Savory Fenugreek Cookies & The Thirsty Crow

How many times have you heard or for that matter even narrated the story of the ‘thirsty crow’? I have lost count of it …….. Being the most talkative one in our entire dynasty I loved narrating stories as much as I did listening to them. Sometimes I would twist the old conventional stories and fill it with my own imaginative colors to make it a little more interesting. But I never fiddled with the moral of the story. It always ended with the same note ‘Hard work pays off’. 
  
But I was in no mood for hard work this morning. I am still in the inertia of vacation. The jingle of my lil sister’s wedding bells has faded away, the cacophony of friends and relatives has also melted,  a shopaholic like me shudders at the very name of shopping (although it is just a temporary phenomenon) ……. All I want now is simply stretch my legs and stay cuddled in bed, even when the clock shows 8.30 am on a weekday. The icing on the cake - getting undivided attention of my parents, now that the younger one is gone for good ….. (evil  grin) and being pampered till the extent of getting spoilt. I ignored the ticking clock. The sun rays came piercing on my face as the cool morning breeze swayed the window curtains.  I buried my face into the pillow trying to ignore the sun as well as the constant chatter of Jayanti …… the next most important and indispensable person for Maaafter her family.  She is our domestic help.  If uninterrupted Jayanti can go on for hours complaining about her drunkard and unemployed husband and her nagging mother in law. How much we women love ‘talking’ about our husband and in-laws, no matter to what strata of society we belong to. It was one of those days when she was in the mood of lashing out. Her voice was only getting louder as she scrubbed the utensils vigorously. She was perhaps venting out all her anger and frustration on the lifeless plates and saucers. After all she was the single bread earner for a family of five.  At last I gave up and dragged myself out of the bed.
I rubbed my eyes and walked sluggishly towards the lawn signaling mom for a cup of tea. I picked the newspaper and smelled it. I sniff my newspaper before reading it.  I love the smell of a fresh newspaper and new books. I started with the last page of the newspaper reading my zodiac. There was nothing interesting, so I moved on to browsing local ads to check various deals and sale. I quickly flipped through the pages and read the main news in bits and pieces ……. As always it was about some corrupt Neta or the sky rocketing fuel prices. Jayanti was there with my cup of tea …….. 


As I sipped I noticed a crow sitting on the roof of the house across the street. Water was overflowing from the overhead water tank of that building. This smart crow perched over the pipe and was drinking the water from the overflowing tank. It was cawing …….. as if trying to signal the crow clan about an easy and smart source of water. After some time some more crows joined in. So has the moral of the story of the crow drinking water changed with time? Perhaps!

Preparation Time – 60 minutes

Makes – 30 small cookies

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour / Maida – 1 Cup
Gram Flour/ Besan – ½ cup

Semolina/ Suji – 2 tsp

Unsalted Butter at room temperature – 2/3 cup

Dry Fenugreek leaves – 2 tsp

Cumin – 1 tsp

Salt – 2 tsp (per taste)

Sugar- 1 tsp

Black Pepper – ½ tsp

Baking Powder – ½ tsp

Method of Preparation

Mix All Purpose Flour, Gram Flour and Baking Powder. Sieve to remove any   lumps. Now add the semolina, salt, sugar, cumin, fenugreek leaves and black pepper to it. Again mix all the  ingredients uniformly.

Take the butter at room temperature. Add small amount of the above mixture and mix with the help of a spatula. Repeat till all the dry mixture is added to the butter.  Now with your hands knead the dough till uniform and soft. Keep the dough covered for about 30    minutes. 

Pinch out small balls from the dough and put them on a baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 250 F.

Bake for about 10 – 15 minutes or till the cookies look slightly brown.

Remove on a cooling rack. Cool and store in an airtight container. 

Serving Tips

It’s a savory cookie. Serve with tea/ coffee.