Learn Bhatia cooking
Kitchen skill 9 of 15
Thickening with besan
May’r: thickening paste
Say it: may-er
May’r is a thin paste of besan (gram flour) and water that gives the lunch curries their body. Bhatia cooking traditionally uses no egg or gelatine, so besan does the thickening.
How to do it
- Measure the besan: about 1 tsp per person, so 4 tsp for 4 people.
- Whisk it with water until completely smooth. The traditional paste is thin: about ½ cup of water to each teaspoon of besan.
- Pour it into the boiling curry slowly, stirring all the time.
- Keep cooking: the raw taste of besan cooks out as the curry simmers.
You’ll know it’s right when
- No lumps, and the curry lightly coats the back of a spoon.
Watch out for
- Pouring it in all at once: it turns lumpy.
- Too little cooking afterwards: the curry tastes of raw besan.
Tips
- In Kadi, add the besan batter slowly while stirring, so no lumps form.
Practise it
On the path to learning Bhatia cooking.
