Kotthu Parotta

The first time I ate this dish was in Saravana Bhavan restaurant in Edison, NJ. I never knew parotta came like this. I was expecting a round bread, what I got was shredded stuff, not appetizing to look at, but great to taste.

I did some research on this and came to know it was first conceived in Trivandrum, Kerala. Usually this contains egg, but the one I ate at the restaurants didn't have any. So I made eggless and in my style. I have used Marinara sauce here as I had some left over stored.

This is a great dish for kids and healthy too. You can use those left over rotis in this recipe. This is specially good when you are done with same old chapati and want to eat a variety food or when you don't want to prepare any side dish for chapati exclusively.

Serves: 2 -3 

Preparation Time: 10 mins to make 3 parottas + 15 mins 

Ingredients:

• 3 Parotta (or thick rotis or chapatis) cut into 1 inch squares
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp grated garlic
• 1 green chili finely chopped
• 1 cup tomato puree/tomato sauce/marinara sauce
• 2 tbsp oil
• A pinch of hing or asafetida
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 8-10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp chana dal or split bengal gram
• 1 tsp urad dal or black gram
• 1 small onion sliced lengthwise
• 1 capsicum sliced lengthwise approximately to onion size
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped
• Salt as needed

Method:

• In a wok, add oil and heat. Once hot add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and wait till they crackle
• Add hing and curry leaves and fry for 2 seconds.
• Now add the chana dal and urad dal and fry till golden brown.
• To this add onion, ginger, garlic and green chili and fry till the onion turn translucent.
• Now add capsicum to this and fry for not more than 5 mins. 
• Add the 5 spice powder to this - turmeric, red chili, garam masala, cumin and coriander powder.
• To this mixture add in the tomato puree and fry until there is no rawness. Add salt and check for taste.
• Finally add the sliced parottas to this and stir for 4-5 mins. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.