Punjabi Kulcha- No yeast Recipe

Kulcha- is it a naan Or is it a bhatura? Well a mix of both. The table below can explain how similar and how different all these three are from each other.

Naan	Bhatura	Kulcha
Yeasted bread	With or without Yeast	No yeast
Triangular in shape	Triangular or round	Triangular or round
Made in oven/tandoor	Deep fried	On tawa/griddle or deep fried
Refine flour/whole wheat	Mostly refined flour	Refine flour/whole wheat

Remember the stuffed mutter kulcha recipe that I posted before, those kulchas were round in shape, prepared using whole wheat flour and yeast and finally roasting them over the tava- a healthy option. The Punjabi Kulcha recipe I am sharing today is without yeast, deep fried and simply salted in taste.

No yeast bread be it Indian or not are always what I look for. Yeast makes the recipe complicated and elaborated. Thats why when I had these kulchas for the first time at my friend’s place I was so happy to know that they are yeast free.

Good old yogurt (dahi) is used as rising agent or to give that authentic tangy touch to the kulcha. The recipe also calls for semolina (suji/rawa)- it gives nice crunch to the dough. So all you need to do is mix the flour with simple basic spices and let it rest for 2-3 hours, then roll the dough to desire shape and either deep fry it or roast on tava.

Now it depends, on a regular day I would go and use the healthy variation and use tava method. But this was made on Diwali so it had to be deep fried-period! Kadai chole, channa massala, aloo chole, kala channa massala are the best accompaniment for this kulcha. Enjoy it even more-have it with raw onions and green chillies with dash of lemon juice.

Ingredients:

2 and ½ cups all purpose flour/maida

5 tablespoon yogurt/dahi

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoon oil+ more for deep frying

1 teaspoon carom seeds/ajwain

Salt to taste

Warm water as needed for kneading

Method:

1. Sieve and mix all dry ingredients together.
2. Now make a well in the center and add yogurt, carom seeds and oil. Mix.
3. Slowly add warm water little at a time and begin to knead the dough.
4. You will need soft and smooth dough. Keep kneading till dough becomes shiny.
5. Cover the dough with wet towel and leave aside in a warm place for 2-3 hours.
6. Pinch out the dough and form a ball. On a dusted surface roll out the dough in the desired shape. Prick some holes with the fork. You don'twant kulcha to puff up like bhatura.
7. Heat the oil in kadai/wok for deep frying. When oil is hot, carefully put the rolled out kulcha and fry till both the sides are golden in colour.
8. Thats it, serve hot.

Notes:

You can use whole wheat flour also in the recipe.

To prepare on the tava, just use the same method like you would do for parathas.

Serving suggestions:

Goes well with any spicy Indian side dish. To make the platter serve with subji, raita, chutney and onion rings.