Recipe: Methi Thepla

by Taige Shukla Saathee

RECIPES

Gujarati Methi Thepla

Happy August Saathee fam! This month’s recipe has been a long time coming and one my grandma (Amma) has been insisting I learn how to make for ages! Classic methi thepla is a staple in most Gujarati households, so naturally it’s a recipe we had to share. Thepla is essentially a spiced roti or flat bread, typically made with a handful of spices and methi (fenugreek leaves) or even other shredded veggies such as squash and ginger / garlic. Whatever your preference, it’s super easy to make your own and adjust the spice levels. This recipe was inspired by my recent travels (that had also been a long time coming) and the desi-need to pack snacks when on the go. If you weren’t aware, thepla is the ultimate travel snack. Lightweight, easy to pack, won’t make a mess, and lasts for 3-4 days! I was lucky enough to take some of Amma’s thepla on a recent trip to Spain, and they came in handy during my travels. Okay okay…they may or may not have been eaten before I could even make it on the plane. Regardless, they hit the spot! So be sure to pack this Gujarati classic for your next summer trip. You won’t regret it! Special thanks to Amma (Charu Shukla).

Ingredients Directions

Servings: 20 Prep Time: 30 min - 1 hour Cooking Time: 15 - 20 minutes

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup dahi (yogurt)

¾ cup fresh or frozen methi (fenugreek leaves), finely chopped

2 green chili peppers, ground into a paste

¼ cup sesame seeds

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste (about 2 tsp)

Optional: ¼ cup gor (aka jaggery) or dark brown sugar Start by prepping the dough. Combine dahi (yogurt), ground green chilis, turmeric, salt to taste and gor (jaggery) together and set aside. Add flour and oil into a separate large bowl and mix in the chopped methi. Option to use a food processor here to ensure the methi is fully mixed into the flour. You can also try incorporating some finely chopped ginger and garlic for even more flavor.

Next, start to slowly add the dahi mixture into the flour mixture, until the dough begins to form; option to continue to use the food processor in this step as well. Remove the dough and knead with your hands until semi-stiff and smooth. Cover and let sit for about 10 mins.

Now form the dough into about twenty 1-inch balls (basically golf ball size). Take a ball and using a rolling pin, roll it out into a thin circle, forming the thepla / flatbread. Warm a flat skillet to medium-high heat and add the thepla, roast on both sides until light brown spots begin to form. Then add a drop of oil on one side and evenly spread. Hint: if the thepla begins to puff up, gently press on the puffed sides and rotate, this helps make the thepla soft and flaky once fully cooked. Repeat on the other side.

Continue until all theplas are complete and cooled, stack them together, wrap in a paper towel and store in a closed container to keep them nice and soft! Serve with your favorite athanu (pickle), chutney, ghee, chai or simply enjoy on its own!

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continued from page 34 human life from birth to death (including the pioneering use of Indian cello), Dhvee (Duality) with both Indonesian and Indian interpretation of the Ramayana, Sthree set to a score by Dr. L. Subramaniam and inspired by the Tamil epic Silappathikaram (The Anklet), and Sacred Earth featuring the kolam “painted prayers” of Southeastern India and ancient wall paintings of the Western Indian Warli people (by the way, I recommend a visit to NCSU’s Gregg Museum of Art with an exhibit by Asheville photographer Martha Strawn featuring threshold creations like kolam). I published in Saathee in June 2012 an interview I had the pleasure of having with Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy.

Summer travel precluded my attending all of the shows that I would have wanted to, but I did have the pleasure of seeing several. I was very pleasantly surprised by ShaLeigh Dance Works, a local troupe that I knew would be appealing. I like to see how modern dancers push the envelope and they did that by performing in a space I love, Durham’s Fruit, a former fruit and produce warehouse, and by offering attendees … blindfolds! The dance was meant to have audiences experience the artform the way those with various levels of visual limitations might. It was such an intriguing, innovative, and immersive idea!

Rennie Harris Puremovement presented a “gospel House work” that dramatized the story of a man coming of age in the ‘hood trying to find himself while navigating between the stabilizing influence of the Black church and seeming allure of gang lifestyle.

I enjoyed the music and was happy that themes of conflicted youth in difficult circumstances were explored but wish that the dance were longer to allow particularly the main character to more fully be developed.

Abby Z and the New Utility was certainly modern dance. Performed at Duke’s beautiful von der Heyden Studio Theater in the Rubenstein Arts Center, it allowed everybody a first or second row seat (except for the few in the upper seating area) to a rigorous and demanding athletic demonstration of the sheer power of dance.

Rennie Harris photo by Nikki Carrara

Paul Taylor Dance Company is one of my favorites and it did not disappoint. I am used to seeing them at larger venues like the Durham Performing Arts Center but none of the ADF shows were at DPAC this year. PTDC was somehow different in a smaller space of Duke’s Page Auditorium – maybe more intimate, maybe more muted – but the classical foundation and elegantly strong dancers made an irresistible evening as always. It was the third time that I have seen their frenzied Syzygy; this dance, I must say, really shines in a larger performance space.

