Pathiri - a popular malabar flat bread

step 1
Dry roast the rice flour on a low flame for a few minutes, till it just starts changing colour.

step 2
Add salt and oil to water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and add rice flour little by little. Do not stir the rice flour.

step 3
After a minute, stir the rice flour and water, and take off heat. Keep covered for a minute. Move it to a tray or flat vessel, and knead the flour while it is still warm and forms a smooth dough. Divide the dough into lemon sized balls.

step 4
Place a ball of dough on a plastic sheet (I used a ziplock bag), so that it is easy to remove once rolled out. Roll out the ball into a disc shape with a rolling pin, making it as thin as possible. Do not move the pin back and forth as you would do for a chappathi. Roll it in an outward direction only. If you have a press pan, you can press each ball in it. (I do not have one). Use a cutter to cut it out into a neat round shape. Repeat till all the dough is used up.

step 5
Heat a tawa/pan on a medium fire. Cook the pathiri on one side till small bubbles appear. Turn the pathiri over, and cook the other side. The pathiri should puff up now. (Do not smear the pan with oil.)

step 6
Warm up the coconut milk, and season with salt. Serve warm pathiris and coconut milk along with the curry of your choice.

step 7
Some tips:
Press the dough in a press pan smeared with the tiniest amount of oil. Then roll it out with a rolling pin, so that the pathiris are super thin.

After rolling out each pathiri, dust a little rice flour if you find the pathiris are sticking to one another. Make sure to dust the rice flour off before cooking, else it will burn.

The amount of water you use depends on rice flour. If it is roasted a lot, you may need to use as much as 1.5 cups of water for each cup of rice flour.

The rice flour should be kneaded very well till it becomes soft. Else you will not be able to roll it out properly and may tear while cooking.