Rashmi's rolling pin

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Title

Rashmi's rolling pin

Description

Rashmi talks about the rolling pin her mother gave her when she first came to visit from India in 1969, which she's been using every day since then.

“This is my rolling pin and a board, on which we roll. We call it chakla belan and that's why the rolling pin is called a belan. It's what my mother gave me when I came from India here for the first time. It was 1968, more than about 50 years now and I've been using it ever since. It has got some burn marks, it's been used every day. And this board is made of very smooth stone so it makes rolling much easier and faster. The rolling pin is different because it's thinner than the normal one - it's thick in the middle and it's tapered down and goes thinner like that. It's easy to roll and it's brilliant and we make all different things from it.

It makes flat bread, which is made from plain brown flour and it's eaten every day, you eat it nice and hot. It's called roti or chapati and you can also make spicy ones, or more interesting if you add some spices to the dough and they are called theplas. This one reminds me of my mum very much. It was a good thought she gave me this one, because at that time we couldn't get Indian things here, when I first came, and it's been very useful to me. You can also make some other things like, you can make roti and stuff it with mashed potato or some mashed vegetables and make it a filling one, and it's called paratha. We can also make little ones, these are deep fried and are called puris, they’re really nice to eat but very fattening too!”


Recorded during an online workshop in July 2020.

Rights

Rashmi Shah

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