Pol Roti Recipe - Most popular SRI LANKAN Coconut discs

I am not wasting many words to describe how much the native Sri Lankans love these creamy coconut discs. They are a staple in the Sri Lankan diet and loved by adults and kids alike. Tourists from various countries who tour around the island never forget to taste these.

The most popular version of these is the plain creamy version made by mixing plain flour and scraped coconut together with salt and a dash of chili powder. However, I prefer to toss some chopped onions, curry leaves, grated carrots, and chopped green chilies into the dough and kneed with an ample amount of scrapped coconut and bake them on a traditional cast iron pan.

Ingredients needed:

Plain creamy version
Fresh coconut	1 cup
Plain flour	2 cups
Onion	1 chopped into very small pieces
Chilli powder	1 tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Butter	1 tbsp
Lukewarm water to knead the dough	1 cup
Flavourful version
Green chili	1 chopped
Curry leaves	A handful cut into thin pieces
Salt	1tsp or to taste
Red chili powder	1/4 tsp
Butter/coconut oil	1 tbsp
Lukewarm water to knead the dough	1 cup or a little more

Let’s make:

The creamy, plain version

• Mix flour, salt, coconut, chilli powder and butter together and knead by adding lukewarm water little by little. Make a soft dough ball, cover and keep aside for 20-30 mins

The flavourful version

• Mix chopped onion, green chilli, red chilli powder, curry leaves, grated carrots, salt and butter with scraped coconut using your fingers and then mix with flour. Add lukewarm water little by little and make a softball. Cover and keep aside for 20-30 mins for all the flavours to combine nicely

• From the dough, make equal size balls and place them on a foil sheet

• On another foil sheet flatten one ball and cut into a disc shape using a round lid or a cookie cutter

• Heat up a flat cast iron pan or a roti tawa and brush a little oil
•  Place a dough ball on the hot pan taking care not to damage the shape.  The easiest way is to bring the foil itself near and slowly lower it onto the pan
• After a minute, flip over and keep flipping over and until the disc is baked properly on both sides. If you pan has space you can place two or three discs at the same time. Press gently and if a whoosh sound emits then it has to bake further a few mins as the water has not evaporated fully.

• Once out of the pan, let them release steam by placing on a wire rack.
• Serve hot with a spicy chicken or mutton curry or just a blob of butter along with lunu miris make it simply irresistible.
• Lunu Miris/Chilli chutney – pound together chilli powder/chilli flakes with salt, some scraped Maldive fish and finally mixing a dash of lemon juice to balance the taste.

Do not forget to sip a plain tea made with sugar and crushed ginger to finish off to give the fullest satisfaction of this meal.