Pol roti
Form: Shaped like a flat bread that puffs up on cooking
Country of origin: Sri Lanka
What distinguishes it from other methods of bread making: Flour is mixed with grated coconut
Category of bread: (2 and 7) Similar to all flat breads that fill up with air on baking, such as Egyptian baladi, or Greek pita
Particularity: One of the specialties of Sri Lankan bread making, made with coconut
Ingredients: Wheat and finger millet flour (in same proportions); grated coconut; finely chopped onions; red hot peppers; curry; salt; warm water; ghee or butter (for cooking)
Sri Lanka
In the Indian subcontinent, roti is symbolic of bread and meals, and by extension, life and survival. One can imagine India sitting in a lotus position on a tiny roti, a griddlecake made of wheat flour and water, with no leavening, and cooked on a hot plate that makes it blow up like a balloon. This precious griddlecake -- found under so many different names from the Near East to the far reaches of Central Asia – is therefore a sort of common denominator of all meals, culinary traditions and hungers. In India, while naan is of Muslim origin, roti, along with chapati, is specific to Hindu bread making.
There are infinite varieties of roti, and it is indeed surprising that so many compositions can be created using only two notes: millet, corn or sorghum griddlecake; griddlecake cooked in oven (tandoori roti); stuffed griddlecake, etc.
Extraordinary range, therefore, and to this we can add the pol roti, filled with coconut. This is a Sri Lankan specialty and most certainly the island’s favorite bread.
Here, the flour is a mixture of wheat and finger millet (Eleusine coracana), also called African millet or kurakkan, to which is added grated coconut, finely chopped onions, curry, red hot peppers, salt and warm water. Of course, the cuisine in the south of India and Sri Lanka is extremely hot and spicy. The dough is left to rest, shaped into as many griddlecakes as you want, and then cooked on a greased hot plate.