This is a crispy and soft bread that is filled with well seasoned mashed potatoes. This flatbread is from Amritsar, a city in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab. It is similar to naan but this recipe is leavened with baking soda and baking powder. It can be eaten with Chole or Dal Makhani but I have served it here with tamarind chutney. This version is baked though it is traditionally made in a tandoor which gives an extra blistered finish. The filling is so flavourful with many dried spices and aromatics to thank for this and the top layer is thin, crisp and finished off with coriander seeds and chopped cilantro and butter of course. Try this recipe out if you want to add another flatbread to your roster.
Amritsari Kulcha
Ingredients
Dough
- 3/4 cup warm milk
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons ghee plus more for coating
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Filling
- scant 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- scant 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 5 boiled medium potatoes
- 2 green chillies finely diced
- 1 teaspoon carom seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt
- 2 teaspoons Kashmiri Chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon amchur dried mango powder
- 2-3 tablespoon of cilantro chopped
- 1/2 inch ginger grated
- 3/4 cup red onion very finely chopped
To Bake
- 2 tablespoon of coriander seeds crush
- 1/3 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 tablespoon of Kashmiri Chili powder
To Serve
- Tamarind Chutney
Instructions
Make dough
- In a large bowl add all your dry ingredients, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add your yogurt, milk and ghee and mix with a wooden spoon until all your flour is moistened.
- Remove dough from bowl and knead on a clean surface. The dough should be slightly wet and sticky but continue kneading for at least 12 minutes (up to 15) until dough comes together and becomes smooth. Yes it takes this long for the dough to come together, but you will tell once it dose. It will still me moist but will no longer stick to you counter or hands as much.
- Place dough back in your bowl and smear about a tablespoon more of ghee over it.
- Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rest for 1 hour.
Make filling
- Take your boiled potatoes when they are still warm and peel them. I boil my potatoes whole. Make sure to remove any eyes on your potatoes. Once they have cooled, grate them into a bowl.
- To your potatoes add all your dry spices, cumin, coriander, carom seeds, Kashmiri chili powder, amchur and salt.
- Add your grated ginger, chilies and cilantro. Use a fork to mix all the ingredients thoroughly while mashing any potato chunks of pieces that may remain.
- Add your onions right before you are about to use your filling and mix in throughly.
Form kulchas and cook
- Preheat your oven to 515 degrees or the hottest temperature it can go.
- Place a pizza stone, a cast iron (turned upside down for easy of use) or a baking sheet in the oven.
- To form kulcha, take your dough and divide into 8 even pieces, form them into balls and set aside to rest for 10 minutes, cover with a kitchen towel while it is resting.
- When ready to fill, take a ball of dough, flatten it out into a thick circle (thinner on the edges and thicker in the middle) on a a clean surface.
- Take about 1/4 cup or 2-3 tablespoons of filling, form it into a ball and place in the middle of your dough. Pinch your dough around your filling like you are making a dumpling, making sure it is properly sealed.
- Flatten into a thick disk and place seam side down and cover with a kitchen towel snd allow to rest.
- Repeat with all your dough piece and filling.
- When ready to cook, place a bit of flour on your work surface and take a thick dish of stuffed dough and use your hand to flatten it into a thinner (about 1/2 cm thick circle)
- Top you chopped cilantro, a bit of crushed coriander seed and a sprinkle of Kashmiri.
- Use a rolling pin to roll your toppings on and flatten your kulcha a little more. Try and keep the top of your kulcha without any flour because the moist dough will allow the toppings to stick better than if it is floured.
- Carefully pick it up and place into your preheated oven on your pizza stone, the bottom side of your cast iron of a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes depending on how brown you want them. I cooked mine for 8 minutes.
- It should puff up in the oven and become a nice golden brown on top!
- Take it our after 8 minutes, top with melted butter or rub a piece of butter over it so it melts on top and serve hot!
Soooo good!! And a lot of fun to make 😊