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Chhit ruti
ছিট রুটি (chhit ruti): Chittagong's lacy rice-flour flatbread flicked onto a hot pan
Chhit means a splash or a sprinkle, and that is exactly how this Chittagong bread is made: the cook dips her fingers in a thin rice batter and flicks it across a hot pan in criss-cross lines until it forms a fragile net. It cooks in seconds, is folded into a soft lacy square and stacked under a cloth, and comes out at Eid breakfasts, winter weddings and mezban-season family meals. Chittagonian households usually eat it with a dark beef kala bhuna or duck curry, but it is just as good with a vegetable korma, chhola bhuna or a sweet dish of milk and jaggery. If the batter is too thick it falls in blobs rather than threads, so it should run off your fingers like single cream. Chef's tip: wipe the pan with an oiled cloth between each ruti so the lace lifts cleanly without tearing.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 7 oz fine rice flour
- 1 /2 tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups waterroughly
- 1 tbsp vegetable oilfor greasing
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Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Whisk 7 oz fine rice flour and 1 /2 tsp salt with most of 1 ½ cups water to a smooth batter, then add the rest until it is as thin as single cream. Rest for 10 minutes.
3 minStep 2: Heat a large non-stick or cast-iron frying pan over a medium heat and wipe it with a cloth or kitchen paper dipped in 1 tbsp vegetable oil.
2 minStep 3: Stir the batter, dip your fingertips in it and flick it across the pan in quick lines, first in one direction and then across, to make a lacy round about 20 cm wide.
Step 4: Cook for 40–60 seconds until the lines turn opaque and dry and the edges lift; do not turn it over and do not let it brown.
1 minStep 5: Lift the ruti off with a spatula, fold it in half and then in half again, and stack it under a clean cloth.
Step 6: Repeat with the remaining batter, greasing the pan each time and stirring the batter often, as the flour settles. Serve warm.
25 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 210 kcal
- Protein
- 3 g
- Carbs
- 44 g
- Fat
- 3 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does chhit ruti take?
- About 40 minutes in total: 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegan?
- Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
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