Why does frying make everything so delicious???

I had already posted the recipe for making Orotti or rice roti, one of the famous rotis in Malabar cuisine. This is very popular in my family as well. Orotti along with chicken/mutton or fish curry tastes extremely delicious. There is another variation of orortti which is called Ney orotti or Fried orotti in which the orotti is fried rather than just cooking it. While making fried orotti, the rice dough is seasoned with some spices which makes it flavorful and delicious. Ney orotti is yet another famous dish in my dad’s family. I still remember the first time I had this at my aunt’s house when I was a kid, I loved it so much that I was seen eating quite a lot which surprised my mom.

The other day while making fried orotti, I made a twist by adding chicken while making the rice dough. Rolled the dough into small patties and fried it. I have no words to express how delicious these fried chicken orotti tasted. I have to tell you that frying makes these crispy and flavorful. However, if you are too concerned about frying you could even cook it just like regular rotis. I have to tell you that it wouldn’t be that tasty as fried ones though.

Fried Chicken Orotti or Rice Roti

Makes: 16 no’s

Ingredients

For cooking chicken

• Chicken breast, boneless, cubed- 1
• Chilly powder- 3/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/8 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste

For making chicken masala

• Oil- 2 tsp
• Onion, chopped small- 1, large
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 tsp
• Curry leaves (optional)- 1 sprig

For making rice dough

• Rice flour-  2 1/2 cups
• Water- 2 cups
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Coconut, grated- 1 cup
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Cooked chicken masala- 1 1/2 cups
• Salt- little
• Oil- enough for frying

Preparation:

• Marinate the chicken with the above mentioned ingredients ‘for cooking chicken’, keep aside for 15 minutes.
• Cook the chicken covered in a saucepan till the chicken has cooked well.
• Using a fork, gently shred the chicken and keep aside.
• Place a wok over medium heat, add oil.
• Add chopped onion to it, add little salt and saute for a few minutes.
• Add ginger-garlic paste and curry leaves, saute.
• Cook till the onion has turned translucent.
• Add the shredded cooked chicken and combine well.
• Cook for a few minutes, remove from the stove.

For making rice dough:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the water.
2. Add coconut, cumin seeds, garam masala, 1 1/2 cups of the prepared cooked chicken and little salt to the water, let it come to a boil.
3. Lower the heat and slowly add the rice flour and combine it using the back of a wooden spoon.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the rice dough on a large baking sheet or platter.
5. Let it cool down a bit.
6. Knead the dough when it is still warm until it has well incorporated.
7. The dough should be soft and not too sticky, it it’s too sticky add some more rice flour.
8. Make medium balls out of the rice dough.
9. Grease the hands with little oil and flatten each balls between the palm of your hands into patties, it should’t be too thick.
10. If you have a tortilla maker or poori maker, you could fatten the dough in that.
11. Heat a frying pan and add enough oil for frying.
12. Fry the patties in oil till both sides have turned golden brown in color.
13. Transfer to a paper towel.
14. Serve warm by itself or along with chicken curry.

Not Fried Chicken Orortti:

1. If you don’t want to fry it, you could cook the patties on a pan just like you make orottis or chapatis.
2. Place a cast iron skillet or non-stick skillet over medium heat, let it turn hot, grease the pan with little oil.
3. Place the patties on the pan and cook over low heat till both sides turns golden brown in color.
4. Make sure that the inside has cooked well, don’t cook at high heat.

Tips:

• For making vegetarian version: Season the water for making the dough with grated coconut, cumin seeds, garam masala, fennel powder, coriander powder, small onions and salt. Add the rice flour, knead it, make into patties and fry it.

Sssh, Kids who frown on veggies are going to like this…

When I gave chapati a fancy and colorful makeover, it became beetroot roti. Ever since we came to know about my hubby’s gluten intolerance, I literally stopped making chapati’s. After a long time, a few days ago I got the craving to eat chapati, so I decided to make chapati just for myself. Usually, I use warm water or milk to knead the dough. Well, this time I decided to make chapati in a fancy yet healthy way. I added beetroot puree instead of water. I was aware that some people add spinach puree and carrot puree to make green and orange roti’s respectively. I had beetroot in my refrigerator, hence beetroot was my pick to make the roti as I also admire the vibrant purple color of it.

