Savory Country Corn Bread (Tikkar)

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

FLATBREADS & FLAVORS; ALFORD
Combine flours and salt in bowl and mix well.  Add onion, ginger, garlic,
jalapeno, tomato, and cilantro and mix well.  Make well in center and pour
in water, stirring it into flour.  The amount of water you will need will
vary.  Add more if necessary to form kneadable dough. If dough is too
sticky, add a little more atta flour. Turn dough out onto lightly floured
surface and knead 4-5 minutes. Wash, dry, and lightly oil bowl. Return
dough to bowl and cover with plastic. Let rest 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 1 piece per tikkar.  On generously floured surface,
flatten each piece into disk, flouring both sides.  Cover most disks with
plastic wrap (do not stack) and set aside.  On lightly floured surface with
rolling pin, roll out two disks to circles 7" in diameter and 1/4" thick.
To cook, heat heavy skillet over medium heat. (Two skillets are preferable,
since breads take 15 minutes each to cook.) Transfer a rolled-out bread to
skillet.  Cook 7 minutes, until bottom is covered with brown speckles. Turn
and cook other side for same length of time. Brush 1 ts oil or ghee on top
of bread. Turn bread over and fry 1 minute, until golden brown. Brush other
side with oil or ghee, flip, and fry 1 more minute.  Transfer bread to
plate.  If possible, serve at once, while you continue to make the other
breads.  Alternatively, wrap in cloth to keep warm.
Authors' comments: This thick, savory flatbread is characteristic of many
breads in the western part of India.  The dough is laden with chiles, fresh
cilantro, ginger, onion, and tomato, and it comes out (as you might expect)
like a wonderfully savory meal in itself.  It doesn't rise or puff up.
Instead, just as the end of cooking, ghee or oil is brushed on both sides
of bread, so that it ends up tasting up almost as if it had been fried.
There is nothing fine or delicate about this bread; it is simply very good.
Sylvia's comments: I was DYING to make something from this book, and the
snow was too deep to get into town, so I made some substitutions. I used
regular all-purpose flour instead of atta flour, and ground ginger and
coriander instead of fresh ginger and cilantro.  I skipped the jalapeno, of
course! but substituted chili paste.  And since I prefer it, I sauteed the
onions in a little oil before mixing them in. I mixed and kneaded it in my
breadmaker and added almost 1/2 c extra flour to get it to a rollable
consistency, then let it rest in the breadmaker. The tomatoes did
disappear, I'll use more next time. Cooking it was <ahem> interesting. I
managed to not see the part about rolling it 1/4" thick and rolled the
first one out THIN.  It burned long before 7 minutes in a dry skillet. So I
added a thin layer of oil, let it heat, and cooked the next thin one 5
minutes in the oil -- DELICIOUS! Even my tomato-hating, onion-hating,
spicy-hating kids loved it.  As I rolled and cooked, I eventually noticed
it was supposed to be thicker and did so, but I could NOT find a heat that
would cook the thick dough in my good cast-iron skillet without burning
them!  Low, it didn't cook; medium, it burned; and I couldn't find a
medium-low that would logically have cooked it without burning. (danged gas
stove!)  Anyway, I'll stick with rolling 'em thin and cooking 'em 4-5
minutes, it's an authentic Indian cooking style even if not for this
particular bread.
Tyops courtesy of Sylvia Steiger, SylviaRN (at) CompuServe (dot) com
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V4 #14 by tobbs@earthlink.net on May 26, 99

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