Bathura

Bhatura is traditional North Indian Punjabi classic Indian bread. Bhatura is a soft leavened fried Indian bread made with flour, baking powder, oil and yoghurt. When fried, it puffs into a fluffy, chewy lightly browned bread is served with chickpea curry popularly called as Chole. At most of the restaurants this is known as Chole Bhatura.

The Bhatura is considered as one of the classic dishes from the Punjabi cuisine and originated in the Punjab region of Northern India and Western Pakistan. Bhatura is easy to make at home and requires only a few ingredients. This is a spongy deep fried bread is made with yogurt and yeast or baking powder, made to ferment so that it gets that little sour taste from the yogurt which gives that classic flavor and puffiness. Adding some flavor like nigella seeds, fennel seeds or ajwain seeds enhances the flavor of this bread.

There few recipes that use yeast for making the Bhatura but is not the traditional way and addition of yeast is purely to get the fluffy and nice texture so that the bhatura just melts in the mouth. This is wonderful soft, fluffy and delicious Indian fried bread. It is very popular in the streets and restaurants of Punjab and Delhi. You almost find the Chole Bhatura combo at every street corner in North India. A huge bhatura looks some what like puri or poori but big in size. Many gets confused or do not know the difference between a puri and bhatura. Its just simple, bhatura is made of all-purpose flour adding baking powder and yoghurt to give a sweet and salty taste and is huge in size where as puri is made of whole wheat flour (atta flour) and is small in size. Puri can be eaten with any Indian vegetable gravy dish but bhatura is mostly combined with Chole.

Chole (chickpeas curry) bhatura makes a sumptuous meal and is filling. To prepare the Bhatura firstly add all purpose flour (maida flour) in a bowl. Add little salt, baking powder, sugar and mix all these ingredients then add little sooji and mix. Add buttermilk or water and make medium stiff dough. Rest this dough aside for 2 hours to rise. Make small balls of the dough and flattened them evenly using a rolling pin. The deep fry the bhatura until they puff up into lightly browned soft fluffy bread which is elastic and chewy. They will get puffed up like a big balloon. The leavening principle in making Bhatura, Kulcha, or American buttermilk-biscuit is same. The lactic-acid in the yogurt reacts with baking soda to make dough light and rise. The baking powder helps continue the leavening during cooking. Watch and enjoy the making of Bhatura at: http://www.vahrehvah.com/Bathura:3589

The bhatura gives a nice crispiness outside and soft inside that just melts in your mouth. In fact choley bhature is one of the most complete recipes that do not require any other dish to accompany. Channa Batura is generally served with fresh cut onions, green Chilli, half cut lemon and achars.

Bathura
	4.0 Stars based on 99 Reviews Author : Admin Published On : Jan 16, 2008 Preparation Time: 7 min Recipe Type : Breads Cooking Time : 25 min Standing Time : 5-8 mins Yield : 4 (4 servings) Ingredient : Flour Description : punjabi bread to with chole