Battura (Malabar)

Battura-- and malabar?? yes , you read it right... Malabar cuisine is so broadminded that it embraces the best of any other cuisine and blends it in its own food culture. This reminds me of Amir Khan's ad 'Athithi Devo Bhava'. :) Jokes apart, Battura, deep fried bread, originally hails from North India; but we make it in slightly different way which make it look more puffy and 'bread like' inside. Have a look at Pic 2.

This dish was new to us when we saw this during my uncle's reception in the bride's house and was quite fascinated by the story behind its introduction to their house. My aunt's (the then bride) brother was getting married to his first cousin. There was no much excitement on the function as they knew both the families and the guests to attend the function were common. So they thought of conducting the function at one place and  would make it grand. They hired catering from Calicut which was about 90 kms away from the place; and that too 25 years back. Those people came a day before and said that they would make battura and they need some 40-50 litres of milk for that. Aunt's mom was saying they ran here and there for collecting milk as then it was not available in markets also. They ran to their neighbors' and relatives' house; milked the cows and somehow arranged the milk at night. But the hard-work paid and this dish was loved by all the guests that since then, there was no single party  left without Batturas in their house.

Ingredients:

Maida/ White flour 2 cups
Egg 1
Instant Yeast (pizza yeast)1/2 tsp
Baking powder 1/4 tsp
Salt
Sugar 1 tbsp
Yogurt 2 tbsp
Garam Masala 1/4 tsp
Milk- enough to knead the dough
Oil for frying

Method:

Mix Flour, Salt, Yeast , Sugar, Garam masala and Baking Powder together. Make a well in between and beat the egg in it. Add yogurt to it and mix the flour nicely in it. Knead into a dough using warm milk.

Keep this dough aside in a warm place for an hour or more till it is doubled its size... OR ..  Heat your oven at high for 5-10 mts, switch off the oven and then keep your dough in it. It eases the fermentation. If you have a fan attached to your oven, heating may not help. So what you can do is keep the dough in your oven, take some boiling water in a cup and place it in the oven along with the dough and close the oven. The steam coming out of the water helps the dough rise fast.

Heat oil enough for deep frying in a deep pan or kadai.

Knead the dough again and make small balls using the dough. Size depends upon the size of your frying pan or kadai.

Flatten it to a size thicker than puris; atleast twice the size. Make it round or oval. You can cut it using zigzag cutter or knife to give it an appealing shape.

Deep fry these just like puris till batturas puffs up and turn brown.

Serve hot with any stews, butter chicken or chana masala..