Bhutara (Indian Fry Bread) {Secret Recipe Club}

Many years ago I lived in England, it was while stationed there that I developed my love for Indian Cuisine. I love British food, especially pub fare, good and hearty! However when I wanted to go out for something special it was Indian. I would hazard to guess that next to India, England has the best Indian food in the world. The food has complex layers of flavor and spices, something your palate never grows tired of. As much as I love it I don’t make it often which probably keeps the love going. It’s always a special night when I cook Indian food.

While I was in photography school I friended a British gal of Indian Heritage, she was always teasing me about my food posts. “Why can’t you post more food without faces?” she would lament. Sometimes you don’t realize how much meat you post until someone points it out. When I got my Secret Recipe Club assignment for this month,Simply.food, I was beside myself! Simply.food is a vegetarian, world cuisine and Indian food blog. I poured through all of Nayna’s Indian recipes, so much so that I was almost paralyzed with indecision. Here was a blog that would make my friend Tara smile, and I wanted to do something fabulous.

A fan of Indian breads I finally settled on a bread that I’ve never tried before, an intriguing bread because it was done differently than other bhutara recipes that I have thought about doing. Bhutara is a soft bread that is deep fried. The dough is rolled out and fried until puffs up, the frying separates the layers turning it into this pillowy pita type bread but much more delicate. I followed Nayna’s recommendation and served the traditional Chole Masala (Chana Masala) with it.

No forks needed, the bread is the vehicle by which the Chana Masala is scooped up and consumed. Chana Masala is a chickpea and tomato dish with a nice little spice (I’ll be posting that next), the Bhutara is the perfect complement to the spicy dish.

What I found unique about Nayna’s Bhutaras was the use of plain white bread, self-rising flour and milk. Many Bhutara recipes call for rapid rise yeast and never have I seen one with bread! The Bhutara came together easily and I think that the addition of bread added the ‘yeast’ flavor without using the yeast. The benefit of no yeast means that kept properly, the dough could sit for a long period of time without the fear of over rising. Which is a bloggers dream, make and cook a couple for photos, save the dough and cook fresh for the family.

I converted Nayna’s recipe from self-rising flour to regular all-purpose flour and I converted the measurements for American use. Other than that, the recipe stands as is. I will certainly be making this again and again, it was so much easier to master than roti or chapati!

Please check out Simply.food and all of our other SRC reveals.