HOMEMADE KERALA POROTTA with video!

Porotta! Do I have to give an introduction for this flaky flatbread? I think most of you must have eaten it, if not, you really should! I never knew what it was,rather how it would feel not to have a restaurant ,where you live, which sells a good Kerala Porotta until I moved to the United States. We tried out frozen parathas which looked like the Malabar/Kerala Porotta types but they were all really sad! I wonder where they get their customers from if they sold such oily, sad stuff laden with calories!

Our hunt continued because I didn't want to give it a try at home,yet. We landed in a pretty popular Indian restaurant here in Minneapolis since we heard that they had Porotta's on the menu. I ordered that along with a Keralan Chicken Curry. They were terrible, really horrible! Do you know why? They just barely heated up yet another frozen paratha and served it to us in the name of this wonderful Porotta! It was still cold...well, almost frozen! We rarely go to that place again!

Then one fine glorious day, our friends told us that Trader Joe's have started selling Malabar Porottas. That was the best we ever had outside Kerala. It was awesome and had just one fourth the calories compared to the other terrible ones! The TJ's Porottas filled our freezer for the past 1.5 years. So one day, when the stock got over, we went to TJ's to stock up and that's when we found out the most horrible thing ever...they discontinued it! Our friends were in shock! Imagine e-mails flying across with the subject 'Kerala Porotta'! All of us grieved over it.I was really sad, so was Jobin. Our freezer looked empty. We couldn't accept the fact that it was no longer available. I told Amma about it  and even she grieved along with us! See, we grieve over food ;-)

That was the beginning of my hunt for the perfect homemade ones. Amma's twin, Daisy Mummy was the Porotta maker in our family. She makes really good ones because her boys are big fans of it. I very clearly remember the steps involved in it and thought of trying it out ...and here they are in front of you :-)  A precaution, you really need to be liberal with oil for this recipe. The more, the better!

HOMEMADE KERALA POROTTA
My own recipe
Makes 8

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
Scant 1 cup water

Method: In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together and form a smooth dough. Knead for 2-3 mins until it is really smooth,soft ,shiny and not sticky at all. It should be a soft dough and not a stiff one, just keep that in mind. Cling wrap the dough and let it rest for 4 hours. Afterwards, divide them into 8 balls and roll it out as shown below:

Roll out each ball into 6-7 inch discs and cook on a flat hot pan,smearing more oil on either sides as you flip and cook. When done, stack 4 together and bash it up from the sides using your curled fist,to separate the layers. Serve as hot as you can!

Now that I have this recipe with me, I don't have to freeze and bring porotta's from Kannur anymore! I thoroughly enjoyed making this and Jobin absolutely loved eating it. Ian Vaava liked it too because he came back for his little share every time I offered him a piece of this homemade Kerala Porotta. So, there's a small Porotta lover growing up in our house :-) I sincerely hope, this ends your search for that perfect Porotta recipe. I know many of you have requested for this recipe, so here it is, for you ! Enjoy!