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Foxtail Millet Adhirasam (Thinai Adhirasam)
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Foxtail Millet Adhirasam (Thinai Adhirasam)

Foxtail milletFestivalTamil NaduSweetFlour (atta)Vegetarian

Prep 40 min · Cook 30 min · Servings not given in the source

Make

Ingredients

  • foxtail millet — 1/2 kg (washed, dried and ground to a fine flour)
  • jaggery — 1/2 kg
  • cardamom (a few pods, pounded)
  • groundnut oil — 1/2 litre (for deep frying)

Method

  1. Wash the foxtail millet, let it dry completely, then grind it to a fine flour.
  2. Melt the jaggery and keep boiling it until the syrup turns thick and pulls into a string between two fingers.
  3. Pour the hot syrup into the millet flour a little at a time, stirring all the while, until it comes together as a soft dough. Mix in the pounded cardamom.
  4. Press the dough into a completely dry container, close it tightly and leave it overnight to set.
  5. Next day, pat small portions of the dough into palm-sized rounds.
  6. Heat the oil on a medium flame and fry the rounds one at a time until they are golden-brown right through to the centre. Drain and serve.

Tips

  • General practice: frying one adhirasam at a time keeps the oil temperature steady.

Fresh atta: grind small, use soon

  • Millets keep for months as whole grain; flour is best ground as it is needed, because it turns rancid. (FAO, Sorghum and millets in human nutrition (1995))
  • Bajra changes fastest: its grain stores for months, but its milled flour has a very short shelf life. (ICAR-IIMR scientists, Food Chemistry Advances (2023) (DOI 10.1016/j.focha.2023.100190))
  • In an Indian study, untreated bajra flour stayed within the quality limit only about 2 days at room temperature. (ICAR-IARI, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (2016))
  • Ragi flour keeps better than foxtail, barnyard or bajra flour (it carries less fat). (Planta (2024), review)
  • Keep atta closed and cool: bajra flour kept best in polythene and worst in gunny sacks; grains should be dry and in airtight containers. (Chaudhary & Kapoor, J Sci Food Agric (1984); ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines (2024) (DOI 10.1002/jsfa.2740351113))
  • Going off shows first as smell and taste — sour, musty or dusty, then bitter. (Lai & Varriano-Marston, Cereal Chemistry (1980))

So: buy the grain, grind a week’s worth at a time — less for bajra in summer.

Adapted from ICDS Tamil Nadu, recipe booklet, PDF p. 29 (printed p. 27), written in our own words.