhara flour is roasted in ghee for singhara halwa or kneaded into puris. Whole samo cooks like rice for khichdi and pulao, and potato starch binds doughs and crisps the coating on fasting cutlets. More farali blends sit under farali flour, and the sweeteners for halwa are in Navratri sweets.

Families draw the line in different places. Barnyard millet is a grass seed, so some households treat it as a grain and leave it out, while others have always counted it as farali. Ready mixes can carry rice flour or other additions, so read the ingredients before cooking for a strict fast.

Buckwheat and amaranth flours go stale sooner than everyday atta, because of the oil in the seed. Buy for the festival, fold the bag tightly and keep it in an airtight tub. A pack opened last Navratri should be smelled before use, and a bitter or paint-like note means it has turned.