CHILLI “KOTHU” POROTTA

Today was a long day, and we finally reached home late evening. Priya was busy with the kids, and I had to rustle up something for dinner to give her a reprieve from the kitchen.

But all I found was a few potatos, a few onions in the larder; a few old ‘porottas’ in the freezer. What could I make that’s edible with these? Read on.. this dish is a common enough one in all the ‘pure vegetarian’ restaurants run by Tamilians in Kerala.

Preparation time: ½ hour

Difficulty level: Simple

Feeds: 3 adults

Ingredients:

1.       Potato – 3

2.       Onion – 3

3.       Green chilli – 3

4.       Coriander leaves – a bunch (for garnish)

5.       Soy sauce – 2 big spoons

6.       Olive oil – 1 oz. (Any cooking oil will do)

7.       Green peas – a handful

8.       Pepper – 1 tsp.

9.       Hing – 1 pinch

10.   Coriander powder – 1 tbsp.

11.   Garam masala – 1 tsp.

12.   Turmeric – 1 tsp.

13.   Salt – to taste

14.   Sugar – 1 pinch

15.   Porotta – 4 nos.

16.   Mustard, jeera, curry leaf – for ‘spluttering’

I had some able assistance from Ashu who was very excited to be assistant chef! We first washed the potatos, wiped them clean, skinned them and immersed them in a bowl of water. (This is so they don’t turn black ‘cos of enzymatic action after cutting). I then peeled the onions, washed and wiped them (to get off the black powder you find under the skin once you peel them), cut them into thin rings, and put them aside. I also sliced the green chillis vertically into halves. We then washed and minced the coriander leaves. That was all the preparation required..

Meanwhile, the porottas came out from the freezer; ‘cos they were hard, I steamed them for 5 minutes in our steamer. 

While this was happening, I ‘spluttered’ some mustard, jeera (cumin seeds), udad dal, the chillis and the curry leaves in oil in a wok (large pan).

When the mustard spluttered and the cumin browned in the hot oil, I added in the potatos that I had sliced into small finger-joint length strips. When these were fried, in went the onions, and the ingredients 5 – 13. Stirred these around so everything mixed and got cooked evenly. Added a pinch of sugar (a trick to make the veggies look more glossy, as also to make the dish less hot). Covered with a lid, and let it fry a while.

The porottas came out soft and fluffy from the steaming, and I shredded them with Ashu’s help into small oblong strips. (The thinner these are, the better.) 

 

Once that was done, Ashu helped by putting in fistfuls of these into the mixture in the wok, while I kept stirring. Added a small bowl of water as well, and covered it up again and let it cook 5 minutes.

 

At the end of this time, decorated with the coriander leaves, and it was ready for eating along with tomato sauce.

 

Easy-peasy, ain’t it? And it was really yummy too! Hope you too enjoy this as much as we did.