Akki Mavu Roti, a Karnataka special...

Akki Mavu Rotti

Akki Mavu Roti

Ever since my sister Nalini got married in 1979, we’ve spent a few days a year with her in Bangalore…oooppps Bengaluru. Now she is Radiation Oncologist Dr Nalini Rao with the Global Health Care and my brother-in-law is  Dr Ravi Shanker Rao, the very talented psychiatrist.

Rao Aunty _Ravi’s mother Vishalam -, used to take care of us very well—made us feel welcomed, went out of her way to make dishes that we’d like.A year or two after Nalini’s wedding, we’d even tell her what we wanted to eat, and even get things like green chillies stuffed, dunked in sour yoghurt and sun dried in the terrace, packed to take home. Sauted in oil till these dried chillies become dark brown, they are excellent side to a plain curd rice.

This Akkimavu roti—it is rice flour roti,  in Kannada-- was something Rao Aunty  introduced us to. She’s long gone, but our visits continue unchanged. So does the making of our favourite dishes—Ravi gets the cook, Taramma, trained by Aunty, to make them for us.

 Akki mavu roti is  another of  the hundreds of varieties of  breakfast dishes, made on the flat, now non-stick tawa.

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking time: 4 minutes each

Chopped onions,chillies and coriander

Ingredients (for six)

Fine ground rice flour-2 cups

Finely chopped onions-four big ones

Finely chopped green chillies-six or eight

Finely chopped coriander-a small bunch

Salt to taste

Water to knead

Oil—half a cup

Put  the chopped onions,green chilles and coriander into a wide mixing bowl or paraat.

Add rice flour and salt

Put the rice flour and salt on this .Hand mix them,sprinking water as you go, till you have a dough, which will seem brittle, not be pliable or smooth.

Knead to a gentle dough

Make this dough into six portions.

Place a portion on a tawa

Put one portion on a non-stick tawa, and using the palm and fingers of your right hand, tap it  out , fine  and flat roti, of uniform thinness.

Pat it out into a roti

Put a lid on it

Place the tawa on the gas,medium flame, and drizzle a teaspoon of oil along the edges of the roti,and put a lid on top.

Cook on medium flame

Flip it over

After two minutes, flip it gently, and without lid, let the other side turn golden—about two minutes.

Cook the other side too

Take it out ,sliding the spatula along the edges. Serve plain or with any chutney or pickle.

Ready to be plated or served

The pictures are what I feel sorry about.But I cannot ask Taramma to do a repeat. But when I make the akki mavu rotis at home, I will replace some of the pix. But the taste is something you should not miss.

Note: Taramma  kept the tawa under running water to cool it after making each roti, so that it is easy to hand make the  next akki mavu roti.