Nepalese recipe
How to make Sel roti
सेल रोटी
All of Nepal
A sweet, ring-shaped bread made from a batter of rice flour, sugar and ghee, poured by hand into hot oil. Crisp outside and soft inside, it is made in large batches for the Dashain and Tihar festivals.
Ingredients
- 300 g rice flour (or rice soaked overnight and ground to a paste)
- 100 g sugar
- 2 tablespoons ghee or butter, melted
- 1 ripe banana, mashed (optional)
- Half a teaspoon ground cardamom
- About 250 ml milk or water
- Oil for deep frying
Method
- Mix the rice flour, sugar, ghee, banana and cardamom. Add the milk little by little to make a thick batter that pours slowly, like thick pancake batter.
- Cover and let the batter rest for at least 2 hours, or up to 6 hours in a warm kitchen.
- Heat the oil in a deep pan to about 175 °C. Test with a drop of batter: it should rise at once and sizzle gently.
- Pour the batter in a thin ring into the oil, from your hand, a squeeze bottle or a small jug. Fry until light brown, turn it with a skewer, and fry the other side.
- Lift out and drain on paper. Take care with hot oil, and keep children away from the pan.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
Sel roti keeps for about two weeks, so families often send it as a gift to relatives living far from home.
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