Sael Roti is a Nepali traditional home-made, sweet, ring-shaped rice bread. It is prepared during festive occasions like in Dashain and Tihaar. Sael Roti is delicious by itself, but can also be served with plain yogurt, fried vegetables, and Nepali radish or cucumber pickles. They can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sael tastes best when it is fresh. It is a non-perishable bread, and can be kept at room temperature for more than a week. Sael Roti are often sent as special gifts to family members or used as prasad in puja. It is an essential food in most Nepalese cultural and traditional events.
Preparation of Sael Roti
Sael Roti is made of rice flour with adding customized flavours. A semi liquid rice flour dough is usually prepared by adding milk, water, cooking oil, sugar, ghee, butter, cardamom, cloves, bananas and other flavours of personal choice. The ingredients are mixed well by stirring. Once the semi liquid dough is ready, it is deep fried in boiling oil or ghee. The dough is poured by hand on home-made shortening or oil in ring shape and cooked on high heat until it turns light brown on both sides. Two sticks called "jhir" in the local language, each 1 foot (30 cm) long are used for turning the bread while cooking.
Ingredients of Sael Roti:
•Rice - 3 cups
•Sugar - 2 to 4 tbsp (optional)
•Ripe Banana - 1
•Butter - 1/4 cup melted
•Rice Flour - 1/4 cup
•Vegetable Oil to deep fry
•Water - 2 cups
Methods of Sael Roti:
1. Soak rice in water for at least 5 hours or overnight.
2. Drain excess water and place rice in blender with banana and add 1/2 cup water.
3. Blend the mixture to make a puree with no large grainy bits. Add a little water to blend easily, but do not add too much water otherwise the mixture will be too runny.
4. Transfer the batter into a large bowl, add butter and sugar.
5. Beat the batter until well mixed. Adjust the consistency of batter by adding water or rice flour as needed. The consistency has to be similar to pancake batter.
6. Fill the funnel with 1/2 cup of batter. Using this funnel, pour batter into the oil slowly, making a large circle.
7. Fry both sides until golden brown.
8. Drain the excess oil in paper towels.
9. Enjoy Sael Roti with yogurt, curry and pickle.
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