SUJIR POROTA

Some days I wake up too late, it was at 6:55am this morning. Cristine told the son shall go out around 12pm today, they are having marathon revision tests now! Hence, there is no fixed timing for the school. The senior goes to office a little late, around 9am, so I was dilly-dallying in the bed. If you say so, I wake up around 4am, after that its my call; which day to get up from the bed instantly, which day to keep lying. I absolutely cannot sleep at the time of sunrise. Today's lunch box is having "tetul murgi o fried rice." Cristine can prepare it but I wished to. I told her "we need not hurry, Sir goes late and we shall do it after 8am because the son has to eat the reheated stuff may be after 4pm." I always admit I am not that level of a sincere homemaker, definitely casual. I know women who would have done the fried rice only for the man in the morning, for the son fresh when he comes back, then there is something called Cristine's lunch; shall we cook the same thing three times within few hours? I shall not do that. I shall have two thin and small of them for my lunch. There is a little of dough left from yesterday evening done with powdered semolina, fresh coriander, onion, green chillies. About breads, I always prefer to do and serve fresh. I refrigerate leftover doughs but hardly cooked ones unless the men feel heavy and leave eating midway. They so ruthlessly waste food, I cannot; I eat the leftovers; if not too messy, Cristine too eats. So, what you see in the pictures are flatbreads made solely from semolina flour. I drew the inspiration from "cookist.com's Arabic Bubble Bread." However, mine were totally different, I cannot ever acquire the capability of rolling a dough ball so thin.

All of us allow French Beans only in fried rices and noodles dishes, amazing enough that in restaurants it feels good to have lightly sautéed beans & asparagus. The senior took "kolar bora o red bean bun" in his snack box, the son shall eat those now. As told earlier, the man took chicken with fried rice in his lunch box, Cristine shall have it in lunch, the son shall have it later. Once again I say, my lunch shall be two thin SUJIR POROTA, that is semolina flatbreads with fresh flavours from coriander leaves, a little amount of the fried rice, some salad and pickle. Do you know I forgot what I cooked last Saturday? Cristine requests, "ma'am, can you please stop experimenting with food, the existing food items need to be finished." Then, ever since I had seen this video on the Arabic Bubble Bread, I felt I have to try a semolina flatbread asap. Tell me, what else to do all day? The man comes back home around 9pm maximum of the days, it can be 9:30-10pm, very rarely it is 8:30pm. The son's favourite game is not talking to mumma, to do anything that possibly can irritate her. Whatever he has to convey, he does it through Cristine didi, for serious academic issues he needs Babai. This time, mumma herself was not talking to him because he misbehaved last Sunday. She gave in yesterday finding him to be disturbed at the fact mumma not making eye to eye contact with him. Both these men are not in the habit of uttering the word "sorry." I did let it go because I am soft, anyway these kids are under immense pressure of the oncoming examination. As of me, I sat with this breakfast this morning, could not have more than half of the bread because it has red bean paste in good amount which is sweet, tomorrow I have a blood sugar check. The banana fritters have lesser amount of sugar but unhealthy I admit.

I was excited to cook a semolina flatbread but was very skeptical if a dough be formed with it. I again admit that I was sure not been able to prepare replica of an Arabic Bubble Bread. We had it with the "til narkol bata dim", salad, raita, achar.

RECIPE SOURCE : "cookist.com - Arabic Bubble Bread"

INGREDIENTS :

SEMOLINA / SUJI : 500GM [gives you 10-12 flatbreads]
CHOPPED FRESH CORIANDER : 1MEDIUM TEA CUP
MINCED ONION : 2-3TBSP
MINCED GREEN CHILLI : 11/2TBSP
SALT : 1/2TSP
OIL : 3TBSP + 1/2TBSP FOR EACH OF THE FLATBREAD
WATER : AS REQUIRED FOR A SOFT & SMOOTH DOUGH

PROCEDURE :

We shall powder the semolina in an electric grinder because I felt it shall help me bind the dough better. [Yet, the dough remained a bit grainy after an hour of standing time. I shall not buy the expensive variety of semolina sold in the native shops, I shall work with cheaper Indian varieties.]

We shall take it in a bowl and add the salt. Mix them together very well.

Cristine chopped and minced the fresh coriander, onion, green chillies respectively for me. You will mince the onion & green chillies as fine as possible else you may find it difficult to roll the "porotas."

Discard the root ends of few sprigs of fresh coriander, wash them very well, finely chop and wash again taken in a strainer. Discard the two ends of a medium sized onion, peel and wash it. Cube and mince as finely as possible. Wash again. Discard the root ends of the green chillies, wash and mince finely. With a Cristine in life, I got so lazy with this mincing and chopping job.

We shall add all of them to the powdered semolina flour.

We shall rub the entire thing for 2-3 minutes.

We shall add water little by little and keep kneading. Remember that how much you powder semolina, it shall have a rough texture. Have patience.

Sit on your couch and do this job in your own convenience, this may take some 10-12 minutes.

Now, we shall add some 2-3tbsp oil to the dough.

We shall knead the dough for another 3-4 minutes. Our dough is ready to be kept in rest for 20 minutes to half an hour, covered.

We shall remove the cover after the stipulated time of been at rest, knead again for 3-4 minutes.

We cooked as per our requirement and the  rest of the dough was been refrigerated.

Keep the balls covered for 10 minutes before we roll them.

We shall remove cover, roll each ball into round flatbreads taking each at a time on a rolling base; adding few drops of oil while rolling helps. I further shaped them with a cookie cutter, for a better look!

We shall heat a griddle / pan / tawa well, place one prata / flatbread and cook both sides well at low heat turning over few times.

Use 1/2 tbsp oil after roasting each one a bit.

When both sides brown lightly, its done.

We shall never try to brown a semolina bread too much; also try to serve it hot & fresh, it tends to harden once cold. So always do the number of breads you require at that time.

We had it with mixed vegetable & homemade yogurt! We thoroughly enjoyed the meal!