Mahanandi

Living in Consciousness ~ Indi(r)a’s Food and Garden Weblog

Millet Rice (Korra Buvva, Korra Annam)

Korralu (Millet, Foxtail Millet)

Korralu (Millet/Foxtail Millet/Kauni/Varagu)

Birds and bees like it. The hard working farmers in rural India like it. I liked it too. I am talking about the grain – millet or korralu as we call it in Telugu. The foxtail millet is often food of people who can’t afford rice in Andhra. And here in America, one more choice the market place provides us to achieve the never attainable mirage of “perfect health”.

I vaguely remember tasting this grain with egg pulusu at my grand parents home when I was an itsy bitsy baby. Today I tried it again.

Millet + water + salt = a revelation!

Wholesome and great, no wonder, intelligent hard working beings on the earth like this grain. For comparison sake, it almost tasted like middle-eastern couscous but nuttier, almost similar to broken rice, you know the kind, we use to prepare ganji or kanji. Do you know the type? Similar to that one. That’s why the millet preparation is called “korra annam” (korra=millet, annam=rice) in Andhra Pradesh.

Yesterday, I was talking to my mother-in-law on phone about this millet preparation. She mentioned that Korra annam is traditionally served with watery pulusu curries (kurmas/stews) like potato or egg pulusu and also with spicy chutneys like gongura chutney etc. I went with her suggestion and prepared potato kurma for millet rice. Good combination. My Mother-in-law is right.


Adding Millet to Boiling Water


Millet Rice (Korra Annam) after 10 minutes of cooking

Recipe:

1 cup millet (korralu, foxtail millet)
2 cups water
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste

In a saucepan bring the water to a rolling boil on high heat. Continuously stirring, add the millet along with salt, to the water. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring in between. The hard grain will loose its punch and get softened within 15 minutes. If this is your first time, taste the grain to test the doneness for every 5 minutes. When it loses its biting resistance and become soft supple like cooked rice, turn off the heat. Cover and let it sit for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve hot with a kurma curry like potato/brinjal/drumstick/egg and little bit of ghee.


Korra Annam with Potato Kurma ~ Our Afternoon Meal Today

Kitchen notes:
Recipe source: My Mother-in-law (Attamma)
Korralu (millet) is purchased from US grocery shop called ‘Whole Foods’ – bulk bins (labelled ‘Millet’).
More about foxtail millet and nutritional profile – Organic Uttaranchal, from Gramene Project, here.
About Millet and farming in Andhra Pradesh – diaries from hard working farmers.
How to prepare different types of millets – photo demonstrations (good info)

Posted by Indira©Copyrighted in Amma & Authentic Andhra,Millet,Millet (Korralu) (Thursday January 4, 2007 at 3:25 pm- permalink)
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