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Kottu is a spicy Sri Lankan dish made with godamba roti bread and vegetables, with meat or egg options. Chefs use a noisy method to cut the bread and add it to the dish, while home cooks can make the bread easily.
Kottu is a traditional spicy dish of Sri Lankan cuisine. The base is almost always godamba roti, a type of fried, almost paper-thin bread. Vegetarians can enjoy vegetable kottu, while others can choose from versions containing chicken, beef or egg. Some chefs rank this dish among traditional curries because it contains red curry powder and a significant amount of chilli.
This dish usually starts with shredded godamba roti. Home cooks can just tear it up with their hands, but Sri Lankan chefs usually go for a much noisier method. They place the bread on top of a heated iron pan and cut it into pieces with large pieces of metal. Chefs sometimes follow a specific rhythm to entertain restaurant guests. Street vendors often use sound to attract customers.
Most versions of Kottu contain shredded cabbage, matchstick carrots and ginger and garlic along with cumin, red curry and seeded chilli. Veggie curry usually contains little else besides godamba roti bread. Those who prepare meat kottu typically sear the meat before adding the vegetables and spices, simmering everything together until the vegetables are soft. The bread is often added in the last few minutes of baking to keep it from becoming soft and limp.
In Egg Kottu, the eggs are usually cracked into the simmering vegetables just as the chef adds the bread, or just before. Eggs cook very quickly and adding them too early could result in small charred bits of food scattered all over your dish. Well-prepared Egg Kottu generally features the vegetables mixed with small pieces of moist scrambled egg.
Home cooks who want to try their hand at making kottu must have godamba roti. This flatbread is sometimes available in ethnic grocery stores, but those without access to such stores can make it at home. Godamba roti does not require yeast: it is a quick bread made from flour, water, sugar and salt. All you need is a pinch of sugar and salt, about a cup (236 mL) of white flour, and a cup (250 mL) of water to make a moist, pliable dough similar to pizza dough. The dough should stretch and tear easily in your hands.
Having rolled the dough into a thin sheet with a rolling pin, the cook should cut circles out of it with a circular cookie cutter and fry them in vegetable oil over medium-high heat. The bread will be crunchy and turn golden brown very quickly. Drain the fried bread on paper towels and allow it to cool before tearing or cutting it to make kottu.
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