Campfire bread of India – Bafla

If you had asked me about grilling or barbecue a few years ago, I would have blinked. I had no clue about these cooking methods. Though we used to cook sweet corn and sweet potato on open fire, our cooking methods mostly included steaming, boiling or pressure cooking. I came to know about the concepts of grilling and barbecue, only after coming to US. I observed people cooking in open fire or charcoal grills in the common patio of our apartment complex. It was my first summer in US and I had no craze for hanging out in the sun. As I was from a country where the weather was always hot, hanging out in the sun sounded funny.

But, over the years I started to long for summer days because of Boston’s freezing winters. I felt like we were forced to be indoors for at least 3/4 days of a year and summer seemed to be the time we were freed. We enjoyed the summer along with our friends and potluck parties. During those parties, we all talk about arranging a barbecue. After shortlisting the likes and dislikes of the friends, the only thing that was left was sweet corn. Eventually, we would drop the idea as there was not much options for vegetarians. This lead me to look for recipes that are fun to make in a grill or open fire. Those recipes should meet the palates of our friends, should be filling and a meal by itself.

Bafla is one such recipe that yielded itself to these needs. It is a bread from Rajasthan region of India. These are soft and chewy and are delicious with a simple dhal or curry. These are non leavened breads, that is, no yeast or fermentation needed. But, I added some leftover sourdough starter from my weekly baking. The sourdough added nice sour flavor and made it more softer.

Ingredients:

For the bread:
2 Cups whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup sourdough starter (optional)
4 Tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
water for kneading

For the Dhal:
2 Cups mung dhal
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
2-3 green chilies, chopped
1 Bay leaf
1/2 tsp of Dabeli masala or other
2 1/2 Cups water
Cilantro and curry leaves for garnish
Juice of 1 lime

Method:

1. Mix the ingredients for the dough and knead it into a stiff dough. Allow to rest for 30 minutes.
2. Shape into lime size balls and set aside.
3. Put all the ingredients for dhal in a large pot and bring to a boil.
4. When the water for the dhal starts boiling, drop the dough balls.
5. Cook until the dough floats to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
6. Cook the dhal until done and mash it. (I transfered it to a slow cooker and cooked for 3 hours in high)

Dhal to serve with bafla

7. Set the boiled dough in a grill and cook until the outside is browned a little bit.

Bafla in an indoor grill

8. Break bafla into pieces and set in a bowl. Pour dhal over it and serve hot

Bafla served

We can cook both the dhal and bafla in outdoor grill. This is my entry for Meeta’s Monthly Mingle event hosted by Sig with the theme “Grill it”. I am sending this to Susan’s yeast spotting event too.