I first cooked the beetroot in water and then pureed it to a smooth constituency. Added the puree to the wheat flour and kneaded it to a soft dough. Rest of the preparation method was same as that of making chapati. I was so eager to taste this beetroot roti. One bite and I asked myself “why don’t I taste the beetroot?” You can trick anyone who doesn’t like beetroot or kids who usually frown on veggies, they are not going to figure it out unless you say it loud. So, ssshhhh don’t reveal it!

Beetroot Roti

Ingredients

• Beetroot, chopped large- 1
• Wheat flour or Chapati flour- 1 cup and more for dusting
• Beetroot puree- 1/2 cup (you could even use spinach puree or carrot puree)
• Salt- little

Preparation

1. Cook the chopped beetroot in some water taken in a saucepan.
2. Once the beetroot has turned tender, remove from the water.
3. Puree the cooked beetroot in a blender after adding some water to it.
4. Puree it to a smooth constituency without any lumps.
5. For 1 cup of flour you only need about 1/2 cup of the beetroot puree.
6. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and knead it by adding about 1/2 cup beetroot puree.
7. Add the puree slowly and knead till you get a soft dough. Don’t ya already love the color of the dough?
8. If the dough is too soft, add more of the flour and knead.
9. Keep aside the dough for 5 minutes.
10. Make small balls out of it. Rest of the process is same as that of making chapati.
11. Place one ball on a chapati board or on a wooden cutting board.
12. Dust with wheat flour and roll it with a rolling pin to a round shape.
13. Keep dusting the flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface.
14. Place a non-stick pan or tawa over medium heat.
15. Spray non-stick cooking spray on the pan.
16. Place the rolled dough on the pan, let the bottom side just start to wilt, cook only for 15 seconds.
17. Don’t cook the bottom side for long as it gets hard and the roti won’t puff up.
18. Flip it over and cook for less than a minute.
19. Again flip it over and gently pat the sides of the roti with a flat spatula, the roti will puff up. Once it’s puffed up remove from the pan.
20. If you are cooking on a flame stove, at this point you could lower the flame and place the roti over the flame for a couple of seconds, it will puff up really good and flip it over, remove from the flame immediately.
21. Don’t place over coiled stove, roti will have burned marks on it.
22. Serve warm with your favorite curry.
23. If you are wondering what to do with the rest of the beetroot puree, you could make beetroot sauce with it.
24. I heated the beetroot puree in a saucepan and added a few tablespoons of store bought Spicy Thai chili sauce to it, combined well.
25. The sauce tasted pretty good, I even dipped the roti in this sauce.

Tips:

• To make chapati which puff up well: after you place the rolled dough on the pan, avoid over cooking the bottom side of the rolled dough, the bottom side should only get hot about 15 seconds.
• For Green colored roti, use spinach puree and for orange colored roti use carrot puree.

A famous Malabar rice roti which is served for both breakfast and dinner…

Pathiri is a traditional roti that originated from Malabar cuisine. Nowadays, it is commonly served in almost all parts to South India. The texture of pathiri is soft and thin that almost everyone finds it hard to ignore, especially when served with chicken or fish curry. I love to pour some coconut milk over the pathiri, followed by spicy meat curry. It tastes divine.

Pathiri and Orotti are not the same, though they are closely related. Both are made with rice flour. For making orotti, grated coconut is also added. Orotti has a thick texture and is usually prepared in orotti (tortilla) press or the dough is flattened using the hands. While pathiri has a very soft and thin texture, the dough is rolled by dusting it with rice flour to thin round shapes(quite similar to making chapati). Pathiri dough should be rolled as thin as possible, otherwise it wouldn’t have a soft texture and it should puff up while cooking.

