Hello folks, I am back with another tantalizing Mangalorean dish – Kori Rotti – from one of Mangalore’s sub cuisines – Bunt cuisine which is one of India’s most desirable and delicious cuisines. Well, as you know ‘Kori Rotti’ is a combo dish. Its a spicy chicken curry eaten with flat, crispy and wafer thin rice crepes. Traditionally, these rice crepes used to be prepared by ladies in their own homes, however due to mechanization and modernization, they are manufactured and sold commercially. Since a pack of ‘Rotti’ is available at a nominal price in Mangalore, people resort to using store bought stuff these days.
You may be wondering why I have kept this particular recipe under wraps for so long. Although I have eaten and tried making the curry for Kori Rotti at home several times I never got around posting it on the blog. I think it happened for a reason. When Sailaja of Sailu’s Kitchen contacted me and requested me to write a guest post on for her lovely blog, I was more than delighted and decided that it was time to bring out the Kori Rotti recipe out of the closet and put it on a pedestal along with other traditional Mangalorean recipes.
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Sailaja is a very passionate food blogger with a blog that is par excellence, a blog that has been around since 2005. Besides Andhra recipes which are from her home turf, she records some of her classic tried & tested North Indian, kid friendly and international recipes which range from vegetarian to non-vegetarian dishes, beverages, salads and desserts. Simple and clear cut recipes accompanied with beautiful pictures makes for a delightful reading & visual experience. I have personally tried her recipes and loved them, so it was a huge honour for me when I was asked to showcase traditional Mangalorean cuisine as a part of her Indian Food Trail series where she explores the different cuisines of India and aims to showcase many traditional & forgotten recipes. It was a wonderful experience to share a similar interest – to bring traditional cuisines to the forefront.
So I thank Sailaja from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to showcase traditional & popular Mangalorean cuisine with a special focus on Catholic style food.
Dear Readers, I hope you enjoy my guest post as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Stay tuned for more on Mangalorean cuisine which I will bring to you in a 3 part series!
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Kori Rotti Chicken Curry
Prep time: 20-25mins | Cooking time : 20mins | Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 kg chicken on the bone
- 1 medium sized onion finely sliced
- 1 coconut to extract 2 cups thin milk and 1 cup thick milk * see note#1 for substitute
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 cardamom slightly bruised
- 2 cloves
- salt to taste
For the masala
- 5 short red chillies * see note#2
- 10 long red chillies * see note#2
- 1-1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp peppercorns * see note#2
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds / methi
- 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
- 1/8th tsp turmeric powder
- 8-9 flakes of (Indian) garlic with skin
- 1 medium sized onion sliced
- 1/2 lime sized ball of tamarind
- 1/2 a coconut (or 1 cup grated coconut)
- 2 tbsp ghee or oil
For the seasoning
- 1 medium sized onion finely sliced
- 1 tbsp ghee
Method
1. Cut the chicken into medium sized pieces, wash and allow to drain on a colander.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan/kadhai heat 2 tbsp ghee or oil and roast the red chillies, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fenugreek seeds & cumin seeds one by one. Each of them should be roasted on a slow flame for a few seconds until you get a nice aroma * see note # 3
3. Next fry the onion and garlic and remove and add the coconut, turmeric powder and tamarind to the same pan, roast and remove.
4. Grind all the roasted ingredients to a fine paste using a little water. Reserve the masala water.
5. In the same pan add the ground masala and the sliced onion. Mix and add the thin coconut milk. Leave the pan uncovered & bring the curry to a boil, add the chicken pieces and salt to taste. Cover the pan now and cook the chicken till tender on a medium flame. When the chicken is cooked, simmer and add the thick coconut milk and bring it to boil for just a couple of seconds. Turn off the flame.
6. In a smaller pan, heat the ghee for seasoning and toss in the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pod and the sliced onion, fry till golden brown and add this to the curry. Cover the pan immediately to trap the aroma of the seasoning.
7. Serve hot with crispy rice Rotti – let the curry soak up the rotti a bit before you eat it. Alternatively, you can serve the curry with rice, pan polay (neer dosa), appams, sanna, mutlim (rice dumplings), polay (dosa) or chapathi
Notes:
1. A large coconut yields approximately 2 cups thin milk & 1 cup thick milk. Here’s how to do it & the substitute for it. If you do not wish to use coconut milk in your curry just use 1-1/4 cups of grated coconut instead of 1/2 cup and skip the coconut milk altogether. But you may need to adjust the spice a bit here.
Extracting fresh coconut milk
Grate the flesh of one coconut and transfer it to a mixer grinder. Add about 1/2 cup of warm water and pulse the mixer grinder for a few seconds.
Line a bowl with cheese/muslin cloth and transfer the ground coconut into it. Cover the cloth into a bundle and squeeze to extract thick milk. Keep aside
Add a little water (depending on how much thin milk you desire) and repeat process. This is the thin milk.