They had enticing dances Cloven Kingdom and one that my teenaged daughter and I particularly liked, Hope is the thing with Feathers. This dance featured relatively plain costumery reflecting birds letting their environment (dance and not-subtly-bird-referencing music including clips of the Beatles’ Blackbird) shine through.

Don’t miss the outdoor September shows at the North Carolina Museum of Art. It features four consecutive days of performances. Info at AmericanDanceFestival.org

Note: American Dance Festival logo and photographs courtesy of American Dance Festival All images are used with permission.

Dilip Barman is a photographer, teacher, health coach, and computer scientist. Contact: dilip@dilip.info

Personal Finances

continued from page 54

give $16,000 to anyone every year with IRS not even batting an eye about this transaction. Anyone is anyone, known or unknown and there is no problem. Most of the time it is done between relatives like sons and daughters or others and then of course grandchildren. Most common way this is used is for the down payment of a house or car someone may be buying. If it is for a house this is how it would work. Between you and your spouse you can give $32,000 to your son, then again you and your spouse can give another $32,000 to your daughter-in-law; that makes $64,000. Now if you time it properly like the end of the year and beginning of the next, within a matter of days you can move $128,000 for the purpose of down payment.

Trusts Many different kinds of trusts can be created for the purpose of moving assets from your estate to other. It should be noted that such transfers are permanent, and it will be difficult to bring the money back into your estate again. So, it should be properly thought out.

Mo Vidwans is an independent, board certified financial planner. For details visit, VidwansFinancial.com, call 984-888-0355 or write to: mpvidwans@yahoo.com

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years or older. Although statistical evidence is still scarce, anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that the pandemic has driven many of these workers from the post-COVID workforce.

This has left a significant hole in the labor market, which simply has not been adequately filed by younger workers entering the workforce.

How do we fix this problem? In a word: immigration. The United States continues to remain the destination of choice for both highly skilled and unskilled labor worldwide.

The mass migration that currently impacts the United States’ southern border evidences the huge magnet the country’s economy has on those with lesser means and while some migrants come to the US for less than noble reasons, overwhelmingly most are simply seeking a better life for their children and themselves. More importantly, the ability to help reduce the labor shortage can partially be done without the need of assistance of a divided Congress. The following are a few steps that the Biden Administration can take without Congressional approval to help increase the number of available foreign workers:

Get US Consulates functional again. The concern about new variants is real and should be taken seriously, but the continued closure of consulates abroad borders on absurdity. Despite commanding a multi-billion dollar budget, the US Department of State continues to understaff visa offices, leading to visa delays that seem endless. The Biden Administration can easily surge resources to visa offices to help clear the backlog, but increasing capacity or in some cases, simply creating interview waiver options. Individuals that clearly meet the requirements for visa issuance should not be required to wait months to get an interview. Allowing for expedited processing would reduce delays and get badly needed workers to US shores faster.

Grant certain non-immigrant dependents employment authorization, specifically H-4 dependents. H-1B visa holders, by definition, must occupy a “specialty occupation” or one that traditionally requires a bachelor’s degree. Many H-1B visa holders are married to H-4 spouses and have H-4 children. H-4 dependents are ordinarily not permitted employment authorization with the only exemption for H-4 spouses that are currently waiting for a current priority date in order to be able to seek permanent residency status. As many H-1B visa holders are married to spouses that share their advanced educational experience, the United States currently has tens of thousands of skilled and capable workers sitting at their homes and without a way of using their skills in an economy that needs the help. Similarly, H-4 children cannot accept jobs like their youthful counterparts (i.e. wait staff or lifeguards), which again starves the economy of needed new labor. Unleash H-4 spouses and dependent children into the economy, as they are able-bodied and often highly skilled workers whose potential is currently untapped.

Grant employment authorization locally. Currently individuals applying for employment authorization must submit their applications to a national service center that often takes months to respond. Inquiries often go unheeded, while workers waste days waiting for government action. Since local offices are flexible and nimble, allowing locales to accept and adjudicate application may help to drive efficiency and increase output. While waiting for the actual card to be delivered, local USCIS offices could also grant applicants a temporary stamp approving their authority to work, which can then be used to immediately obtain employment. By reducing wait times from months to weeks, the number of available workers would increase dramatically.

Stop the overly restrictive adjudication of work visas. Ask any practitioner about the difficulty of getting an L-1 or E-2 visa approved and you will likely receive countless stories on the challenges of understanding USCIS’ logic in visa adjudications. Words are not given their standard meaning and decision-making seems arbitrary. USCIS does not operate in a vacuum and should realize that employers are trying unable to find labor, thus necessitating the import of foreign workers. Easing this restrictiveness, coupled with boosting consular efficiency (see above), should provide a slight reprieve from this ongoing worker shortage, particularly in areas of high expertise.

