Pol Roti & secrets to softness
Pol Roti was always one of those staple flatbreads of my childhood, and even now, every time I bite into one I’m instantly transported to slow, sultry tropical sunday afternoons or end-of-week breakfasts, sitting impatiently with elbows propped on the table as my mother plated out hot rotis straight off the tawa. Then eagerly spooning on far too much butter onto the roti , swirling the golden pool around with strawberry jam, then attempting to take the first bite without ending up with a buttery mess all the way down the arm (sneakily licking errant dribbles off with relish when they obliged)…all such inextricable memories of times long past…and much missed.
As I became older, and lolling about the table waiting to be served was now no longer acceptable behaviour, I often helped my mom with the rolling out and the frying of the rotis. So although I learnt a lot from her about the ideal texture of the roti dough and what to do when it came off the heat, and while the following recipe is an adaptation of my mother’s techniques, it has been made doable in a western kitchen without access to the freshly grated coconut that was in such abundant and ubiquitous supply in my island childhood.
Techniques & Tips for the recipe:
TIP 1: The first secret to softness I’ve discovered is pre-treating my desiccated coconut before using it in the roti recipe. I use this technique to reconstitute dry desiccated coconut before using it in any of the traditional Indo-Sri Lankan dishes I regularly make at home. Here’s how I do it.
Every time I open a can of coconut cream I save the watery, non-fatty, opaque liquid that naturally separates from the full fat coconut cream (usually sitting either on top or at the bottom of the can, depending on which way the can had been sitting on the larder shelf), I pour it into a large ball jar and store it in the back of the fridge to use to bring my dry coconut to life for all my recipes.
If you’ve ever scraped and squeezed fresh coconut before you will know what that grated coconut feels like when the milk has been squeezed out of it. That is the level of wetness I’m going for when I’m reconstituting desiccated coconut with the leftover liquid from canned coconut milk. It usually ends up being about 1/2 cup liquid per 2 cups of desiccated coconut. But experiment until you get coconut that just barely starts to feel wet, cold, and slightly greasy between your fingers. I mix the liquid into the desiccated coconut well with my hands and leave it covered in the fridge till I need to use it. The weight for the coconut I’ve given below in the recipe is the weight for this reconstituted coconut, not the dry.
TIP 2: Another thing I do differently from my Ma is that I make the dough at least 8-12 hours before making the rotis. This means that if I’m having roti for breakfast I will make the dough the previous night, or in the morning for a roti dinner. This allows both the flour and the coconut to become fully hydrated which makes these rotis far softer than the ones I remember eating as a child, but also much easier on the stomach afterwards as the flour has had some time to partially breakdown, is no longer ‘raw’ and the gluten structure has had time develop.
TIP 3: And finally, something my mother always did was to brush the rotis with good ghee or butter as soon as they came off the tawa, leaving the roti to absorb the fat before serving it on to the plate. This also lends a much softer, chewier bite to the roti and adds a ton of flavour.
So here’s the recipe:
400g All purpose flour/standard flour
200g desiccated coconut (reconstituted weight, see notes above)
100g clear liquid from coconut milk can, mixed with 150g water
1 tsp salt
(optional add ins, like chopped red onions, green chillies & curry leaves)
This recipe may be halved
Mix the flour and coconut together with the salt in a large bowl. Add enough of the water/coconut liquid mixture to bring the dough together into a loose, shaggy mass, with bits of dry flour surrounding a sticky mass in the middle. Pat it loosely together, cover, and leave in the fridge till you are cooking the rotis. The dough will be fully hydrated, far less sticky and should come into a smooth ball with a few kneads on a very lightly floured surface.
At this stage, tear off about 8-9 equally sized pieces of dough and roll into smaller balls, ready for rolling out. Only if the dough is still quite sticky and sticking to the rolling pin, use a bit of rice flour for dusting and rolling out. Roll out onto 1cm thick discs.
Heat up a cast iron skillet or tawa to very hot and fry the rotis, without any fat, for about 3-4 mins per side on high heat, until you see the characteristic tiger spotted look on the surface. The rotis should puff up very slightly around the edges. Brush on generously with ghee or butter as soon as they come off the heat, and allow the fat to soak into the roti before serving.
My little ones love these with jam for breakfast or a mackerel curry for dinner. My favourite way to eat them is buttered with a very spicy coconut or onion sambol.