My favorite way of having pathiri is with mutton curry, Yum!

Pathiri or Thin Rice Roti

Ingredients:

• Rice flour- 1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp
• Water- 1 cup
• Salt- little
• Rice flour- more for dusting while rolling the dough

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, boil the water.
• Sprinkle salt to the boiling water.
• When the water boils, add the rice flour and combine it using a wooden spoon.
• Remove from the heat and combine well till incorporated.
• Let it cool down a bit.
• Knead the mixture when it is still warm till it’s soft and smooth.
• Make medium sized balls out of the kneaded dough.
• Place the dough on a wooden board or chapati making board.
• Sprinkle little rice flour over it.
• Using a rolling pin, roll it to a round shape.
• Keep dusting with rice flour to prevent sticking to the board.
• Roll to thin round shape.
• Heat a cast iron skillet or non-stick cooking pan over medium heat.
• Grease the cast iron skillet with little oil.
• Place the rolled pathiri on the skillet or pan.
• When the bottom side just starts to wilt, in about 30 seconds, flip it over to the other side.
• Let the bottom side get a few light golden spots, flip it over.
• Gently press the sides with a spatula, the pathiri will puff up nicely.
• Remove from the skillet and place it on a plate.
• Wipe off any rice flour left on the cooking pan before you place the next rolled pathiri dough.
• Serve pathiris with your favorite curry.
• You could even pour some thin coconut milk followed by chicken or mutton curry: my favorite way of devouring pathiri.

How to serve Pathiri for kids:

While serving for kids, pour some thin coconut milk over it and sprinkle some sugar on it. This tastes really delicious, kids will love it. This used to be my sister’s favorite food when she was a kid.

Tips:

• Make sure to knead the dough till it gets soft.
• If the dough is not soft sprinkle little warm water while kneading.
• I used store bought non-roasted rice flour, if you want you could slightly roast the rice flour in a pan till it starts to turn light golden in color.

How to make puffed up pathiris:

• It depends on how you flip the pathiri over while cooking. If you cook any of the sides too much it won’t puff up, it will turn little hard as well.
• After you place the rolled dough on the pan, make sure to flip it over as soon as the bottom side starts to wilt: first flip within 30 seconds.
• Second flip: When light golden spots appears on the bottom side.
• Most of the time it will puff up by itself. To encourage puffing, gently press on the sides of the pathiri with the spatula.
• Remove from the heat after it has puffed up.

I believe this is my mom’s favorite flatbread as she makes this at least once or twice a week. I used to get mad at her for making this quite often, but now I wish my mom was near to me to make this for me. Anyway, once in a while I do get the craving to have this along with chicken or mutton curry. Yesterday, I made this for lunch and had it along with beef roast.

There are two main types of rice roti’s which are popular in Kerala: Orotti and Pathiri. The dough for both of them are made with rice flour and water. However, for making orotti, grated coconut is also added to the dough and the dough is usually rolled with your hands or in a tortilla maker. Making Pathiri closely resembles to that of chapati, only difference is that for rolling pathiri dough, rice flour is used instead of wheat flour. Pathiri is quite thin and has a soft texture while orotti is slightly thick. Both of them can be eaten with fish, chicken, mutton or beef curries or roasts. While having orortti, some people pour coconut milk over the orotti and then pour the spicy curry over it. Believe me, it tastes really good along with coconut milk and the spicy curry.

In my hometown, orotti is usually cooked on a cast iron skillet and that’s what makes it taste delicious. Try making it in both non-stick pan and cast iron pan, you’ll feel the difference in taste and also orotti will have a nice aroma when made in cast iron skillet. So, make sure to cook this in cast iron skillet.

