Rontos

My neighbor is a Gowda Saraswat Brahmin and one day she gave 'to taste' , 5 white puris with a vague insipid looking dal. But when we tasted it, all our visual impressions were nullified and my kids and I fell in love.

These white puris are made from rice flour. Just like wheat flour can become either healthy chapathy or deep fried puri, rice flour mixed with boiling water, becomes Idiyappam / string hoppers when steamed , Pathiri when tawa fried and Runtos when deep fried!!

Runtos is had with a dal dish -  "Thoy". This thoy is just boiled dal with a tadka. And a strange fact is no turmeric powder is used.

I served another dish with the runtos and thoy, a pickle of sorts served at the local 'Pai Dosa' as we like sourness. But that is not really necessary.

Ingredients:

For Runtos:

Rice flour - 1 cup

Salt

Boiling water (Usually for 1 cup flour, 1 cup or 1 1/4 cup of water is sufficient)

Oil for deep frying

For thoy:

Tur dal - 1 cup

Salt

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 2, broken

Curry leaf - 1 sprig

Method:

Recipe of Runtos:

Mix together the rice flour and salt.

Add boiling water and mix well till a dough starts to form.

Keep covered for 10 minutes and knead well.

Make puri with a press lined with cling film.

Deep fry in hot oil and use a tissue to blot out the excess oil.

Runtos is ready.

For the dal / thoy:

Pressure cook the dal for 2 whistles and 5 minutes on simmer , until it becomes soft and mashable.

Once all the pressure gets released, boil this dal with salt and a little water (to loosen) in another vessel.
(NO Turmeric powder!!)

Heat the oil and splutter the mustard, red chilli and curry leaf.

Add this to the boiling dal.

Thoy is ready.

Optional : serve along with Pickle.