Rotte Tiruvata

The title literally means – Roti, tadka lagake, or Tempered Indian bread in Telugu.

One of the traditional things-to-eat of the Rayalaseema region for Makar Sankranti is Sajja Roti. It being the harvest season, and Sajjalu (Bajra grains) being a staple for the peasants of the Rayalaseema region, this dish is immensely popular. It is something peasants eat daily, full of fibre , stay well for a long time because of their lack of moisture and the roti gets a distinct flavour because of the black sesame seeds that are stuck to it.

This time Mom sent me a bag full of these , for my snack times. I divided them into three equal pieces, one for the office desk for those really I-am-gonna-die-next-minute-hunger-attack moments, and two of them are at home, as evening-after-office-snack. I store them in small pieces, which serve as great snack bites.

Today, I wanted to eat them with a slight change from the regular – pull the chips out of the box and munch – method of eating. I wanted to make something of a meal from them.

I refer to Mahanandi for any Rayalaseema related food recipes, and that’s where I got the inspiration for today’s lunch. I figured I could cook this roti like the other dried up rotis, and I used another Rayalaseema method to make the masala, which is what I used for this dish.

Ingredients

Sajja Roti pieces – 1 cup
Onion – 1 medium sized, diced
Tomato – 1 medium sized, chopped
Garlic – 6-8 cloves, crushed
Green chillies – 2 , medium sized, cut in halves
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Cooking oil – 1 tsp. (I used Mustard oil for the flavour)

Instructions

In a pan, heat the oil, and add the mustard and cumin seeds.

Once the mustard seeds split in the oil, sauté the onions, green chilli and garlic in this oil on a medium flame for about 5 mins.
Add the tomatoes to this and sauté them all together for another 5 mins.

Mix in the roti pieces at the end well enough so that the vegetables coat them all

Garnish with chopped cilantro and devour hot.

All the quantities given here are indicative, you can change them as you want per your taste.
Also, you can use left over chapati/phulka , Khakra or any Indian breads for this recipe.