Orotti or Rice Roti

Makes: 12 no’s

Ingredients:

• Rice flour- 2 cups
• Water- 1 1/2 cups
• Grated coconut- 1/2 cup
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- for greasing

Preparation:

• Boil the water in a saucepan, when the water starts to boil add grated coconut and salt to it.
• Lower the heat and slowly add the flour and combine it with a wooden spoon.
• Remove from the heat and let cool down a bit.
• You need to knead the dough when it is still warm.
• Knead the dough thoroughly till it has incorporated well and has become smooth.
• If the dough is too dry, sprinkle little warm water to make it smooth.
• You could roll the dough into round shape in a tortilla maker or using your hands.
• Make medium sized balls out of the dough.
• Cut a large ziploc bag into two halves or use plastic sheets.
• Place the ziploc bag on a cutting board, grease the bag with some oil.
• Place the dough on it and using your palm of your hand gently press the dough and make it into a round shape.
• It should be a thick round, don’t have to make it too thin.
• If you have a tortilla maker, use that to press the dough into round shape.
• Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat.
• Grease the skillet with oil.
• Place the orotti dough over it, when the bottom side starts to cook flip it over.
• Let small golden brown spots form on the bottom side, flip it over.
• Gently press on the sides using the spatula, let small golden brown spots form on the bottom side.
• Remove from the skillet. 
• Make sure to grease the skillet before making each orotti, otherwise there are chances that it might stick to the skillet.
• Also, grease the ziploc bag or plastic sheet before rolling the dough to avoid sticking to it.
• Serve along with your favorite curry, preferably fish, chicken or mutton curry.

Chapati has been one of the famous and common flatbread made by almost everyone in India. In fact this is made for dinner, sometimes even for breakfast at many houses. In my hometown, rice and rice flat breads or rotis have been the staple food and the people there literally cannot think of a day without eating rice. Mostly they have rice during lunch and they take a break from rice by making chapati for dinner. Even at my parents house chapatis are made often for dinner.

I always preferred wheat chapatis over rice rotis, and it made an excellent accompaniment for almost all kinds of curries. I still remember how I used to help my mom making chapatis, it wasn’t an easy task for me back then. I always faced trouble making soft doughs, rolling the dough to round shape and also while cooking it. Making the perfect soft and puffy chapatis need some practice and experience. After a few trials you can perfect the art of making chapati.

There are three major steps in chapati preparation: making the soft dough, rolling the dough to round shape and then cooking it on a skillet or tawa. I’ve found that using hot water to make the dough makes the dough soft, the dough should be kneaded well. Then comes the rolling of dough into round shape, at first it would be hard to attain the round shape, after a while you’ll be amazed to see you are almost there making round shapes. While cooking chapati, you need to take care not to over cook it as it would turn hard.

Alright, keep these in mind and get ready to make chapati.

Chapati

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour or Atta- 2 cups
• Water- 1 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Oil- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, boil the water.
• When it comes to a rolling boil, add salt and add the flour.
• Combine using a wooden spoon, remove from the heat and let cool down a bit.
• While the dough is still warm, knead it using your hands for about 5- 7 minutes.
• You could even spread the dough on a clean countertop or a flat platter and knead it.
• The dough should be soft, if the dough is hard sprinkle little warm water and knead it.
• How soft the dough gets also depends on what brand of flour you are using. In some flour there will be a mix of all purpose flour too, this makes the dough turn little hard.
• Knead the dough into a round shape, add oil on the top spread it over and keep aside for 5 minutes.
• Make medium sized balls out of the dough.
• Place the dough ball on the wooden board or clean counter top.
• Sprinkle little wheat flour on it and using a rolling pin roll it to round shape.
• Keep rotating the dough while rolling to get the round shape and sprinkle the flour to avoid sticking to the surface.
• Always roll only the one side of the dough, don’t turn the dough to the other side and roll that side too.
• Heat a skillet or tawa or non stick pan over medium heat, let it turn hot.
• Place the rolled dough on the pan.
• In just 10 seconds (you don’t need to cook the bottom side at this point it should just get hot) flip the dough to the other side.
• Using a flat spatula, gently press on the sides of the dough, it will slightly puff up.
• Now, turn to the other side and most of the times it will puff up by itself, else gently press the sides using a spatula.
• Once it’s puffed up, remove from the pan.
• If you want you could spread little ghee or butter on the hot cooked chapatis.
• Make sure not to over cook the dough as it will turn hard and crispy.

