Parotta( barotta)

Parotta is a south Indian speciality. Fine recipe from Indian bread basket. Its quite common in kerala, karnataka, Tamil nadu etc. Its easily available in restaurants as well as street side thatukadai (petit street side shops serving food). Its very rich and not a very healthy option( as the main ingredients are all purpose flour or maida and loads of oil), but once in a while to indulge in it is a bliss indeed. I still remember the very 1st time I did parotta in Tanzania, I was just blinking at the dough for hours together having no idea of how to proceed. But with practice its fun to cook parotta. Also its taste is just unbeatable. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:
Maida( all purpose flour) - 2 cups
salt - 1/4 tsp
water - 1/2 cup
oil - 1/2 cup

Extra oil for frying each parotta
oil - 2 tbsp per parotta

Method:
Mix maida, salt, oil and water and knead into soft dough. Cover with moist muslin cloth and keep aside for an hour. Now divide the dough into 6-8 balls. Roll out as thin as possible using a rolling pin. Now start folding from one end, fold over and under like paper fan, making a layered string. Now tap this so that it increases lengthwise. Now again roll it inwards making it a round shaped dough. Again roll out this dough into small parottas using a rolling pin. Fry on a tawa or pan , adding 1 tbsp of oil on each sides. Once done, place it on a flat surface, beat it with your hands on the sides when its hot itself( so that the layers are formed). Serve hot along with chicken masala, pepper chicken or and gravy or kuruma.

Note:
For making the dough, hot water can be added( this makes the parotta soft). Leftover parottas can be used to make kothu parotta