Street Food Of Indore- Bhutte Ka Kees/ Bhutyacha Kees, Step Wise

I’ve made it very evident several times earlier, my profound love for the vibrant and lovely city of Indore and the variety of food available there. Having lived there for several years, I know most of the local food and have tasted that too… especially the street food! As students, me and my friends would hog in the streets of Sarafa and since my family was also a foodie the hogging continued with them too..

I’ve posted the famous Indori Kanda Poha earlier in my blog and in the same post I’ve given food details about Indore too. Indore is the business capital of Madhya Pradesh and the majority of people living in this city are Maharashtrians as the Indore was ruled by the Holkars. Apart from the dominance of the Maharashtrians the other regions whose prominence is seen in the city are Marwaris, Sindhi, Punjabi, Bohri and Jains. All these regions contribute to the food culture of Indore.

One such food item which is popularly made by the Marwaris as well as the Maharashtrians is the Bhutte ka Kees and is abundantly available is the streets of Indore especially in the season of corn. It is served warm with a garnish of coconut and coriander and lemon squeezed over it. This preparation can be called as an Upma using freshly ground corn except that it is not as wet as Upma. The strong flavor of heeng makes it a very inviting dish. This preparation is quite filling and makes an ideal evening snack..

I had made this preparation ages back and was not extremely sure about it, so just to confirm the procedure I made phone calls to my Mom and my Mavshi, and after confirmation, I proceeded!!

This preparation makes use of coarsely ground or grated corn, so either one can grate the corn else if you have a corn peeler, remove the corn from the cob and then grind coarsely. The process after that is small and not tough either but just needs a little patience..

INDORI BHUTTE KA KEES

Preparation Time:15mins

Cooking Time:15mins

Serves:2

Ingredients

3sweet corn or regular tender corn grated or the con removed from cob

1-2green chilies

2-3tbsp coriander stems

an inch piece ginger

1tsp cumin seeds

salt to taste

2-1/2tbsp oil

1tsp mustard seeds

a large pinch heeng/asafetida

1/4tsp turmeric pwd

a pinch of sugar (optional)

For garnishing

lemon wedge

chopped coriander

grated coconut

Method

Grind together coarsely the corn, ginger, cumin and green chilies.

Heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Reduce the flame and add heeng and turmeric pwd.

Immediately add the coarsely ground corn and mix. Add salt to taste and if using regular corn add the sugar. Avoid sugar is using sweet corn.

Cook covered for 5-8mins. Mix again and cook open for some time till all the excess moisture evaporates and the kees starts drying and the grains separating from each other. If your kees appears moist and the grains clogging with each other, let the kees cool down and then separate the grains using your fingers and then serve.

Before serving squeeze some lemon juice and garnish with coriander and freshly grated coconut.

Sending it to my event ‘Only’ Street Foods of The World hosted by Archana of Mad Scientist’s Kitchen

Tips:

Use a non stick or a heavy base utensil as corn sticks easily at the base. Avoid scathing as it spoils the taste as well as the texture of the dish.
Add heeng of good quality as it adds great flavor and also helps in digesting the corn too.