When I think of parotta my mind will instantly dress up to attend a muslim wedding in South India. A mandatory flat bread served at every muslim wedding and other special occasions. I don’t think there would have been or would be any muslim weddings without parottas being served. Next, my mind will rush to a roadside restaurants seen widely in Kerala, where we could actually see the chef making the parottas. It’s always great fun watching them make it from scratch which involves the waving the thinly flattened dough, tapping of the folded dough and finally patting the fried parottas stacked together while it is still hot. Not to mention about the aroma that fills the air while walking down that road, it’s hard to resist!

For me, there is nothing more perfect than chicken curry to go with the parottas. The mere thought of “parotta with chicken curry” has never failed to trigger my craving. To make parottas just like restaurant style needs a lot of practice and skills. If you are someone who could whip up parottas with much ease, then you must be  one heck of a chef.

Making parottas flawlessly had been always on the top of my must to cook list. I had once tried making parottas using my mom’s recipe and didn’t quite succeed in it. After that first attempt, I never got the feeling of making parottas by myself. However, recently after watching a documentary about Indian food in which they showed about the art of making parotta, stirred up the sudden urge of making this from scratch. Coincidentally, my sister had given me the recipe for making eggless parotta a few weeks ago. Without much thinking I steeped into my kitchen and started making this.

This time I made with all passion and was quite happy about the end result. The parottas came out good, though I wouldn’t dare to compare mine with the ones you get from the restaurant as I still have to work on my parotta making skills. Hopefully, someday I could make this flawlessly and perfectly.

Eggless Parotta

Makes: 5 parottas

Ingredients:

• All-Purpose flour or Maida- 1 1/2 cups
• Water- 1/2 cup
• salt- 1/4 tsp
• Oil- 3 tbsp + more while flattening the dough
• Ghee- while frying the parotta

Preparation:

• Combine the flour with water and salt to form a soft dough.
• After kneading the dough, pour 3 tbsp of oil over the dough.

• Cover the dough with wet muslin cloth and let it rest for 2 to 3 hours.
• After 2 to 3 hours, make medium sized balls out of the dough and keep aside.
• Place the ball dough on a wooden cutting board or chapathi board or you could use your cleaned dried counter top for this.

• Grease the dough with oil which will help you to flatten the dough.
• Using a rolling pin, roll the dough and flatten it as thin as possible.

• It’s little hard to flatten it as the dough will bounce back, apple some pressure while doing this.
• The flattened dough wouldn’t have to be round in shape and it will have breaks on it.
• Our goal is to flatten the dough as thin as possible.
• Fold the flattened dough from one side to make pleats.

• Holding on to one end of the pleated dough, tap the other end of the pleated dough on the board.

• You will see that the by doing so the length of the pleated dough will increase.

• Repeat this for 3-4 times until it is long enough.
• Now, starting from one end rotate the pleated dough to make it into a spiral.

• Repeat the same with the other dough and keep aside.

• Place the spiral shaped dough over the wooden board.
• Apply little oil, using your hands or rolling pin roll the dough to a medium round shape.

• You could apply oil while rolling the dough.

• Place a wide pan or tawa over medium heat and let it get hot.
• Add 1 tbsp of ghee to the pan and place the rolled dough on the pan.

• Let the bottom side turn light golden in color.
• Flip it to the other side, add 1/2 tbsp ghee and gently tap with the flat spatula.

• Let the other side turn slight golden in color.
• Keep flipping the sides and fry for some more time until both the sides cook well and turn golden brown in color.

• Don’t leave it unattended, it will get burned very fast as it’s frying in ghee.
• Remove the cooked and fried parotta from the pan and let cool slightly.
• Using both your hands gently pat the sides of the cooked parottas, this will help the parottas to relax.
• If you are a hard core non-veg serve paotta with chicken curry, if you are a hard core vegan serve with vegetable korma.

