KERALA MALABAR PAROTTA

Kerala, God’s own Country is a paradise of gastronomy. Cooking in Kerala is all about spices, aromas and textures. The cuisine is rather spicy and offers a large platter of opportunities for vegetarians as well as non-vegetarians. So Kerala is also known as “Land Of Spices”. Their food is served on a clean green banana leaf and eaten with one’s fingers traditionally. The most common Kerala foods include dishes of meat and vegetables accompanied by pickles. Kerala Parotta or Malabar Parotta is a unique parotta dish from Malayali cuisine. It is a layered paratha or flaky paratha made with refined flour. It is common street food in Southern India and it is served with vegetable kurma or coconut stew. It is very easy and simple to make in your own kitchen. It is a very famous bread in Kerala and Tamilnadu and even in Sri Lanka. My daughter went to Coimbatore in January 2020 for her college competition. She was there for almost 8-10 days and she ate this ghee roast kerala parotta almost daily. She loved it a lot and hence insisted me to make it. She was very delighted when I made it with ghee roast chicken as both are her favourites. Kerala Parotta is similar to North Indian Laccha Paratha in the way of rolling and making layers. The only difference comes in making the dough.  I made it without egg but the egg is to be added while making a dough which makes the parotta very soft. Here is the easy method of making Parotta at home. I hope you will definitely like it. Don’t forget to try and share your feedback below in the comment box. 

                                                                                                                   [makes 5-6 parotta]

                                                                                                                   [1 Cup= 240 ml]

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Maida / All Purpose Flour

¼ Cup Sunflower/ Any Vegetable Oil for making dough and cooking

¼ teaspoon Baking Powder

½ teaspoon Salt [adjust according to your taste]

½ teaspoon Sugar

1/3 Cup Water

METHOD:

STEP 1 – In a bowl, mix maida, salt, sugar and 1 ½ tablespoon Oil and mix well.

STEP 2 – Add water in small batches and make a soft dough.

STEP 3 – Cover it with damp cloth and keep aside for 2 hours.

STEP 4 – After the rest, knead the dough again for 2-3 minutes. Now divide the dough in equal 5-6 portions and again cover and rest them for 5 more minutes.

STEP 5 – Now take 1 dough ball, flatten it and roll it into a small disc of 4-5 inch diameter.

STEP 6 – Transfer it on a plate and apply oil on the top of the rolled disc, keep them one on top of each other and keep applying oil on each disc. 

STEP 7 – Cover it with a plate/ bowl and rest the discs for 15- 20 minutes.

STEP 8 – Now, take one disc and place it on the platform. Roll it slightly and then pull the sides of the disc gently to form a large circle/ roti.

STEP 9 – Grease the parotta with some more oil and start creating plates by folding with the help of fingers.

                                        

STEP 10 – Begin to roll the plated dough like a swiss roll. Furthermore, secure the end by pressing it gently.

STEP 11 – Repeat with the rest of the discs. Place all the spirals on a plate/ bowl and cover it and rest for 5-6 minutes.

STEP 12 – Gently pat the spiraled dough with hand and spread the dough into 3-4 inch disc.

STEP 13 – Heat a dosa tawa/ non-stick tawa on low flame. Carefully, transfer the parotta on tawa.

STEP 14 – Cook for 1 minute on each side.

STEP 15 - Then apply a teaspoon of oil and cook the parotta for a couple of minutes on low flame.

STEP 16 - Roast the parotta from both sides. You will see nice light golden spots on them. It needs to be cooked on low flame so that the inner part of the parotta also gets cooked evenly.

STEP 17 – When the parotta is golden, remove from heat.

STEP 18 – Fluff up the parotta by gently tapping the sides of the parotta. It will help to separate the layers of the parotta. Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the parottas. Parotta is ready to serve.

Serve hot parotta with any Indian veg or non-veg curry like mutton, chicken, mix veg, paneer butter masala and relish.

NOTES: *For a very soft parotta, add in a quarter teaspoon of a baking powder which helps to make the parotta soft.

                *Do not sprinkle a lot of oil while rolling as it will become slippery and difficult to roll. Apply oil very lightly.

               *Spread little oil on the spread dough before rolling the final parotta which helps to make the parotta flakey.