Smooth, glossy ragi balls stirred hard over a low flame until lump-free, then rolled warm. Swallowed, not chewed, with a thin peppery saaru.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Ragi Flour 2 cups
Fresh
- Water 4 cups
- Salt 1 tsp
- Ghee, for the hands 2 tsp
- Bassaru or thin saaru, to serve 3 cups
Method
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Make a slurry
Whisk half a cup of the Sprouted Ragi Flour into one cup of cold water until completely smooth. This slurry is your insurance against lumps.
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Boil and thicken
Bring the remaining water to a hard boil with the salt, pour in the slurry and stir constantly for two minutes until it thickens to a loose porridge.
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Rain in the flour
Lower the flame and add the rest of the flour in a slow stream through your fingers, in a mound at the centre rather than scattered.
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Steam the mound
Cover and let it steam undisturbed for four minutes. The mound cooks from the outside in and becomes far easier to work smooth.
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Beat it smooth
Now stir hard with a sturdy wooden mudde kolu, pressing the mass against the side of the pot and folding it back, for five full minutes until it is glossy and elastic.
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Cook out the raw
Cover again and cook on the lowest heat for six minutes so no raw flour taste remains, then give it one last vigorous stir.
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Roll while hot
Wet a bowl, drop in a portion, swirl to shape a smooth ball, and set it on a ghee-rubbed plate. Serve immediately with hot saaru poured alongside.
Why this works
The cold slurry disperses the ragi starch before it can seize into lumps, and the covered steaming stage hydrates the flour fully before the hard stirring begins. That extended beating aligns the gelatinised starch into the glossy, cohesive mass that lets mudde hold its shape without any binder at all.
Make it your own
- Sprouted Ragi Flour → Sprouted Ragi Flour with 1/4 cup broken rice Softer, milder mudde; boil the rice first.
- Bassaru → Tomato saaru Brighter and sharper against the earthy grain.
- Ghee → Sesame oil Keeps it dairy-free with a toasted aroma.
