Name: Pearl Millet Gruel | Kambu Koozh
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 1 cup Pearl Millet Flour; 2 cups Buttermilk; 4 cups Water; 3/4 tsp Salt; 4 Shallots; 3 tbsps Cilantro

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Let’s get back to our roots and make this healthy and filling breakfast from scratch which is perfect for the summer. It is the Pearl Millet gruel or as we say in Tamil Kambu Koozh. Learn how to prepare this humble millet gruel right from roasting to milling with step-wise pictures below.

Koozh or gruel is thick consistency porridge. Kambu Koozh is a very common breakfast in rural parts of Tamil Nadu especially during summer months. Bajra combined with buttermilk is an excellent coolant and keeps your body hydrated in hot summer months. The probiotics in the buttermilk clean the unhealthy bacteria, in turn, helping with our digestion. It also helps with acidity troubles. Try this gruel instead of smoothies, and I am sure you will love it.

Pearl Millet | Bajra

Pearl Millet is known as Bajra in India and India is the largest producer of pearl millet, and Rajasthan is the highest producing state. It is one of the common millet available in India. Sadly, like all the other millet recipes, this gruel is also segregated as poor man’s diet. But as I mentioned in the neeragaram post, the traditional and millet recipes are slowly reviving back. Just look at the nutrition information (Source Wiki) of Pearl Millet, especially the protein content. Why not incorporate it into our daily menu?

Protein(g) – 10.6
Fiber(g) – 1.3
Minerals(g) – 2.3
Iron(mg) – 16.9
Calcium(mg) – 38

Health Benefits of Pearl Millets

The niacin in these millets helps to reduce cholesterol and magnesium helps to lower blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart attacks.
The high fiber content helps in keeping the glucose level normal.
It helps in weight loss and also helps to cure stomach ulcers and gallbladder stones.

As I mentioned above, I made this gruel from scratch. I roasted the millets and ground them and then made this gruel. Wondering how I ground my millet? – It is with the WonderMill.

WonderMill – Electric Grain Mill

This year, I got a chance to attend the Everything Food Blogging | EFC conference in Utah. That’s where I met the fantastic team of WonderMill and saw the full demo of the product. I was super thrilled, and when I got a chance to work with them, I happily accepted.WonderMill is a fast (instead I should say super fast) electric grain mill. You can now grind your own flours; be it fine, superfine or coarse at temperatures that preserve nutrients. That’s what we all are looking for right? We all want to know what goes into our food. With store-bought flours, we don’t know about all the other ingredients that got processed in the same machine. This becomes a significant concern if you have any food allergies. But now with WonderMill, you can prepare your own flour; be it gluten-free or non-gluten-free.

The power of WonderMill Motor is 1250 watt, and it is the powerful micronizing mill available. The WonderMill can grind wheat, corn, rice, legumes, beans, and of course millets. For me, wheat, millets, and rice were the main ingredients as we use the flours regularly for roti and dosa. But you can find the list of grains that it can grind on this website.

I was curious to know if it can grind spices including red chilies. But apparently, it is hard to grind red chilies as it might clog. But as long as the spices don’t produce oil, you can grind in WonderMill. I wanted to prepare Indian spice mixes with red chilies. I will keep you posted on that so stay tuned.

The Pros and Cons:

It’s light-weight, and there isn’t much assembling work. Also, the mess-free flour preparation is a huge plus. The sponge on top of the flour canister avoids the dust too.
It is super-fast. It grinds the ingredients in seconds. I am yet to try beans and legumes. Hopefully, it crushes them fast as well.
When I talk about pros, I need to talk about the cons also. It definitely makes a huge noise. I won’t say it’s quite. I wish it could grind red chilies as well so that I make sambar powder and rasam powder in bulk.
When compared to other electric mills, the price is considerably low and affordable.

As always, I will add my thoughts to the upcoming recipes with WonderMill.

Preparing the Pearl Millet Flour in WonderMill:

Take 2 to 3 cups of pearl millet and dry roast on a pan without adding any oil.

Roast until the millet starts to pop. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool.

Once it is cool, fix the flour canister (you can add a bag/cover to the canister which helps to transfer the flour easily, but I did not add) to the mill and turn on the WonderMill. I set to the Bread Mode setting. Then slowly add the roasted millet, and in less than two minutes the flour is ready.

Sieve the flour (there was hardly any bran left) and store in an airtight container.

The millets don’t spill and also the flour is all contained within the canister. No dust and the flour were ready without any mess.

How to make Kambu Koozh?

Now coming back to the recipe, all you need to do mix 1 cup of bajra flour with water and cook it till it thickens. Once it cools down add the buttermilk and mix well. That’s it the koozh is ready. It is as simple as that. Check out the notes section for other variations.

Ingredients:

Pearl Millet Flour – 1 cup
Buttermilk – 2 cups
Water – 3 cups + 1 cup
Salt – 3/4 tsp
Shallots – 3 to 4
Cilantro – 3 tbsps

Steps

Mix the bajra flour and water in a pot.

Mix well with hand and make sure there are no lumps in the bajra mixture.
Now in a medium heat start cooking this bajra-water mixture.

Keep stirring the mixture till it thickens up. It takes about 15 minutes.

Now turn off the heat and let it cool.
Once it is cooled down add the buttermilk, salt, and water if required and mix well so that the bajra mixture integrates well with the buttermilk.

Now add the chopped shallots and cilantro.

That’s it the gruel is ready. Serve cold.

Notes:

Ensure you mix the water and bajra flour thoroughly without any lumps.
Also, keep stirring the mix until it thickens.
Adjust the salt as per your taste and water according to your consistency preference.
Variations:
Instead of buttermilk and salt, you can add milk and sugar to make sweet porridge.
While cooking the flour, you can add about a tsp of oil and allow it to thicken and once cooled, you can make small balls and relish it with any curry.