Shravan is the holy festive month. There is a huge list of festivals which come during this month like Nag Panchami, Rakhi, Teejri, Thadri, Varalakshmi vrat etc. Sindhis celebrate Nandhi (small)and Vaddi (big) thadri in Shravan.We especially prepare Sindhi flatbreads (Lolo,Chauthe & Besani) for thadri. Chauthe basically means ¼th of roti. Here we make a flatbread and divide it into 4 parts and fry it. This recipe can be made in air fryer too. Minimal effort and ingredients yet super delicious. Ditch the commercial biscuit, make the easy chauthe for your tea time. You won't be disappointed!
What is thadri?
While Nandhi thadri(Choti thadri) comes after Nag panchami, Vaddi Thadri /Badi thadri/ 'Badi Satain' comes on 7th day after Rakshabandhan. Some people also call it as saatam aatham or basoda. We celebrate this festival just before Janamashtami and worship Goddess Jogmaya/Sitla mata. We observe 'Thado'.It means we consume cold food that day.Food is cooked a day ahead. We worship the fire stove too as it gives us the food to eat. Hence, stove is not lit on Thadri day.
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Why is thadri celebrated?
We pray to Goddess Sheetla Mata. She is regarded as the incarnation of 'Chandi mata'.Mothers generally sing the folk song 'Thaar maata Thaar Mujhe bacchiyan he thaar' as a prayer to Sheetla Mata. This is a prayer to save the children from life threatening diseases like smallpox and measles. In olden days, there was very high mortality rates. Diseases like small pox would come with high fevers. Sheetla means cold. Parents worshipped the goddess and seek her blessings praying that she will cure and save the life of the child who is sick.We do a chhanda on kids, while singing the song. First we apply sindoor /vermillion on small lolos or dough balls. Later, we put lolo in the sieve, and place it on their head. Later sprinkle some raw milk on them (do the chhanda).
What are the traditional Sindhi thadri recipes?
Sindhi Thadri food recipes are easy to cook. One of the main dishes is Mitho Lolo or Lola.It is a traditional Sindhi sweet 'roti'. Apart from lolo, we make other breads like besani, koki, dal ja parantha. We also make matho or dahi boondi, dahi bade, satpuras ,pragri,pakode. All these are prepared a day before. We also eat Dahi bade and other milk based sweets like kheer, peda, bhugal mawa or milk cake.
Mitho lolo and Chauthe are power packed with ghee and jaggery. Hence, both are a good source of Iron and calcium. Besani is power packed with chickpea flour or besan so great for having proteins. All the 3 flatbreads are great during travel too. You can have them with some spicy mango pickle. Great for long train and bus journey.
Ingredients
- Whole wheat flour
- Gur/jaggery/palm sugar
- Water
- Oil/ghee for the dough & frying
- Cardamoms crushed/ cardamom powder
How to make chauthe? (Traditional frying method)
- Mix all ingredients and knead into a semi hard dough.
- Keep the dough aside for 30 mins.
3. Roll into a thick flatbread and cut into 4 pieces. Make few incisions on each piece.
4.Fry them on low heat under golden brown.
How to make chothe in air fryer?
All of us have now more sedentary life style. Hence, eating anything deep fried leads us to a lot of emotional guilt. Either we give up our favorite foods altogether, or just invent new methods to make them healthy. Making this recipe in air fryer was quite a surprise. It turned out so good, first time itself, that I m not depriving myself anymore.
Use the same method as in step 1 2 and 3 in the above recipe. Only step 4 changes to air fryer method.
Step 4: Place the chauthe pieces in air fryer. Air fry the pieces at 15-18 mins at lowest possible temperature, mine was at 150 degree C, brushing oil or ghee in between.
Read the Sindhi flatbread-Chauthe recipe
Chauthe/Sindhi Chothe recipe
Equipment
- kadai/frying pan (traditional method)
- or air fryer for low calorie version
Ingredients
- 2 cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup jaggery
- ½ cup water
- 2-3 tablespoon ghee /oil for kneading
- 4-5 cardamom crushed
- 2 cup oil/ghee for frying
- 1 tablespoon ghee/ oil (for air frying)
Instructions
- Take water at room temperature in a bowl.Add jaggery,Keep it aside for 2-3 hours/overnight.
- Mix wheat flour and desi ghee in a bowl with pinch of salt and cardamom.
- Pour the jaggery syrup little by little and knead a semi hard dough. Cover and keep it aside for 30 mins.
- Take a handful size dough and with a rolling pin roll it to a thick paratha.
- With the help of knife cut it into 4, usually we keep a triangular shape
- Prick on both the sides so that it gets fried properly inside. Repeat for all of the dough.
For frying (Traditional method)
- Heat oil in a frying pan and fry it on both the sides till golden brown on a low flame
- Let these cool and later store it in airtight container.
For air fryer version
- Place the chauthe pieces in air fryer. Air fry the pieces at 15-18 mins at lowest possible temperature, mine was at 150 degree C, brushing oil in between.
- Store in an air tight jar.
Equipment
Kadai/frying pan or
Air fryer for low calorie version
Variations
You can make different shapes of chauthe using cookie cutter. You may also bake it in oven or use an air fryer if you want a low calorie version. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon powder if you like. Traditionally, the flatbread is made with ghee. However, if you are vegan, you can make it with coconut oil/ olive oil.
Storage
Chauthe and Mitho lolo can be stored in air tight container for 4-6 days. Jaggery or sugar keeps it fresh longer. Besani needs to be eaten faster as it has onions in it.
Top tip
Why does my chauthe break during frying?
If there is a lot of ghee in the dough, then chauthe will break. In order to fix this, add some more flour and knead again.
Looking for thadri recipes?
- Besani
- Mitho lolo
- Sanna pakoda
- Koki/Sindhi onion flatbread
- Kali mirch koki/Black pepper flatbread
- Bhugal mawa/Milkcake
Click here to see more Satam/Atham recipes .
Click here to read additional Sindhi recipes.
Also, click here to watch additional recipe videos.
Neha says
I have a question .. ultimately we are making both lolo n chauthe of same stuff why do they deep fry one and shallow fry other ? Is there a reason behind this tradition?
bhavana bhatia says
Hi Neha
Thanks for the query.We do not cook or heat any food item on Thadri day.All items are cooked a day early.If both of them are equally deep fried then they will become too hard to be eaten together.
Also,if both are hard,it will become difficult to digest n chewing also becomes an issue for children as well as aged.The items are made in such a way that they compliment cold thandai,chaas, mattho ,lassi very well and can be gulped down easily
Deepa Ajwani says
While preparing chautha why they become soft from outside.what is to be done so it looks crispy.
bhavana bhatia says
hi Deepa
You need to have the appropriate moin/fat/ghee in the flour.
Also, while frying,you need to fry them at the lowest flame, the moment your ghee/oil is at a high temperature, the outer crust tends to cook faster and becomes soft.
Thanks