Thick as thikkadi

Rice flour dough is a stellar supporting actor of the south Indian kitchen. Made by cooking rice flour in boiling water with a spoonful of ghee, the dough obligingly accompanies any number of dishes, its bland taste the perfect foil to the spices in curries and chutneys.

You can roll it out into small flatbreads and re-cook it on a griddle to get ‘paratha roti’ (also known as ‘pathiri’) or you can steam it to get soft and fluffy idiyappams and kozhukattais (modaks).

Thikkadi is a recipe where this versatile dough gets another makeover — as a dumpling in a mutton or beef stew. Also known as ‘thakkadi’, this is an ethnic dish commonly prepared in Tamil Muslim households for dinner, or during festive occasions.

It’s no coincidence therefore, that the ingredients for the stew are quite similar to those used to make the rich gravy base for biryani.

The dish has several regional variations, but all of them involve rice flour, either cooked in hot water (like choux pastry) and shaped into flattened discs or diamonds, or kneaded directly with a little gravy (like chapati dough) and then shaped like tennis balls and boiled in the stew until done. The version mentioned here is commonly made in the Dindigul district.

With so much prep work required for thikkadi, it is a project that tends to attract kids who will love shaping the plasticine-like dough into coins and diamonds, or the new cook who wants to make an impression with an heirloom recipe.

There are tales told in families of thikkadi being made overnight in large cauldrons, on firewood stoves to get the mutton and dumpling combination cooked to the right consistency. Those days are history now, as the pressure cooker has halved the time taken to cook the mutton.

But it’s better to make test batches of the dough first, to avoid being saddled with lumpy experiments on D-day. Wooden paddle-shaped spoons or spatulas work best for stirring the flour into the hot water.