Biden Administration officials often point to Congressional inaction as the driving reason behind our country’s dysfunctional immigration system, which is largely true; however, the Administration can do much more through regulatory and policy changes to boost the number of available workers without stepping into more contentious policy debates such as border and enforcement policies.

By simply using the tools that it already has at its disposal, the Administration can help to dent the current labor shortage and bring balance and some normalcy back into our current economic outlook.

Rishi P. Oza is Partner at Brown Immigration Law, a firm that focuses solely on immigration law; he practices in Durham. roza@rbrownllc.com

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Sustainable Manufacturing continued from page 42 world or save it. And I think the rationale was that if China and India copy the model and technologies used in the West to building its industrial system, the world will see drastic negative impact on the environment. The key factor here is the significantly high scale of activities needed to support their very large populations. However, if they are much more innovative and come up with much more efficient and cleaner methods better than used in the West to build up industrial enterprises, they would save the world because the scale of what they do is significant.

In talking about how these two countries could either ruin or save the world, do you remain an optimist?

Absolutely. I serve on the United Nations Environment Program’s International Resource Panel. One of the IRP’s roles is to inform policy through validated independent scientific studies. One of the panel’s reports is called the Global Resources Outlook. The last report was published in 2019.

The experts are saying that if business as usual continues, we’re probably going to increase greenhouse gas emission by 43 percent by 2060. However, if we employ effective sustainability measures across the globe, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a significant percentage, even by as much as 90 percent. A 2018 study I led for the IRP found that applying remanufacturing alongside other resource recovery methods like comprehensive refurbishment, repair and reuse could cut greenhouse gas emissions of those products by 79 percent–99 percent across manufacturing supply chains.

So there is optimism if we employ many sustainability measures. However, I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s always disappointing to see that the indicators are there; the approaches to address some of those issues are identified, but the will to actually employ them isn’t. Despite this, I’m still optimistic because we know enough about the right path forward and it is still not too late to move in the right direction.

Were there any lessons we’ve learned during the pandemic that we can apply to challenges we’re facing?

We learned a lot from the COVID crisis. When the risk became known, even though not all agreed, people around the globe took significant measures and actions to address the challenge. We accepted changes to the way we live and interact, we marshaled all of our resources to develop vaccines and address the medical supply shortages. The bottom line is that we rose to the occasion and we, in most part, took actions to deal with the risk in a significant way.

The environmental challenges we face today, like climate change, are serious global challenges as well. However, they have been occurring over a long time and, unfortunately, mostly have not been taken as seriously as they should have been. We certainly have learned that when we have the will to address serious challenges, we can meet them. Final question. Give me the elevator pitch on remanufacturing. Remanufacturing is a process by which we bring a product that has been used back to a like-new-or-better condition. Through a rigorous industrial process, we disassemble the product to the component level. We clean, inspect and restore it, qualifying every part. We then reassemble the product similar to what happened when it was built the first time. The reality is that by doing so, you’re using anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent of the materials recovered from the use phase. This has significantly far lower impacts on the environment when compared to making new products from raw materials. You don’t mine virgin material for that. You’re saving the energy that made those parts; you’re saving the capital equipment that made those parts; you’re saving the labor cost. So the savings are significant. The overall savings are about 50 percent. For example, a remanufactured vehicle part in the United States requires less than 10 percent of the energy needed to make a new one, and less than 5 percent of new materials. That means lower costs for the producer while providing the consumer with a very highquality product. Examples of commonly remanufactured products are construction equipment, automotive engines and transmissions, medical equipment and aircraft parts. Those products are similar to brand-new products, and companies like Xerox, Caterpillar and GE all have made remanufacturing a part of their overall operations.

Article courtesy of theconversation.com

The Editor’s Desk

continued from page 14

Americans. In a way it’s the best of both worlds, the old country and its traditions and the new country and all its ambitions, blended by Indian Americans making their homes across this land. This is what immigrants do in the United States. They bring energy and a mindset to expand opportunities, create a better country.

The energy of immigrants in this land of migrants keeps redefining the idea of America. It is a continuing story. Just as in a sense the migrants and travelers who have settled in India over the centuries continue to define the idea of India, its deep traditions, cultures and the tomorrow-gazing dreams of its youth.

The August winds swirl around the world. This night, as midnight approaches, a cooler breeze is now passing through the neighborhood. The night noises have quieted a bit. The work of the sober middle, the quiet majority, of both India and United States, can lead to a quieter night and a better tomorrow. Samir Shukla Editor of Saathee Magazine Contact: Samir@Saathee.com Twitter: @ShuklaWrites // Newsletter: ShuklaWrites.Substack.com

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