Kori rotti

As tradition built it

Serves 4. Curry about 45 minutes; rotti wafers are traditionally bought or made well ahead and dried.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, jointed
• 400 ml thick coconut milk
• 4 dried Byadagi or Kashmiri chillies, for colour
• 2 dried hot chillies, for heat
• 1 tbsp coriander seed
• 1 tsp fenugreek seed
• 1 tsp mustard seed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp tamarind pulp
• A sprig curry leaf, for tempering
• 3 tbsp oil
• to taste salt
• To serve rice rotti wafers (kori rotti), thin, crisp, dried discs of boiled rice paste

Method

1. Dry-roast the dried chillies, coriander seed, fenugreek seed and mustard seed until fragrant, then grind with the onion and garlic to a smooth paste with a little water.
2. Heat oil in a heavy pan, temper with curry leaf, then add the ground paste and cook for a few minutes until the raw smell is gone and the oil begins to separate at the edges.
3. Add the chicken pieces and brown briefly in the paste.
4. Add the coconut milk, tamarind pulp and salt, and simmer, uncovered, for around 25 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the gravy has taken on a deep red colour and clinging consistency.
5. To serve, break the dry rotti wafers into pieces in a bowl and ladle the hot curry directly over them at the table, so the wafers soften in the gravy just before eating rather than sitting in it and turning soggy in advance.

Notes

The rotti wafers themselves are traditionally a separate, longer craft, boiled rice paste spread thin and sun-dried over one or more days until fully crisp; they are treated as a bought or separately prepared component rather than given a full drying schedule here, since the curry, not the wafer, is this dish's technical centre for a home cook working to a single-session recipe.

What a modern chef changes

A dehydrator standing in for open-air sun-drying, and a curry base built to cling to a wafer rather than drown it.

Rung 3, applied to a coconut gravy rather than a dry spice

Method

1. If making rotti wafers at home rather than buying them, finish the drying stage in a dehydrator set low and even rather than relying on open-air sun, for a consistent, fully crisp wafer regardless of the weather outside a British kitchen's window.
2. Reduce the coconut milk separately before it meets the spice paste, concentrating it so the finished gravy clings to the broken wafer rather than pooling thinly beneath it.
3. Serve the wafers and curry assembled at the very last moment, table-side rather than in the kitchen, since the dish's whole textural point, a wafer softening from crisp to yielding in real time, is lost if it is plated and left to sit even briefly.