I will not give a disclaimer that Covid-era cooking adventures continue today as well. And before people start thinking that this girl is always cooking disasters, today I’m bringing my first success story in relation to cooking millets.

As Magneto remarks in X-Men: First Class, “Failure was never an option”.

I have taken this statement seriously even before the dialogue came out. Failure is always the first step towards success.

So instead of cooking bajra/pearl millet cheelas at the last moment, I decided to have a decent preparation time for the flour to soak in. I took equal portions of bajra flour and besan, mixed them together, added a bit of curd and enough water to have a cheela batter-like texture. And I decided to let that sit for an hour.

My dear mother, sensing a disturbance in the force, rushed to the kitchen and advised me to keep that batter for 2 hours at least. Let it ferment a bit for some time so that it can rise.

(I have been watching the last 3 movies in the Star Wars series these days, so you will keep finding references to the “mystical force” now and then) 

I decided to give 4 hours, I did not want to cook something that only I could eat, this time. 🤣

4 hours passed in watching OTT platforms because that was one of the few options we had during Covid work-from-home era. I decided to chop leftover spinach leaves to be added to the cheela batter. They will help in binding apart from chopped onions. To this mixture, I further added ginger, turmeric, chopped green chillies and salt. The batter had become fluffier this time, so I was positive that even an unruly fussy kid will relish this with elan! 

The batter spread beautifully over the dosa tawa although the cheelas were not perfectly round. They were fluffy from inside and crispy from outside. The spinach leaves provided a slightly bitter taste but a crunchier texture. 

My sister ate the cheelas and so did my mother. My father was still averse to the idea of millets since pigeons love these grains and humans are not supposed to have what pigeons have. 😂

I was able to click only one decent photograph of this ensemble as the top view in which all the cheelas are there actually looks like the Demagorgon from The Stranger Things. 😜

My mother thought I’ll never be able to master millet cooking. To this day, I keep proving her wrong and she keeps adding millet flours to her roti dough. Even my father has softened to millet rotis.

It took me 4-5 years to get to this stage. But never back down, even when your parents are sarcastic and stubborn. 🤓