Preparing coconut milk from coconut milk powder (I use Maggi)
To make approx 2 cups thin milk – Dissolve 6 tbsp coconut milk powder in 1-1/2 cups warm water
To make approx 1 cup thick milk – Dissolve 6 tbsp coconut milk powder in 3/4th cup warm water
2. Mangaloreans, especially Bunts use short red chillies which are also called as Harekala chillies – these are quite spicy. The long dry chillies that are used are called the Byadge/Bedgi chillies. Click to see pictures. You may use a combination of both or just use the Bedgi variety. To reduce the spice adjust the quantity of peppercorns and use the chillies partially deseeded. For a mildly spicy curry you can use Kashmiri chillies. The original recipe asked for 22 chillies & 1 tsp peppercorns. I reduced them to 15 chillies and 1/2 tsp peppercorns which yielded a medium spicy curry. A lot of the spice gets balanced out when the coconut milk is added, so please use your judgement here.
3.While roasting the spices take care to ensure that they don’t burn or turn black – this will lend a bitter taste to the curry which is avoidable. Ensure that roasting is done in a good quality heavy pan.Recipe adapted from The Mangalore Ladies Club Cookbook
The pleasure is mine. I am honored to have you on my blog space. Appreciate your effort in bringing to me and my readers the food traditions of Mangalore. Thank you very much, Shireen. 🙂
Wow such a fabulous foods together,inviting.
I'm slowly discovering Mangalorean cuisine and kori rotti is really one of the most popular dishes! I have never tried cooking it myself… and hey, I love Sailu's website! So cool that you are writing a guest post for her! Will definitely check it out 🙂
Hi Shireen, I was looking for some authentic manglorean recipes and guess I have stumbled up the right place! Will be digging around 🙂 Nice to meet you. I blog at Cardamom Hills.
Cheers!
Mj
I love me some Kori Rotti, thank you for sharing this lovely recipe with us
Hi Shireen, Absolutely LOVE your write up about Mangalorean cuisine on Sailu's blog. Its so nice to know a bit of history about our food and the cultures that contribute to it .. !!! Love your blog as well… p.s: your Zebra cake recipe is still a favourite at home 🙂 — Andrea, London xx
Hi Andrea! Thank you so much for your lovely words of encouragement! So good to know that you liked the write up and the history behind our food 🙂 Stay tuned for the last and final part of the article on Sailu's food. So good to know you liked the zebra cake as well. Do join me on Facebook and send in your picture when you try it again, i will display it in the Tried & Tested folder, thanks!
Do you have the recipe for making the rotti? Since we do not get it here, I'd like to know how to make it at home. I've searched for it on the net, without success.
@ Anonymous: Sorry, I don't have the recipe to make rotti at home as I always buy it from the store. If i do find a recipe, I will definitely share it on the blog
Good recipe! !
Hi Shireen,
Thanks for this recipe. It's great.
I have short red chillies and Kashmiri chillies with me. Could you please suggest how many I could used for a medium spicy gravy? Thanks.
@ Unknown: Well, since short red chillies are really spicy you could use about 4 and use about 6-7 kashmiri chillies – I am not sure if you are used to having Mangalorean cuisine so I guess if you are concerned about the spice you could deseed the chillies and then use them, in which case you can use 5 short red chillies and 8-10 kashmiri chillies all deseeded. This way you will be able to get adequate masala and tone down the spice. In any case if you feel that the spice is more you could add some extra coconut milk – this will really balance the spice.
HI Shireen, I didnt know that I am cooking your recipies…wonderful dishes….Hats off to you…. for having well planned Mangalorean recipies that too some of them are quite unique! I am followin your site almost 6 months and i came to know today its you who is having such a wonderful blog for cooking….I thank you for your recipeis. Helps me a lot….Cheers! Lynel your choir mate…lol.
@ Lynel: Haha! It's a small world, isn't it? How did you get to know that its my blog? 🙂 Glad you like my recipes!
Dev Boro Dis Dium!!!
Keep up with this Shireen…
Grt recipe and thks for sharing it
How abt Bhendiya aani shungta chi curry????
@ Roshan Lobo: So glad you liked the recipe! I will try out the Benda ani Sungta curry soon and post it here 🙂
Delicious chicken curry shireen. My family really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I never have to think twice when trying out your recipes. They always come out good.
@ Vanita: Thanks so much for your feedback and for so much faith in my recipes 🙂
Hii..I m vegetarian n kori roti is one of my fav can u plz suggest some vegetarian cuury for kori rotti..thnk u
@ Unknown: Hi you can try mixed vegetable saagu or the same kori rotti curry without the chicken (just plain curry)
My curry taste like crab curry 🙁 havnt added the tadka yet..any idea?
@ Dency: Sorry I have no idea what you could have done wrong. Plus I don't know how crab curry you make tastes like…if you have followed the recipe to the T then it should turn out fine
Tried your recipe Shireen. Delish! The family loved it. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Hi Shireen,
Tried my hands at your kori rotti recipe today…loved the dish whenever I had had it at some friends' place but never made it as I could not get the rotti. Luckily for me one of my friend's sister who is visiting her brought it for me from Mumbai and I could not wait to make it. I stumbled upon your recipe and it turned out so yummy, my first attemptat kori rotti was so good thanks to your recipe.. Susan
@ Ann: Thanks so much for your feedback!
@ Susana: Thanks so much for your feedback!!