Recipe : Sajjige Rotti / Rawa Rotti / Rulavanchi Bhakri / Thick Semolina Dosas

Sajjige rotti / rulavanchi bhakri / rava rotti / thick semolina dosas with 2 types of chutney.

I may have mentioned before, but weekend brunches are special. These are the only 2 days that the husband has time for a leisurely noonish meal - without being on a conference call or rushing for one.

While he loves eggs made any which way for a weekend brunch, I’m taking the opportunity during this lockdown to cook dishes from my childhood or other memories. I'm not a breakfast person at all. I normally have One Meal a Day, since long before OMAD was a thing. During our 5 years in London, weekends meant heading out to see / do  / experience something and breakfast / brunch was built into the day's schedule.

This is the first time, I'm actually cooking so many breakfast / brunches at home - albeit only on the weekends. This is also the 2 meals of the week that I enjoy a carb heavy meal (since its eaten so much earlier in the day) and a cup of coffee with sugar - during the week, its green tea without sugar.

Coming back to the sajjige rotti, the way I made today’s rotti was not the thinner crispy version that’s made like a crepe. This is a very rustic style thick batter (almost chapatti dough consistency) that is shaped by hand on the pan / tawa, so its much thicker like a bhakri.

Since I was doing the hand shaping for the first time, the first dosas / rotis were a bit uneven shaped. Once I got the hang of it, they became much rounder, but since they are slow fried on a low flame, we were gobbling them as soon as they came off the pan - so didn’t take a better picture.

Ingredients:

2 cups Bombay Rava - medium fine semolina

2 cups sour curd (slightly liquidy, not as thick as store bought yoghurt - for store yoghurt, make it 1.5 cups yoghurt + 1/2 cup water)

2 tbsp coconut / dessicated coconut (optional)

1 medium onion chopped

1-6 green chillies chopped (depending on spice tolerance)

2 sprigs curry leaves chopped (only leaf not stem)

2 sprigs corriander chopped - with stem

2 tsp chopped fresh ginger (don't use the stringy bits)

1 tsp jeera / cumin

salt to taste

oil to fry

Method:

Mix the Bombay rava, coconut if using and the curd / yoghurt.

Mix well and leave overnight.

You want a dough, that is much thicker than a dosa batter and actually comes together, but not as tight as a chapatti dough.

You can keep the dough for just 20-30 minutes too, but I like the way the flavour / sourness develops overnight.

It also means a tiny bit of extra sleep in the morning :)

If you have left it overnight, depending on the weather conditions, you may notice that your batter has become drier or wetter than the night before.

Don't adjust it at this stage.

Add  the onions, chillies, curry leaves, coriander leaves, ginger, jeera and mix well.

These are the traditional additions, feel free to experiment with flavours you like.  For eg. my chillies are now 3 weeks old (grocery run in the coming week), so I felt they weren't spicy enough, so I also added a 1/2 tbsp of crushed black pepper.

Mix well, preferably use your hands to get a more even mix. (be sure you have washed with soap and not just used santizer :) )

There will be some liquid content in the onions, ginger and herbs.

Now if the dough feels too dry, add a few drops of water.

If the dough feels too wet, add a little rava to the mix.

The picture above shows the consistency that you want.

Make portions. With the above quantities, I got about 10 portions.

The next step is shaping them.

Traditionally, the rottis are shaped on banana leaves or some other traditional leaves (I forget which ones my nana used) and flipped onto the pan.

Modern methods, involve shaping the rotti on a greased plate or on plastic sheets.

Personally, I found these methods very fiddly and also I was only cooking for 2, so I shaped them directly on the pan.

Take a flat frying pan  / crepe pan or dosa tawa.

Heat the pan on medium heat.

Grease the pan with a few drops of oil. The traditional method is to use a small onion or potato cut in half speared onto a fork (don't let the tines come all the way through, you will end up scraping your pan). I currently use a silicon pastry brush to grease the pan.

I made portions like above, popped one on the pan. Dipped hand in a bowl of water and then flattened  the dough directly on the pan itself.

You need wet hands to use this method, doughy hands will make the dough stick to your hands. So rinse hands in a bowl of water, before shaping the rotti.

Flatten the rotti evenly to between 1/2 - 1 cm thickness.

Don't make them too large or they will be very difficult to flip over.

Fry for a few minutes on each side until slightly browned.

I served it hot off the pan with 2 types of chutney, although I have to say that the coconut chutney went better with this dosa / rotti. The advantage of this rotti, is that it can even be eaten without chutney, making it a one pot meal.

A dab of white butter on top is also a perfect accompaniment.

Kim's Tip 1 : If you have just a little chutney left in the fridge, you can add it to the rotti dough.

Kim's Tip 2 : This recipe is an excellent way to use up curd / yoghurt that has turned a bit sour. If you don't have sour yoghurt, add a tsp of fresh lemon / lime juice to your yoghurt and use.

Let me know if you try this out.

We got a good warm bit of sun this winter noon.  So, after this meal, someone decided a nap was in order, followed by a cheery wake up with South Indian Filter Coffee.

While the other someone was out in the sun tending to the garden and feeding our sparrows, laughing doves, wagtails and other birds who have become extremely demanding. They chirrup loudly if the feeders are approaching empty to let me know it’s time for a top up.