Sumee's Culinary Bites: Kaayi Obbattu/ Kaayi Holige/ Narla Ubbatti/ Pooran Poli/ Coconut relish filled tortillas

Happy Navarathri everyone! Hope all of you having a good celebrations and enjoying the vacation. Here the weather is quickly changing. Yesterday went out and was surprised to see that all the leaves from four large trees in front of the house were on the ground. Fall is here! But the festivities must go on. Though it doesn't feel like back in India. Dushera used to be a big family gathering for us. Here, not so much. But looking forward to meeting up friends and family soon after Dushera.

Growing up in Bangalore we got introduced to Kaayi obbattu, that is obbattu made out of coconut. It was a different taste and texture than the soft and melt in the mouth chana daal one. They come out more crisp and break easily when you try to fold. But ofcourse it had to win our hearts since, yeah you guessed it right, there is COCONUT in it. Below is the recipe that my mom follows (well she never measures!) Some use poppy seeds instead of sesame seeds. And ofcourse my main change is I use normal roti flour (which is usually multi-grain flour) instead of all purpose flour. See notes below to make substitution.

Prep Time: 20 min | Makes : About dozen

Ingredients:
Outer covering:
Multi-grain Flour - 1 1/2 Cup *
Water - As required to make dough
Pinch of Salt
Oil - 1 tbsp.

Inner Filling / Hoorna:
Coconut - 1 1/2 Cup
Jaggery - 1 Cup
Ghee - 1 tsp.
Cardamom powder - From 3 pods
Sesame/ Til seeds - 1 tsp.

* Note that the outer covering is usually made of all purpose or Maida flour. I prefer the multi-grain to this. If you choose to do AP flour, just increase the oil to about 2 tbsp. After kneading you have to leave this for atleast an hour.

All Rolled out

Method of Preparation:
~ In a large bowl mix flour and salt. Add enough water, knead to make smooth dough (of play dough consistency). Now add the oil, knead some more and leave it covered for 30 minutes.
~ Meanwhile, make the hooran part. This is the part that goes inside the outer dough covering.
~ In a thick bottomed vessel, fry sesame seeds on a low flame. Take out after about 3 minutes.
~ Heat ghee in the same pan and add jaggery.
~ Once jaggery is melted, add coconut, sesame seeds and cardamom powder. Keep mixing until everything nicely combined together. About 7 ~ 10 minutes. Do not keep it too long, otherwise filling will become too thick. Switch off the heat and let it cool.
~ Begin making the flat breads or obbattu only when the filling is cooled off.
~ Make 12 equal parts of the dough and the filling.
~ Sprinkle little bit of flour on the work surface. Take one dough ball and roll out little to make a small circle. Place one filling in the middle. Pull all the sides of the dough and cover the filling completely.
~ Continue to place all the remaining fillings inside each dough ball.
~ Now heat a griddle/ tawa. Roll out the dough (with filling inside) gently. Do not worry if the filling starts to come out a little.
~ Put this on the hot griddle, cook for half a minute and turn it over. Note that it will be just half done.
~ Once the other side is cooked (about a minute), add little ghee or oil on the top and flip it over to complete the cooking process on the first side.
~ You can eat them hot off of tawa with little ghee. This can be stored up to 4 days to a week.
~ To let the obbattu's cool down completely, don't stack them. Just spread it around on an old news paper or on large platter. After it's cooled down, store them in a air tight container.