Sindhi Malai Koki is the Poster Child of Winter Comfort Food
For buttery crust and tender body, Amrita Amesur recommends using a combination of ghee and freshly-skimmed, rich buffalo milk malai.
Koki is just a Sindhi name for a roti made with plenty of fat rubbed into flour, much like shortcrust pastry. There are those that make it simply with salt, pepper and ghee, and there are those that infuse it heavily with coarsely chopped onions, green chillies, maybe dried pomegranate seeds and fresh coriander for a pungent-tart-textural zing. Incidentally, a sweet koki is called loli (or lola!) – but we’ll save that for another day!
Koki has been the most stable, consistent and enduring part of my food existence while growing up in a bustling Sindhi household. Every mealtime could potentially be koki time. It was considered appropriate for any and all manner of meals. Koki was eaten for breakfast dipped in piping hot sweetened masala chai (stolen from the parents’ batch of chai for the kids, exclusively for dunking); for lunch with creamy homemade dahi, and flame-roasted papad; and for dinner with raw mango chhoonda pickle.
It was carried in lunch dabbas to school on the daily, to the amazement of classmates that picked my dabba clean! It was the most reliable of care packages packed by Mom for us to take on long travels away from home, for a taste of comfort and familiarity.
Obviously, one with constant access to koki can only start to value it when it is praised by those newly sampling its delight. It was only when I witnessed shock, awe and surprise of those nibbling at koki from my tiffin, wondering how it is that this little brown roti tastes and melts like savoury butter in your mouth – did I really start to believe koki to be the poster child of incredible Sindhi food.
It was during one of these discussions with my only Sindhi friend that I realised why my family’s kokis are incredibly unique – (I had no idea until this time that everyone wasn’t following the exact same recipe). Some families use oil to bind the dough, others use ghee, but my family descending from my father’s mother, have ALWAYS used a combination of ghee and freshly-skimmed, rich buffalo milk malai. It gives the best of both worlds really, since the ghee makes it buttery and crusty, whereas the malai gives a certain tenderness to the body while the outside retains a buttery ghee crust. You’ve got to eat it to believe it.
Here is my family’s recipe for koki, one that my mother has made for me a thousand times over.
RECIPE FOR SINDHI MALAI KOKI
Ingredients
2 cups atta/ whole wheat flour
2 large coarsely chopped onions — amounting to 1.5 cups of chopped onions
7-8 dark green pungent chillies (adjust to taste), chopped
50 grams chopped fresh coriander leaves /5-6 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves and stems included
4 tbsp malai/cream skimmed from the top of recently boiled milk
4 tbsp desi ghee (if not using malai, then double the amount of ghee)
Salt
Splash of water, as may be needed
Method
In a large bowl, combine the measured atta with chopped onions, green chillies, fresh coriander, malai and ghee.
Add in a requisite amount of salt to the whole mixture and stir through to distribute.
Use your hands to sort of massage all of the fat, vegetables and flour into each other, lightly crushing the vegetables to release their natural water and hydrate the dough.
By this time, the dough should feel moist enough to bring together. Use your hands to bring the dough together, just pushing it together, without kneading it aggressively — just like you would for shortcrust pastry. In case it feels too dry, add in just a tablespoon or so of water to bind it together.
Kneading it heavily will activate the gluten in the flour and make it more like a chapati rather than a buttery crumbly flatbread, so you simply want to coax the dough together.
At this point, taste the dough for balance of spice, salt and otherwise. Adjust for salt, if required. This is the point of no return, if it is under-salted then the Koki will also be under-salted.
Rest the dough for about 45-60 minutes in the bowl with a lid or tea towel on to cover. Alternatively, in the fridge inside cling film for a couple of hours. Any more resting will lead to too much water coming out of the onions and make the dough soggy and difficult to roll out.
Cut the dough in half and cut each half into 4 equal portions, making 8 balls of dough.
Roll out each ball with a rolling pin into a thickish flat bread. Use dusting flour as necessary if it feels too wet or delicate. Alternatively, it can also be rolled out between sheets of plastic or butter paper, if that is easier. It’s supposed to look rustic and craggly, even if it breaks up while rolling, just patch it back together- it’ll be delicious regardless, it’s simply the ghee and malai making it crumble. Just try to roll them with even thickness.
Heat up a tawa or a pan and season with a bit of ghee. Place the Koki onto the hot tawa and turn down the heat to medium low and cook the Koki on one side for 1-2 minutes. Brush some ghee on the second side and flip, cooking the second side for another minute or so. Brush on some more ghee and turn up the flame to a medium, flipping it once more to try and attain a nice golden brown buttery crust on the Koki with some brown, black burnished spots. Repeat with second side.
Serve immediately with dahi and papad or hot masala chai or pickle, as you please!
If not serving immediately, they will survive in the fridge quite comfortably for a couple of weeks, just reheat on a tawa before serving.
Banner image: https://www.instagram.com/p/ByuT45ynk5L/
Amrita Amesur is a corporate lawyer by profession and is deeply passionate about food. She has spent the last few months dedicatedly scribing, studying and documenting all of her family’s food experiences while learning to develop her own voice as a cook and a writer. You can follow her adventures on Instagram.
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