Tips:

• Leftover parottas could be refrigerated.
• I’ve found that the refrigerated parottas when steam cooked ( stack the parottas on a glass bowl and cover the bowl with aluminum foil, place it on a deep bottomed pan with 1 cup water in it, cover the pan with its lid and cook for few minutes) for few minutes or so makes it really soft rather than heating it on the pan or microwaving it.
• Tear the leftover parottas into small slices and combine with chicken roast to make a totally different dish called “Kothu Parotta” or “Stir fry Parotta”.
• Here is the recipe for Chilli Pita I had posted last year, you could make Chilli Parotta using this recipe. Add parottas instead of pita.

Paratha or flat bread stuffed with browned ground beef with a hint of saffron, which made it aromatic…

If you are planning to make this, make as many as you can, because you can’t stop with just two or three and the leftovers taste even more delicious.

I am a slacker when it comes to making homemade parathas, I always rush to the nearby Indian stores if I get the craving for parathas. Only two things I have to do with store bought parathas are cut open the bag and microwave or heat it on a tawa. And I don’t have to go through the long process or should I call the longest process of making the parathas from scratch. First major step is making the dough, which also includes messing up my counter top with wheat flour and sticky dough. Next part would be rolling the dough, I have to roll and roll till I almost faint. It doesn’t end with this, the final part would be frying the parathas, I have to stand in front of the hot stove until I fry all the parathas, this some times result in burning my hands while trying to hurry up. Finally, when fried parathas are ready stacked up on the platter, I will be mostly seen with my hair standing up and dusted all over with wheat flour. A huge phew!

However, last weekend I had an emergency paratha craving. First thought I had was, get the store bought ones. Second thought was, too lazy to dress up and drive to the store. Third thought was, to kill the craving. Fourth thought was, make homemade paratha from scratch. Guess what? I went with the fourth thought; yay, yay. Once I started making the dough, I got in to the paratha groove. I stuffed the parathas with browned ground beef and added saffron to make it even more aromatic. Store bought parathas might taste good, but homemade parathas are the best and healthy. Obviously, there was a huge mess in my kitchen after the successful paratha making. And guess who volunteered to clean it up? My hubby dear, of course after devouring the parathas

Ground beef saffron stuffed and folded Parathas

Ingredients:

For making the dough:

• Wheat flour or Atta- 3 cups
• Warm water- 1 1/2 cups
• Salt- two pinches
• Vegetable oil- 2 tsp

Preparation

Step 1: Making the dough

• In a large bowl add warm water, salt  and add wheat flour slowly and mixing it with the end of a wooden spoon.

• Combine everything well and transfer the dough on a flat platter or wooden cutting board.
• Using your hands, knead the dough thoroughly for about 5 minutes until soft and smooth.
• Knead the dough into a round shape and pour oil on top, combine it one more time.

• Keep aside for 10 minutes.
• To prevent the dough from drying out, cover the dough with wet paper towel or clean wet kitchen towel.

Step 2: Making the ground beef saffron stuffing:

Ingredients:

• Ground beef- 8 oz
• Onion, minced- 1 medium
• Cumin seeds- 1tsp
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Saffron, soaked in water- a pinch
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- 2 tsp

Preparation:

• Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil, add cumin seeds and saute till it gets aromatic.
• Add minced onion along with salt to the oil and saute till tender.

• Add ground beef to the onions and break the beef without lumps using a wooden spoon.

• Let the beef cook well and turn brown.
• When the ground beef starts to brown, add chilly powder, fennel powder, coriander powder, garam masala and saute for few minutes.

• Finally add saffron soaked in water to the browned beef and mix well.
• Add cilantro, remove from the flame and let cool down.

Step 3: Rolling the parathas and stuffing it

Ingredients:

• Kneaded wheat dough
• Wheat flour for dusting the dough
• Browned ground beef saffron for stuffing the parathas

Method:

• Make large balls out of the kneaded wheat dough and keep aside.
• Place the ball on the rolling mat or a board dusted with wheat flour.

