Kothu Parotta - Minced Roti

My grandparents had seven children – they in turn had one, two or three kids of their own.  Summer holidays in my grandparents’ house meant that at any time there could be at least 10 kids under the age of 15.  How my grandparents managed all of us I do not know.  All I know is those were the best memories of my younger self.  My grandmother Ella Chellam who we all called patti was a wonderful cook and very resourceful too.  My uncle Rajan mama used to bring back game meat from his hunting expeditions and not a bit would be wasted.  As a child we learnt to eat everything and appreciate different tastes and textures.  Most of my food is intimately woven with memories of patti and the good times.

Once in a way we would get a treat from the local Azad Hotel that was very famous in those days for its kothu parotta.  The excitement of unwrapping the banana leaf parcels and getting our fingers stuck into those tasty morsels cannot be described.  Even now, when you walk in the streets at dusk you can hear the "ding ding" of metal spatulas against a large metal wok mincing the meat, the roti and scrambled eggs, tossing and micing at the same time. I wanted my family to experience this at home and this dish is much loved by my family and a very welcome addition to picnics in summer.

Ingredients:

5- 6 Roti Chanai bread, roughly shredded

1 bowl of left over chicken curry preferably boneless with gravy

(If there are bones, get the pieces off, shred chicken and discard bones)

6 eggs (1 for each roti) – scrambled with salt and pepper

3-4 green chillies – chopped

1 – 2 tomatoes – chopped

1 – 2 large onions – chopped roughly

Oil for shallow frying

2 sprig curry leaves

Shred the chicken and discard bones.

Method: – we will make this in stages as it is much easier that way. In the hotels / street food stalls, they make it in one step in a large iron griddle with metal spoons / cutting tools. 

Heat oil in a large, heavy bottomed wok.  Add the chopped ingredients – onion, green chilli and tomatoes.  Add the curry leaves too. 

Saute until it reaches the soft and mushy stage like the next picture - it takes about 10 minutes:

Next add the chicken and gravy and saute.  As you saute, also use your spoon to chop the big pieces of chicken into smaller pieces.

Next, add the roti chanai pieces and continue to saute and chop:

You should reach a stage where the pieces are well mixed with the gravy and chicken and are also small and fluffy:

Next add the scrambled eggs and continue to saute, chop and mix.

Your kothu parotta is now ready when it looks like this:

Serve hot with onion raita and if you are carrying it on a picnic, take it in a hot pack!

If you wish to wrap it in a banana leaf, this is how you do it:

Cut the leaf to size, and take a slice off the rib from the back of the leaf so you can lay it flat.  Next show it over the gas flame for a few seconds on each side to get rid of the natural waxiness and make the leaf more pliable.  Put the foof in the middle and wrap like you would wrap a present using paper.

I have used a canna lily leaf in exactly the same way - to serve the food: