Chilly Crepes





The multilayered Indian flat bread popularly known as Porotta (or Parotta) in South India, is one of the most difficult Indian flat breads to master, that is probably why the expert porotta chefs are known as “Porotta masters” in the country. By evening roadside eateries in rural and urban South India transforms into dimly lit stages for an amazing exhibition of craft and training, using which countless “masters” rhythmically beat, stretch and spin the dough followed by throwing and flattening of the dough in the air and finally winding everything down together as a fine multilayered parotta.. The street- food shops contributed so much to the evolution and popularization of Indo-Chinese fusion cuisine by creating signature dishes like chilly porotta and egg porotta, which eventually found their well deserved spots even in modish restaurant menus. Chopped parotta pieces are stir fried with plenty of onions, spring onions, ginger, garlic and a very limited amount of green chilies to create chilly porotta. Often made to order, preparation of this dish is a joy to watch. Chilly parotta is not too darned hot to carry a chilly in the name, but it looks like a red chilly explosion served on a plate, thanks to the dash of red food color added by most of the chefs.
In this deconstructed version of chilly parotta which we named as chilly crepes, I have used shredded pieces of crepe as the base instead of porotta , and followed the rest of the recipe for making the original, substituting food color with tomato puree. Crepes (or use thin Indian style pancakes) are shredded (just tear it off, if you please) and then baked or rather dehydrated for a while to resemble the texture of fine parotta shreds before stir frying with the rest of the ingredients. . It tastes so much like chilly parotta, and is way too easy to make. I have always been an ardent admirer of both the simple and the knotty techniques of the “dough” and would love to learn the art of making the dough fly someday, but for now I am off to try out Annita’s creative and relatively simple technique for making a restaurant like porotta in a home kitchen. That recipe is a true winner, hats off to you Annita.
This is my entry to Barbara of Tigers and Strawberrys’ Spice is right event, not hot enough for the occasion, but there is at least a chilly in the name.
Crepes

1 cup flour
½ tsp oil
1 egg
Salt – to taste
Water – 1 cup

Mix everything together to make a thin batter ( add more water if needed) Keep for 10 minutes. Heat a small non-stick pan, wipe with oil. Pour a ladleful of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly ( or work with the botton of the ladle). Cook for one minute and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove from the fire.. Make crepes with the rest of the batter and cool it. Tear the crepes into bite size pieces, spread on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil and bake at 300 F for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

* You can make this without adding egg


Making of Chilly Porotta

Shredded crepes – 2 cups
Onions – 1 – cut into medium size squares
Green Onions – chopped ½ cup
Celery – Finely chopped – 1 tbsp
Or Celery seeds – ¼ tsp
Tomatoe sauce or puree – ½ cup
Green chilles cut into thin rounds – 1/2 tsp
Ginger finely chopped – 1 ½ tsp
Garlic finely chopped _ 11/2 tsp
Green bell pepper – cut into medium size squares 1 cup
Soy sauce – ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil – 2 tsp

Heat oil in a pan (preferably a wok) till very hot, add onions, celery and sauté for a minute. Add ginger, garlic, green chillies, bell peppers and sauté for 2 minutes. Add tomatoe sauce , soy sauce stir for 30 seconds. Add crepe pieces, spring onions and stir fry, till the pieces are all covered with the spice mixture and dry. Serve hot with raitha or any other yogurt based salad.

40 comments:

Sumitha said...

Hey Archana,I have never come across this chilli porotta!Thanks for sharing this recipe,have to try this:)

Anonymous said...

Hi Archana,
I am a big fan of Kerala porotta. When i saw you linked to another Kerala porotta recipe I was so happy. I am waiting for Shoma to wake up to show her both your recipe as well as Annita's.

Wonderful work! Convey our regards to T.

Priya said...

Archanaa...Thank u soooo much for getting back memories of this dish. I'm going try it out tonite. I just love this dish for its amazing innovativeness in making our very own parotta into a spicy and tempting dish.

Krithika said...