• Roll the dough into a round shape using the rolling pin.

• Place 1 tbsp of beef stuffing on to the middle of the round dough.

• Fold  the two ends of the dough with the stuffing on the middle and press the dough to stick it.
• Now, fold the other two ends and press the dough on the top to seal it.

• Flour the stuffed, wrapped dough and roll it into a square shape, roll it up and down first and then sidewise.

• Repeat this and roll the rest of the dough and stuff it.

Step 4: Frying the Beef stuffed parathas:

Ingredients:

• Ghee- enough for spreading the parathas while frying it

Method:

• Heat a tawa or non-stick skillet over medium heat, spread the pan with little ghee and place a paratha on it and let it turn golden.

• Flip it to the other side, spread little ghee and using a spatula press the paratha, it would puff up slightly.
• Fry on both sides until it turns golden brown, adding ghee according to your needs.

Parathas without the stuffing.

• Follow the same method for making the dough.
• After rolling the dough ball into a round shape, fold the two sides of the round dough.

• Now, fold the ends as well and press on top to seal it.

• Dust the folded dough with wheat flour and roll into a square shape, roll side wise first and then up and down to make the square shape.

• Fry it on the tawa by spreading ghee on it.

Serving:

• Serve the beef stuffed and folded parathas with Raita or your choice of sides.
• Plain parathas can be served with chicken curry, lamb curry or vegetable korma.

Tips:

• For healthy parathas, avoid using ghee or use very little.
• You could even make this without folding it, just roll the dough into a round shape and fry this, this will give you Chapatis.
• Leftovers can be refrigerated. Heat it in the microwave or on stove top before having it.
• Rolled dough without the stuffing can be stored in the refrigerator for a week. While storing this in an air tight container, dust wheat flour in between each rolled dough, this will prevent the dough from sticking together.

A fried, puffed up yogurt flatbread treat…

This was one of the flatbreads my mom used to make as a special treat when I was young. Also, when I had visited my cousin last year this was served along with the Spicy Chicken curry and thus caught my special attention. Since then making this was on my “must to do in my kitchen” list. I added fresh and thick yogurt to knead the dough. The fried bhatura came out puffed up and tasted really rich and delish. It was easy to prepare and the dough can be made ahead of time. The warm homemade bhaturas will become the center of attraction of all foodies at any party.

Bhatura or Fried Yogurt Flatbread

Ingredients:

• All-purpose flour or Maida- 2 1/4 cups
• Thick yogurt- 1 cup
• Egg- 1
• Baking soda- a pinch
• Salt- to taste
• Sesame seeds, black or white (optional)- 1 tbsp
• Vegetable oil- enough for frying

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt
• Break an egg to this and mix well.

• Now, add thick yogurt little by little and knead the flour for few minutes until soft.

• The dough is supposed to be sticky, so avoid adding more flour while kneading to make it a hard tough dough.
• Cover the dough with a wet paper towel and keep aside for 2-3 hrs.
• After 2-3 hrs, add sesame seeds to the dough and combine well.
• Make medium sized balls out of the dough.
• The dough will be sticky, while rolling the dough we will add flour to make it easy to roll.
• Sprinkle flour on a wooden board or on a clean counter top for rolling the dough, place a dough ball on it.
• Sprinkle little flour on the dough and roll the dough using a rolling pin.

• This dough cannot be rolled thin just like chapatis, so roll to an inch thick small round shape or oval shape.

• Roll all the dough balls and keep aside for frying them.

• Heat a deep fryer or a skillet over medium heat, add oil.
• When the oil has turned hot, place the rolled dough into the oil and fry both sides until golden brown and puffed up.

• Transfer the fried bhatura to a platter lined with paper towel.
• Fry all the bhaturas and serve hot with chicken curry or lamb curry or vegetable korma.

Tips:

• Bhatura should be served hot, cold bhaturas will turn hard and tough.
• You could knead the dough ahead of time, but fry the bhaturas just before serving them.