In the earlier times, one food item that was never short of supply was the Rotis. The garmu (roti – container) alway had to have rotis in it. The container was emptied only when it had to be cleaned. Empty roti-container signified food scarcity or poor financial health of the family!! There had to be enough for all and by all I mean all, the cows and the goats (that passed by our house) the squirrels and birds (that lived on the trees in our compound) the monkeys (that were frequent visitors on those trees), to feed the families who came begging for food, the house-helps and of course the family.
Making so many (countless, but a tall stack) rotis was a marathon job and in my large joint family it was a division of labour. I just cannot imagine how taxing it must have been for my mum and my aunts who apart from the sheer number also had to adhere to the roti-norms!! They had to be perfect size and shape, should have ballooned well and had to be generously slathered (read drenched) with homemade ghee. But having rotis in the dabba meant we always had our go-to snack. Whenever we yearned for a snack the roti-dabba was at a hands distance, we just had to turn them into a wrap/roll with honey or choonda or pickle or ghee – jaggery!!
After learning to make tea my second accomplishment was to roll round rotis. But my mum being a perfectionist wanted them to be the same size meaning if you see the stack of rotis in the container the edges of rotis should not be showing out from underneath the first roti!! So that was quite a benchmark to be achieved. Which I later did 🙂 !!
So after all the humans and fauna of the household were fed and if we still had rotis left that ran the risk of going stale, they had to be turned into something else as wasting food was a strict no-no. That something else had to be appealing because after all we were to eat the leftover-rotis. Our family (were deep-fried was avoided more because it used lot of oil) made the classic vaghareli roti tempered in yogurt and spices but Sarika brought her family’s way of dealing with left-over rotis which was deep-frying them and spiking it further with spices to create the vadheli (left-over) Rotli No Chevdo. Now who can resist the deep-fried versions of any snack? Since then our non-fried version has gone for a toss as we have all adopted this hard to resist crunchy and spicy version as our own!! Well, our love-hate relationship with the deep fried foods will always continue but we can, once in a while afford to allow ourselves the luxury of indulging in such home-made, simple yet utterly delicious foods!! And this Masala Leftover Rotis can easily qualify as one of the reasons to indulge. Do not forget to snack it with a cup of hot masala chai……..
Leftover Roti Chivda
There is no particular recipe to making this crispy jumble. I will walk you through the method of making the Chivda. use you judgement while adding the seasoning and spices.
You will need
- leftover rotis
- peanuts ( quarter the amount to the teared rotis)
- oil to deep-fry
- salt
- chilli powder
- sugar
- black-salt
Method
- In a Kadai heat enough oil to deep-fry the rotis.
- Tear the rotis in smaller but equal pieces and deep fry them until golden in colour. Keep an eye because the process does not take long. Smaller the pieces faster they’ll turn golden.
- Alternatively you can fry the whole roti and break them to smaller pieces once they crisp-up on cooling.
- Drain the deep fried rotis on a paper-towel.then
- In the same oil fry the peanuts to golden brown and drain them on paper-towel.
- Allow the mixture to cool down
- Once it has cooled down add the salt, sugar, red-chilli powder and black-salt, all to your taste.
- Mix well and transfer the mixture to an air-thighs container.
- Enjoy with tea or otherwise 🙂
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