A very creative recipe from a very creative person. Look at the pics. Fabulous !

Anonymous said...

I will try this today, thank you so much

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the easy version of my college time favorite Archana.The pictures are truly spicing up Spicyana!

Gattina Cheung said...

Archanat,
you're so clever to find such an easy way to make porotta! And beautiful writing...I feel like I've already been brought to see those busy food shops in India at night! We have a kind of flat bread that is quite similar to porotta, but only add green onion in the dough, and eat it plain. I may make it someday.

RP said...

Chili porotta looks so yummy! Wonderful photos. You got to be a wonderful photographer because you make such beautiful cakes and other dishes. You got to capture all of its beauty.

Sumi said...

wow, looks very colourful..I love parotta's.Whenver we go to our native place, the beautiful sound of the parotta master scrambling his parotta's for 'kothu parotta' in a small stall near the bus stand welcomes us.Thinking about it gives a nostalgic feeling for me.Those are very fine car free days.
I normally make chilli parotta using the frozen malabar parotta's available.
I will surely try these using crepes the next time.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful post. The pictures are lovely and I learned something I never knew before, as I've never had porotta. I will try your excellant recipe--thank you!

BDSN said...

Lovely recipe..I hope I can try this out soon...such a neat recipe!!!

Annita said...

Is this something called 'kothu POrotta'.I donno,I haven't tasted that,but that name is very familar to me..
Anyway it looks soo tempting..and thanks for mentioning my link too..

Nabeela said...

The pictures look very appetising Archana...I love coming back to your site to see if you have anything new...please post as often as you can :)...I'm a huuuuge fan of your pictures..as well as your recipes!

Sowjanya said...

Hey Archana,

your chilli porotta looks beautiful. Must try this :)

Ashwini said...

I actually ate this in a restaurant in San Jose and had steam coming out of my ears :-D
Such a lovely description Miss Spicy

starry said...

never heard of chilli parotta before but loks and sounds delicious and worth a try.I have had the egg parotta and love it.thanks for the recipe and I love the pics.

Anand said...

oh wow!
This looks yummy..am hungry just looking at the pic!

Shah cooks said...

Archana,
despite being a fan of porotta, I have never heard of this version.It looks great and spicy....drooling.
I have tagged u for a meme for simple dishes.. not just everyday..a categorisation based on the time and effort involved. Please check it out.

KA said...

Good recipe Archana! I never had much luck with paratha making at home. Nice pictures!

Anonymous said...

You know it would be great if you could arrange the post into paragraphs.It would be much easier to read. Just a small sugg.

Is this the same as kothu porotta?

sudha said...

Hi archana..Chilli porotta in Spicyana. Perfect place.

Nice recipe and flavorful photos. Thanks for sharing.

Rajesh &Shankari said...

we call this kothu parotta and we just had it last weekend in saravana bhavan,,one of my fav

Vineela said...

Hi Archana,
Chilli crepes my must try.
I tried naan it came nicely.
As you said i learnt the technique from "annita" for "Parota" which i posted when i started blooging.Really nice demo .
Its a very good that you posted about this recipe.My hubby loves this i think they will call with similar name called "kotthu Parota" in tamil.Have not tasted this before but trying it soon.
Thank You.
Vineela

indosungod said...

Mouth watering stuff, to make it crepes simplifies it a great deal -
creative. I think the restaurants have named the street side kothu parotta as Chilly parotta. I have had lots of both but I am partial to the street side kothu parotta.

Great pictures!

indianadoc said...

I have eaten chilli porotta at one restaurant in coimbatore several times...but had forgotten until you reminded me now! I do make Porottas often(had posted it long back)...Nw that u have given the recipe for chilli porotta,next time I shall make this Chilli porotta and let you know the outcome!!

wheresmymind said...

I'm super impressed by the high quality of cooking/baking you are doing on your site here!

Anonymous said...

A blog to watch !!!!

Nabeela said...

hey Archana, I'm making your naans today...I had a question...how many naans does 2 cups of flour give?

archana said...

