Topic: 'Killa' Mumbai Chila

[DeeDee]

As I'm always looking for another way to use wonderful besan (gram flour) I recently discovered the world of the Chila.  I was so happy with the simple but varied and tasty results I thought I'd share them wiv' me curried up CR0 mates!

Chilas, by all accounts, are a food that street vendors sell all over India as a working class breakfast and snack.  It's basically a gram flour pancake filled with, well, pretty much anything.  If you search the web you'll find loads of different fillings but for the purposes of this recipe I'm sticking with never fail onion and tomato.  The joy of the chila is that it is so simple.  The recipe is quite simply mix, fry, eat.

Uses?  Starter, side dish.  I have two warmed in the mike for breakfast with Maggi Chatpat sauce, HP sauce or Punjabi Teekha Mango Pickle. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

Oil for frying
As much chopped coriander (dhania) as you like

For Batter:

3/4 cup besan (gram flour)
1 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp finely chopped green chillies (optional)
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
2 tsp oil
salt to taste
3/4 cup water

For Filling:

1 small onion (finely chopped)
1 regular tomato (finely chopped)

Alternative fillings are grated paneer / cottage cheese / cooked potatoes

METHOD

1. Heat finely chopped onion and tomato in pan / wok on medium heat.  No oil needed. Stir and mix until onions are soft.  Remove from heat. Set aside.
2. Turn up heat. Add a small amount of oil to hot pan. Smoking hot is good enough.
3. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into pan.  Should make a small pancake.  Batter will start to rise and cook rapidly. 
4. When it looks half done (still wet in the middle) add a tablespoon of filling to the middle.
5. Flip over chila and cook other side.  You can add a small amount of oil to the pan whenever you feel like it to keep them from sticking. The more oil you add the crispier the chila will get.
6. Sprinkle with coriander and serve hot or freeze and mike later.
7. Serve with your favourite sauce (Chatpat), chutney, pickle or even good old HP.

If this is in the wrong forum (as it is a bread but is not a BIR recipe) please let me know or move it (or both!) :-)

Hopefully by the magic of the information superhighway there is an image below.  Fingers crossed!!

[976bar]

That looks really nice!!!

[natterjak]

Thanks for posting this DeeDee. Looks simple and versatile and I'll definately give it a try

[DeeDee]

natterjack,

Just made some this morning where the filling was just small diced potatoes and onions pre-fried.  Better than before IMHO. 

Chila - the gift that keeps on giving.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Very different and it looks good!

[natterjak]

Thanks once again DeeDee for sharing such a simple and (I must say) wonderful recipe. Today I made my first ever chilas for lunch. Prep time, what - 2 mins? 3 at a push. In fact in the time it takes my electric hob to get the pan nice and hot I had my batter ready to go.  The results were lovely and I'm delighted to have such an easy standby receipe up my sleeve for those occasions when you just want a quick and tasty lunch.

I discovered an easy (lazy) variation on the filling - a couple of tsp of onion chutney (straight out the jar) works well and I'm sure mix powder would make an adequate flavouring for the batter if you wanted an ultra low effort version (equal parts gram flour and water, bit of mix powder and salt and blam, into the pan)

The only small snags I hit were getting the batter nice and smooth with no lumps (whisking with a fork seemed to help) and pouring the batter into a natural aluminium pan is not to be recommended as it seems to stick easily. Just like any pancake batter I suppose. Switching to a non stick pan gave me great results.

What a great little recipe

[timeless]

Looks good shall have to give it a try thanks

[fishy]

That does look good, is that some sort of chutney next to it?. thanks for posting

[DeeDee]

fishy,

That particular sauce is Punjabi Teekha Mango Pickle. 

[timeless]

Just had this for lunch with a bit of mix powder in and chutney was nice though next time i'll make it a bit thinner was a little thick