Sri Lankan · Main
Kottu Roti
- Intermediate
- 30 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with a warm current of chile, aromatics blooming from the first bite, closing toasted and warm.
Ingredients
- 4 godamba roti, about 320 g, a day old
- 250 g cooked chicken curry meat, torn
- 150 ml chicken curry gravy, hot
- 1 red onion, 100 g, sliced
- 1 leek, 100 g, finely sliced
- 1 carrot, 80 g, julienned
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 green chillies, sliced
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp roasted Sri Lankan curry powder
- 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- salt
The skills inside
Knife cuts: dice, julienne, bias
Allergen screen
Found: egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Shred the roti into strips the width of a finger and leave them uncovered while you prep the rest; they should feel dry and papery, not pliable.
- Get a flat steel plate or heavy pan very hot, add the coconut oil and fry the onion, leek, carrot, chillies and curry leaves until the leek is limp and the carrot still snaps.
- Push it all to one side, pour the eggs onto the bare metal, let them set, then chop them into the vegetables with two blunt metal spatulas.
- Add the chicken, curry powder and pepper and keep chopping and turning until the meat is heated through and the pan smells toasted.
- Throw in the roti and chop hard for a minute so the edges catch and colour, then pour the hot gravy round the rim, toss twice and serve; it should be damp, never wet.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Knife cuts: dice, julienne, bias 150 recipes
- Take any three pieces from anywhere in the pile: they match closely enough in every dimension that you would have to measure them to argue otherwise.
- The cut faces are flat and clean rather than ragged or crushed; leaves and herbs are cut through, not bruised, and the board carries no dark smear where they were.
- The stated size is the actual size, held against a rule or a known reference rather than called about right.
- Everything in the pile is the shape that was asked for: no wedges, no half pieces, and no offcuts swept in to avoid waste.
- They cook evenly, which is the entire point: at the end of cooking nothing is still raw and nothing has collapsed.
Where it goes wrong The knife was dull, or the vegetable was never squared off first, so the pieces vary: the small ones are mush by the time the large ones are cooked, and the dish has two textures where it wanted one.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.