Akki rotti

A rice-flour flatbread from Karnataka, finished over an open flame so its edges char.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 300 g rice flour
• 150 g cooked rice, cold
• 1 onion, chopped small
• 3 green chillies, chopped
• a small carrot, grated
• a handful of coriander leaves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• about 250 ml hot water
• 4 tablespoons ghee or butter, to serve

Method

1. THE KODAGU ONE IS FINISHED OVER AN OPEN FLAME UNTIL ITS EDGES CHAR, and that is the whole reason to make this version rather than any other rice-flour bread. Its article sets out two: the commoner one, which it calls similar to thalipeeth, as on its own page, and the one from Kodagu, a district of Karnataka, which it calls similar to bhakri. The Kodagu version is cooked on a tava and THEN ROASTED ON AN OPEN FLAME, WHICH CHARS ITS EDGES. This method takes that one.
2. COOKED RICE GOES INTO THE FLOUR, WHICH IS THE OTHER HALF OF THE KODAGU VERSION. Its article is specific: cooked rice, rice flour and salt are mixed, and the result is A SOFT DOUGH. Rice flour alone gives a stiff paste that cracks; the cooked grains are what make it pliable enough to flatten by hand. Mash the cold rice into the flour with your fingers until no lumps of grain are left whole.
3. THE WATER GOES IN HOT AND THE DOUGH IS KNEADED WARM. Add it a little at a time -- rice flour takes up water unevenly and the amount depends on how wet the cooked rice was. Stop when it holds together and does not stick to your palm. Rest it ten minutes.
4. ONION, CHILLI, CARROT AND CORIANDER ARE THE COMMONER VERSION'S SEASONING AND THEY SUIT THIS ONE. The article puts them in the first version: rice flour mixed with ONIONS OR GRATED CARROTS AND GREEN CHILLIES. Work them through the dough rather than scattering them on top, or they fall off when it is flattened.
5. IT IS FLATTENED BY HAND, NOT ROLLED. Take a ball the size of a lime, set it on a greased tava or a square of banana leaf, and press it out with wet fingertips to about three millimetres. The article gives the banana leaf for the first version and it is the easier way: the bread can be lifted off the leaf in one piece.
6. COOK IT ON THE TAVA FIRST, UNTIL IT LIFTS FREELY. Two or three minutes a side over a medium heat. It should be dry and set, not browned -- the colour comes next.
7. THEN STRAIGHT ONTO THE FLAME, WITH TONGS, FOR TEN SECONDS A SIDE. The edges blacken and the middle blisters. This is the step the article names and it is the difference between this bread and every other one made from the same flour.
8. BUTTER OR GHEE WHILE IT IS TOO HOT TO HOLD, AND CURRY BESIDE IT. Its article serves the Kodagu one with butter or ghee and curry, and the other with unsalted butter, chutney or pickle. The texture it describes is CHEWY, which is what the cooked rice gives and what thalipeeth does not have.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes