Stuffed kulcha - To celebrate my 50 th post!!!

 

You guys must be wondering why am I celebrating with Kulcha of all things? A cake or a sweet or even a cookie would have been a better choice. But it so happens that making a good tandoori bread is far more difficult. When ever I browse for these tandoori breads, I always find that the recipe calls for either yeast or oven or in most cases both. Best days to make recipes with yeast is warm summer days and worst day to sweat it out in the kitchen with these stuffed bread also happens to be summer.

Finally, I came across this kulcha recipe. The dough preparation is quite simple and requires atleast 4 hours of resting time. The kulchas can be stuffed with any stuffing of your choice. Popular stuffing include paneer, aloo and onion. I made a stuffing using both paneer and onion. I was little doubtful if this recipe will actually workout so I made very thin chapathi kinda kulchas. But after eating it, I realized that if I had rolled it out thick like in restaurants it would still have come out well. 

Ingredients

(makes about 6 to 8 kulchas)

For the dough

• All purpose flour or maida - 11/2 cups
• Yogurt / curd - 1/4 cup (thick sour curd preferred)
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Oil -2tbs plus 1 tsp ghee optional
• Sugar - 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt

For the stuffing

• Paneer or boiled potatos - crumbled or mashed 1 cup
• Onion - finely chopped - 1/4 cup
• Chopped coriander - 2 tbs
• Jeera powder - 1/2tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt

For the dough

1.  Take flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Make a well in the center and add curd and 1tbs oil . Knead well to get a soft dough. Add more curd if needed. 
3. Finish with 1tbs oil and roll the dough into a soft ball. Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a wet towel. Allow it to sit for at least 4 to 6 hours. 
4. Divide it into 5 to 8 portions.

For the stuffing

1.  Heat oil and add chopped onions. Saute for a minute or two.
2. Add crumbled paneer or boiled mashed potatoes and rest of the ingredients and mix well. Remove from heat.

To proceed

1. Take the dough and flatten it a bit with the rolling pin. Place some stuffing and gather the edges. Seal it. 
2. Dust the surface and spread the dough using a rolling pin. Make sure the stuffing doesn't come out.
3. Heat a skillet or tawa. Place the kulcha. Once brown spots start to appear flip it and cook the other side too. Serve hot.

Note

• Make sure the dough is soft and pliable.
• Add chopped coriander to the stuffing if needed.
• Serve kulcha hot  with a dollop of butter. (Butter kulcha)
• If you have an electric tandoor or an oven then you can make the kulcha in them as they will taste better.
• For onion kulcha instead of paneer or aloo take 1 cup of finely chopped onion and saute it till translucent.