FLAKY POROTA

"Roti-Prata" is a regular affair at this home but with less use of ghee or oil. We definitely love these soft, moist, "oporta muchmuchey" flat breads or porota that is used to prepare egg-chicken-mutton roll in the streets of Kolkata. Many Bengali Homes do prepare such porotas with good amount of sugar in it. Reaching this island, I saw they make similar something; starting to blog, I knew Kerala makes awesome porotas too. That awesomeness comes from kneading the dough with a lot of oil, sugar, salt, may be baking powder and in shaping the balls. My kind of FLAKY POROTA uses less oil than is required, the shaping of the balls may be less accurate, yet I feel mine are worth sharing. It is not so that this home eats very healthy, I am not actually comfortable with the idea of using a lot of ghee, oil, butter, cream in my cooking. An average Bengali will echo me, our stomachs are seasoned to "ada-jirey-lanka bata," I refer to the majority of the middle class Bengali, what they eat is my focus. My blog will always reflect what we eat at this home, the environment I grew up in. My effort or wish will always be to connect my place of origin to my present. In fact, my Friday share would also reflect my mind. I do not know about the rest of the "minorities" of India, if they eat every day in five star restaurants or not. We should always act according to our ability and taste buds. Even if the doctor prescribes us salad at every meal, we cannot, we will not. "Patla maacher jhol, shukto, patla korey dal" had been our health food for ages and I do not believe they kill you, every day having biryani is definitely a big no no!

You see I am not in the habit of faking much. I told you I will feed my men Parshe Maach along with chicken, I did. Mumma debones fish for the son of the house and he eats them too. I definitely will not touch chicken when I have cooked my kind of fish.

I eat fish like a cat since age 6, the maternal grandfather taught me the technique of deboning fish then. An Eastern Indian, an outwardly Bengali will be mad about river water fish. What is so hurtful in that? I reach out to people with FLAKY POROTA too. At this home, normal porotas or flat breads are made adding different ingredients, cooked in less oil. This was my  "khasta porota" without using sugar and I felt it is worth sharing. I always have time to prepare at least a basic "aloor dom" for my family beside any kind of handmade breads, I do not go out to work. You can choose any sauce or pickle to go with it. If you wish, prep up a salad too.

INGREDIENTS : 

REFINED FLOUR : 11/2COFFEE MUG + 11/2TSP
MULTI GRAIN ATTA FLOUR : 1/2 OR LITTLE MORE OF A COFFEE MUG
BAKING POWDER : 1/3TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3TBSP+3TBSP
GHEE : 1TSP FOR FRYING EACH FLAT BREAD + 2TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Take both the flours in a bowl. Add the baking powder and mix well. Make a hole in the middle and add 3 tbsp of oil.

Rub well for 2-3 minutes.

Now, add water little by little to prepare a dough, soft and smooth. It may take some 7-8 minutes.

Add 3tbsp oil to the dough and knead again for 3-4 minutes.

Keep covered for 15-20 minutes with a clean, moist, soft, white cloth. I am not so particular and covered it with a plate.

Open cover, knead the dough again for 2-3 minutes.

Tear off tennis ball sized portions, smoothen between your palms.

Prepare a paste mixture with 2tbsp ghee and refined flour. 

Roll out each balls into a big roundel. We need not be too particular about a round shape. Brush the paste mixture all over.

Now keep folding in parts {plates kind of?]  starting from the top to the bottom.

Now start folding from the sides to give a round, ring shape to each of the portions.

Once all are done, cover them for half an hour.

Heat a pan on the gas top. Open cover, take one portion at a time on the rolling base and press on the middle.

Roll out a round porota / flat bread shape. The excess amount of ghee makes it slippery and I fail to get them perfectly round.

Put one flat bread on the pan at a time. We will cook both sides well before adding 1tsp ghee to each.

Fry each of them in this manner. Take all of them together on a plate. Press from all the sides before serving. Be careful, do not burn your palms.

Serve with any side of your choice or with a pickle or sauce.