Rice, millet, barley, oats, wheat, buckwheat, rye, corn can all be milled into flour and made into bread, even beans like soya or aduki etc can be ground. Some nature food shops do this or one can buy a little mill and have fresh flour.

Are palhiri a rice flour bread is a muslim speciality bread particularly associated with Ramzan or Ramadan festival (time of fasting). It is to the Malabar region what chapatti is to North India. Millet bread is also called dhebra.

Flat breads or unleavened (no yeast or raising agent used) such as Nan (naan), pitta and chapatti are very easy to make. Nan is a Persian word and Nan or Naan is the white bread of the Muslim North West of the Punjab and Kashmir and beyond that, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The large breads in restaurants are cooked in tandoories– beehive domes arching over a charcoal oven with food being introduced through an opening on the top and sticking to the clay sides of the tandoori.

Pitta is a modern Greek word for bread of a flat, round unleavened type of middle Eastern countries, which can be opened like nan to insert a filling.

Chappati
225g chappati flour (ata)
175 ml water
Sea salt

Add the flour and salt to a mixing bowl and add a little of the water at a time, blending in with the fingers. Gently work all the flour and water into a soft dough.

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, slightly moisten the surface and leave to rest for about 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into about 10 small pieces and roll into small balls. Dust with extra flour and roll out into small circular shapes, dusting both sides with flour to prevent sticking. They will probably end up about 15 - 20cm in diameter.

Heat the metal pan until it is quite hot and then place a chappati onto the surface. It should cook for about 20–30 seconds. If the chappati sticks, the pan isn’t hot enough. If the chappati burns then it is too hot! Turn the chappati over and repeat the treatment on the second side.

Place the chappati on a serviette on a warm serving dish and then repeatedly cook the remaining chappatis.

Place them to form a pile on the napkin and serve warm.