Methi Thepla

Guajaratis travelling any where in the world will carry the thepla along with pickles with them, as the British carry their tea and marmite. Thepla is the perfect travel food since it stays good for a week. I am guilty of throwing away a day old thepla, somewhere during a Road Trip on the Garden Route in South Africa, dismissing it as stale bread. Back where I grew up, we did not have the concept of storing bread, we made fresh paranthas, ate them and never kept them for later. The Gujarati wrath I had to endure after this transgression only made me comprehend the Gujarati passion for food. The person in question, confronted with the possibility of missing his thepla for breakfast, hollered hideously. I could comprehend the passion for food but I could never understand how the absence of a particular food item could drive a person so insane. Later I witnessed someone else's temper tantrums following the overdose or under dose of a particular spice in a dish and I am pretty sure I would hate to cook for that fussy an eater.

Guajaratis travel around the world, to the extent where touristy attractions in a city are called ‘Patel Points’, but the adventure lust does extend to food. This is where they resort to the familiar and carry their own - theplas, pickles, snacks etc. Of course I am guilty of generalizing here and this may not be true for all people, however this accurately represents my own observations.

However, that said, I love methi theplas. They go very well with a sweet mango pickle known as ‘chundo’. I could not find fresh fenugreek so I used frozen fenugreek. I used too much besan in the recipe, which made my dough slightly sticky. I have adjusted for that in the recipe.

3/4 cup methi leaves finely chopped
1 3/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup besan
1 clove of garlic
2 thai chillies
1/2 " piece ginger
1 1/2 tspn salt
2 tbspn oil
Yoghurt - around 2 Tbspn
Oil to fry

1. Make a dough of the above ingredients and let it rest for 10 minutes.
2. Make paranthas..