Rice Roti

Rice Roti or Akki Rotti (Kannada) is a rice-based breakfast item unique to the state of Karnataka, India. Akki-Rotti means rice-pancake in the native language, Kannada.

It is made of rice flour which is mixed with salt and water and kneaded well to make a soft dough. Sliced onions and carrots, chopped coriander and cumin seeds can also be added while kneading the dough for taste.

Oil is spread over a griddle (tava) or wok and a small amount of the dough is neatly spread over it to resemble a thin pancake (rotti). A small amount of oil is spread over it and the griddle is placed over heat till the rotti turns golden brown.

Akki Rotti is served hot and is eaten along with chutney. A dash of butter or ghee with Akki Rotti is also preferred. Another way of making Akki Rotti is to spread the dough over a plantain leaf and then cook it over the griddle with the plantain leaf on the top. A variation of Akki rotti is the Ragi rotti in which rice flour is replaced by ragi (finger millet) flour.


Here is how I make it. This recipe makes about 6 rotis.



Ingredients for dough:


4 cups Rice flour

1/2 cup cream of wheat

2 and 1/2 cup water

2 teaspoon salt





Ingredients for toppings:


* 1/2 cup Chana dal

* Water to soak Chana dal

* 8 Baby carrots

* one small red or yellow onion

* 2 Jalapenos

* 1 small bunch of Cilantro leaves

* 1/2 cup vegetable oil (24 teaspoons, will need 4 teaspoon for each roti when making it on the griddle)




Method:


* Soak chana dal in water for 4-6 hours.


* Mix all the ingredient for dough and make dough.


* Knead the dough well for about five min, set aside for 30 min.


* Shred carrots and set aside.


* Finley Chop onions, jalapenos and cilantro leaves in food processor or with knife and set aside.


* Heat a non stick griddle on stove on medium-low heat.


* Divide the dough in to 6 (tennis ball size) balls.


* Drizzle 1 teaspoon of oil over heated griddle it.


* Place the dough ball on to griddle.


* Flatten it gently with your finger until an eight inch circle is formed. (don't press too hard, it might break apart)


* Sprinkle chopped carrots, chopped onions, Jalapenos and Cilantro and soaked dal over it.


* Drizzle 1 teaspoon of oil around the roti and 1 teaspoon evenly on all the topping and let it cook for 2 min on medium heat or until light brown.


* Then carefully flip the roti on to other side drizzle one teaspoon of oil around it and let it cook for about 1-2 min on low heat.


* Carefully slide it on to serving plate.


* Serve hot with coconut chutney/ cilantro chutney and/or Polsambal (recipes on this blog).



Hints/Suggestions:


* You can make the dough my mixing all the topping in to the dough, but then you will need to use less water to make dough as onion will release water in the dough. I make it this way because it make it easier to spread the dough on the griddle in roti form without risk of breaking apart on the griddle.


* Another way to make the dough in roti shape is: place the ball of dough on aluminum foil wit some oil in it. Drizzle some oil on it. Place another aluminum foil on it and press the aluminum foil with back of a flat plate to flatten the ball of dough in to desired size of roti. Then slowly transfer the roti on to griddle for cooking.


* You can substitute rice flour with ragi (finger millet) flour, or besan, if you do this, you may need to mix some regular chapati flour (durum wheat flour) with this.


* You can also use corn and or green onions as toppings. You can add dry spices like cumin powder, cayenne pepper powder to the dough, but I make it plain, so taste does not interfere with the side dish that you are going to serve it with.


* You can serve this with any curry or Indian veggie side dish like palak paneer, cucumber or boondi raita or plain yogurt with some salt etc..etc. (recipes on this blog).


Rice Roti description source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akki_rotti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe and Photograph by Surekha.