“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”~ Phil Jackson
“Hi Sanjeeta, there is a shoot on 14th, are you free?”
“Yes”
“See you there!”
This is the conversation with photographer Kunal Daswani before most of the food photo-shoot assignments we do together.
“Send us some of your previous works, who are the clients you have worked for” No, I am never asked any such stereotyped questions either. Not even when I did my first shoot for an international beverage company nor when I styled the first breakfast cereal and fake ice cream cookie sandwiches with him.
Like any other creative or technical job, food photo-shoots require a strong amount of teamwork. One needs to work in cohesion with the client, art directors, photographers and the stylist to get the best of result.
Teamwork begins by building trust and making each member realize that their contribution is important to achieve the goals. I have been given that comfort level in all my shoots.
As they say, A good team needs three things: the right people, the right spirit, and a couple inside jokes.”
Fortunately, we had all the three magic things present right on the sets from the very first shoot we worked as team.
And this shoot was no exception. We had a wonderful time shooting at Bombay Brassaries, a chain of restaurants from Copper Chimney.
The restaurant is designed aesthetically with many antique pieces collected from all over the world.
I had a chance to meet the very enterprising Richa, owner of Copper Chimney at the venue.
I could not resist clicking this delicious potato snack with my cell phone during our lunch break.
And when you are clicked unaware by the pro photographer himself…certainly one of the best pictures to cherish the memories of the wonderful moments!
Coming back to the recipe for the blogpost…
1. Pearl Millet Flat Breads
If you haven’t grown up eating Millet rotis, you might find these flat breads strange.
These are some of the foods which create memories of those carefree childhood days I spent in Udaipur. The wood fired chulha provided the much needed warmth in the chilly nights.
While the Bajra rotis get cooked on the mud tawa Mom will quickly pop in a few potatoes in the lower section of chulha or Sigdi as called in Hindi. Fire roasted potatoes were quickly mashed & dunked into a yogurt based gravy simmering on stove top.
Pearl millet is generally eaten during winter season as it is supposed to generate heat in body.
The variations of this Indian flat bread are endless, fresh Millet Flour gives the best result, Bajra rotis made with old flour starts cracking.
Ingredients;
(makes 3-4 rotis)
- 1 ½ cups of Pearl millet flour
- 2 tbsp black gram powder
- 1/2 cup grated carrots
- 1/2 cup grated cucumber
- 1 onion
- 2-3 green chillies
- Salt to taste
- Oil for shallow frying
- Water as required
Method; Finely chop onion and green chillies.
Add millet flour and ground Black Gram Powder (urad daal chura) in a large bowl and mix salt in it.
Add grated carrots, cucumber and finely chopped onion & green chillies in the millet flour and rub it with fingers to combine all the ingredients.
The water content of vegetables should be good enough to bind the dough. Add a few teaspoons of water if you are not able to bind the dough.
Divide the dough into small portions and roll into round balls and dust it with dry millet flour.
Line the rolling board with a parchment paper or a plain plastic sheet and place the ball of dough over it.
Cover with another sheet of plastic and roll the dough into a flat circle with rolling pin.
Heat a griddle or tawa and place the flat bread over it and cook it for a few miutes.
Flip the flat rbread and cook the other side also.
Use a little ghee or oil to cook the flat breads if you wish.
2. Peanut and sesame chutney
Ingredients;
- 1 cup peanuts
- 3 tbsp sesame seeds
- 3 dried red chilly
- 2 tbsp yogurt
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp. oil
- 1 small garlic pearl
- A few curry leaves
- A pinch of asafoetida powder
- Salt to taste
Method; Dry roast the peanuts and sesame seeds separately in a pan till they turn light brown in colour.
Cool peanuts and sesame and ground into powder in a blender.
Heat oil in a pan, add chopped onion in it and cook for few minutes till it gets caramelized or become dark brown in colour.
Add caramelized onion, dried red chillies, garlic pearl, salt and yogurt in the blender and grind again.
Add a few teaspoons of water to make the grinding process easy.
Heat oil in a small pan and splutter mustard seeds.
Add asafoetida powder and curry leaves in the oil and pour this tempering over the ground chutney.
Enjoy this healthy dip or chutney with Indian flat breads, appetizers or as sandwich spread.
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The post Recipe & Food Styling | Pearl Millet Flat Bread with peanut sesame spread – When teamwork pays appeared first on Lite Bite.
