Gayathri's Cook Spot: Akki Roti- Karnataka

Today we reach Karnataka and I present you one of Karnataka's popular dishes. It is one of the four South Indian states and it shares its boundaries with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra and Maharashtra. Karnataka is one of the states which is closer to my heart as I have lived there during my college days and I have my friends there. Yes, it is true, I don't have friends in Tamil Nadu but have friends in Karnataka. When I completed my 10th standard, I had two choices, one was to attend polytechnic in Tamil Nadu but I needed to stay in a hostel, else I can go and stay with mom and Dad and go to polytechnic in Mysore. With the good marks I scored, I could easily get admission in Tamil Nadu, but I preferred the latter. I went to stay with mom and dad. Mysore was completely new to me, I didn't understand the language and I felt like I was somewhere in the middle of a jungle with my eyes blindfolded. I still remember the very first day I went to Srimath Polytechnic. The class was huge and there were only 5 girls in the whole class. Nearly 50 boys were there, I was trembling ( I went to girls school until tenth). The whole year, I would never enter class until my friends came. But the second year and third year were so much fun as I started understanding thier language but still I didn't speak kannada. I will never forget my days together with Smitha and Rashmi- only we three made it out of polytechnic. The other girls dropped out. We are still in touch and when my parents passed away, Smitha was the only friend who talked with me and made me feel better. I learnt to speak kannada when I did my Fashion Designing as some of my friends were not very good in English. They taught me Kannada. Archana, my friend from Queen's School of Fashion taught me many things what I know now. She gave me all her patterns for soft toys, she took me to so many classes and she was the only friend at whose place I have stayed so much. My mom would let me go to her place often. She is a very good cook and she taught me the version of akki roti which I have posted earlier. The version I am posting today is so popular there. Onions and green chillies make these rotis spicy and any chutney tastes good with these rotis. THese rotis are directly patted on hot tawa and cooked. Keep a bowl of water handy. Wet your fingers and pat the roti. This makes the job easier. My mom used to make these often and serve them with coconut chutney. The combination is perfect. During avarekkai season, my friend used to add the avarekalu in these rotis and they taste so good. I am remembering all those good days as I am typing this post. I made tomato chutney as the side dish for the roti. I am linking this to WTML, hosted by Prachi and started by me.

Ingredients:

Rice Flour-2 cups

Onion-2

Green Chilly-3

Salt-to taste

Coriander Leaves-1/4 cup

Oil

Procedure:

1. In a bowl take flour, finely chopped onions, finely chopped green chillies and finely choopped coriander leaves. You can also run it through the mixer to chop it finely. Do not make a paste.

2. Add salt and enough water to make a soft dough.

3. Heat a tawa, take an orange sized dough ball, pat it into a thin roti directly on the hot tawa.

4. Wet your fingers while patting. You can also pat the roti between two plastic sheets and transfer it to the tawa. But I prefer to pat it on the tawa.

5. Drizzle oil and cook until both sides are golden.

6. Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.