Nabeela,
6 decent sized naans, if you are making them thick and long probabaly 5. Have fun !!!

archana said...

Sumi,
Please do try it out, thank you.

Shoma... Rise and shine....
I love Kerala porotta too, and always wanted to make it. Annita's recipe works well. I started making this "chilly crepes" as an easy way out.Thank you. Hi from both of us.

Priya
I think the same way too Priya, thank you

Krithika,Arsu
Thank you folks

Gattina,
Thank you, the link i have given in the post describe a very good method for making porotta. My recipe will give you a stirfry very similar to the one made with parotta strips. Thank you for your kind words

RP
Thank you, you are always very kind. I try RP, with my point and shoot camera.....

Sumi,
I totally understand what you are talking about, good old days !!!! Thank you.

Sher
Thank you for visiting Spicyana, the link i have given in the post describes a nice method of making porotta, chilly crepes, tastes almost like chilly porotta, which is a stir fried version of the parotta. I am glad that you like it.

BDSN,
Thank you

Annita,
There seem to be a lot of ambiguity in the naming of this dish. I have heard people calling the dish using both names, at the same time some street food shops will give you both listed separately. So i am not sure. But conceptually, yes i think so. Thank you so much for the recipe, i am planning to try it out this weekend.

Nabeela,
Thank you so much dear, you are very kind. I will try my best. Thanks a bunch

Sowjanya
Thank you very much

Ashwini,
I would very much like to read a narrative of that incident. Who can beat you in story telling !!!! Thank you friend.

StarryN,
Thank you friend.

Anand,
Welcome to Spicyana, thank you for your kind words.

Shaheen
This is one simple dish to make, hope you try it. Will participate in the meme. Thank you

KA,
Neither did i, that's exactly why i did this. Thank you

LG,
Thank you for letting me know about it, when i went back and looked at it after reading your comment, i felt the same thing. What about starting with two for now ! More or less, yes .

Sudha,
Oh, yes, i need to put in some more spicy stuff to live "up to the name". Ha.Ha.. Thank you for your encouraging words friend.

Shankari,
Lucky you, mine too...

Vineela,
I looked at your porotta's today, you have done an awesome job, gives me more confidence to try it out. I am glad that you liked the naan recipe. In Kerala people call it by both names, please do try it out. Thank you.

Shynee
I know what is going to be the outcome of this recipe, when tested by an awesome cook like you-- SUPER AWESOME !!!!!!! Saw your porottas today, looks so good. So it is going to be a breeze for you to make chilly porotta in the aunthentic way. Thank you

WheresMM
Thank you for visiting Spicyana and thanks a bunch for these kind words.

Anony..
Thank you, please do.......

Shah cooks said...

i tried making your chili parottas yest. tasted exactly like chili chicken,yum.. but one snag.i wasn't sure how thick the crepes should be.maybe coz i haven't eaten the original recipe. My friend tasted it got reminded of porotta egg burji with shreddded porotta and egg that her mom used to make.Thanks.

archana said...

Shaheen,
Thank you for letting me know, i am glad that you liked it. I usually make the crepes for this purpose in the thickness of thin dosas. You can make them thicker too if you want. Your friend is very right, all these stir fry porotaas tastes alike.

archana said...

Shaheen,
Thank you for letting me know, i am glad that you liked it. I usually make the crepes for this purpose in the thickness of thin dosas. You can make them thicker too if you want. Your friend is very right, all these stir fry porotaas tastes alike.

indianadoc said...

Archana..i did it...i did the chilly porota...and yum,yum,yum!!...Thanx dear for all the inspiration!!

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Anonymous said...

halo archana!!

I tried the chilli crepe yesterday and it was absolutely delicious... thanks for the innovative recipe...my hubby jus loved it!

starry said...

Never tasted or heard of chilli parotta.but it does look good.

Anonymous said...

Cool blog, interesting information... Keep it UP » »

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Anonymous said...

Hey Archana,
Where do I get the fish sauce for Pad Thai from?

Your Puffs recipe is simply awesome! Thanks :-)

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