Makai ni Thuli with Urad Dal…
Bhaidku, Thuli, and Khichu are gruel-like, porridge-consistency foods that speak a common language while following no fixed rules. As I continue learning about Gujarat’s remote cuisines, newer regional renditions of this trio keep emerging. They exist across the landscape with interchanged names or in the guise of entirely different dishes. Regions, communities, and families have all been brilliant at adopting and adapting them to their own needs and environments.
Among the three, Thuli and Bhaidku easily top the charts as soul foods for elders, while Khichu fulfils all our choti bhukh cravings. The flour blend used for Bhaidku is perhaps the most versatile, but the Bhaidku of Saurashtra and Kutch differs greatly from the one found in Gujarat’s eastern belt. The same goes for Thuli.
In earlier blog posts, I have written about the Thuli and Bhaidku of Kathiyawar and Kutchh, but today I want to share the maize Thuli I encountered during my travels through the remote countryside of Dahod—the land where Bhil Adivasi communities coexist with leopards and sloth bears. I was staying with Arjunbhai and Kalamben of @aranya.india to understand the intricate food practices of these tribes.
The abundance of white maize makes it the primary cereal grain of the region. The corn is milled into varying consistencies to prepare Makai ni Raab, Thuli, Bhaidku, or Rotla—foods that either tie a meal together or become a meal in themselves.
The endearing Kalamben demonstrated how to make Makai ni Thuli, which we relished with urad dal and a fresh moong subzi made using green moong beans before they fully dry.
I often wonder what draws me so deeply towards such meals. Is it the purity of ingredients that still carry the scent and humility of the soil that raised them? Is it the comforting ease of cooking such meals—their no-rules nature that leaves room for the individuality of the cook? Or perhaps it is simply the quiet joy of finding nourishment in such humble pleasures of life.