Gujarati Steamed Muthiya

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RECIPE: GUJARATI STEAMED MUTHIYA

Gujarati Steamed Muthiya is a delicious, easy to make and versatile snack. Usually, muthiya or muthia is steamed, cut into pieces and then stir fried with tempering ingredients. Versatile because you can add different vegetables to the basic dough, you can add diferent flours too.

What is Muthiya/ Muthia?

The name muthiya comes from the fact that the dough is shaped in the fist, muthi. Generally, deep fried ones are added to sabji or shaak like in undhiyu.  I like to add fried muthiya to my matar valor nu shaak, or in tuvar nu shaak.

Enjoy steaming hot muthiya without the tempering or vaghar with some lemon juice and oil drizzled over it. Personally, I prefer to stir fry them in the tempering or vaghar. And then have it with lemon juice drizzled over it and with masala tea or milk.  The best part of tempered muthiya is the crumbs that form. Yes, some of the slices will break up during stirring.

While traditionally, the dough is shaped into log shapes before steaming, sometimes I add the slightly softer dough to a plate and then steam it. Both ways the muthiya turns out good.

Why Is Muthiya A Versatile Recipe?

Firstly, let me emphasis the vegetables that one can use.

Generally, if you google muthiya, most of them are with doodhi (bottle gourd) and methi (fresh fenugreek). There are so many more options to make this tasty and healthy snack:

• grated cabbage, both white or purple
• grated carrots, zucchini, radish, kohlrabi, pumpkin, turnip, ash gourd.
• lightly crushed peas, corn,
• Fresh spinach, kale, chard, fresh amaranth, bathua, luni bhaji (purslane, pigsweed, kulfa).
• Fresh spring onion, green garlic, leek,

I remember when I was younger, luni bhaji would grow like wild in our garden and my mum would use it to make muthiya.

Secondly, let us look at the flours used:

Usually, chickpea flour (besan) is used. But you can add the following too along with besan:

• ragi flour (finger millet)
• pearl millet flour (bajri)
• rajgira (amaranth flour)
• jowar (sorghum flour)
• Jau (barley flour)
• Wheat flour
• makki ka atta (cornmeal flour)
• Sooji (semolina)
• Dhokla or handvo Flour
• Rice flour
• Buckwheat Flour

Memories

My grandfather would visit his friend who owned a farm during the weekend. He would come back home with a whole kikapu(basket) of vegetables. Doodhi or bottle gourd would be one of them. That usually meant that mum would make either handvo, muthiya or doodhi chana nu shaak.

When we went to Drive In to watch movies or went for picnics, my mum would make handvo, muthiya or dhebra to take along. Or it was usually prepared as a light meal option. I love dunking muthiya in cold milk, a weird habit but just love it.

Sometimes, my siblings and I took it in our tiffin boxes to school to enjoy it during break time.

This recipe that I’ve been using for over 38 years is the one I learned from my mother in law, Nunu. While chickpea flour remains the same, I replace the other flours, vegetables, depending on availability.