How to make Elawalu Rotti

Home away from home, this is a simple (yet messy) recipe that has helped keep the homesickness away - and allows bragging rights to most Sri Lankans back home *grin*

Here goes - You mix piti (flour) and water in to a nice, unsticky ball. You can decide how much water and piti you need, I played it by ear. Add a teaspoon of butter, helps to make it smooth and unsticky. Make them in to nice round 'guli' a little smaller than a tennis ball. Leave them in vegetable oil overnight if possible, or 20/30 minutes will do. 

Make your own potatoe/ onion/ fish/ chicken/ meat/ sausage whatever filling you like separately. Then take the piti guli you left overnight and smooth it out best you can without tearing it...think of a godamba rotiya or a handkerchief ;) I used my fingers.

Put the potatoe filling inside and you know what to do. Try to imagine the size and shape of an elawalu rotiya :) Then fry it.

Warning: for some reason you can only try this once with each 'guliya', if there are too many holes, just deal with it since you cannot put it back in the oil, it doesn't work again, it's not like clay!

The more you make, the more you will get better at it. Pretty easy..make sure you fry the edges too.

Enjoy! Don't forget some ketchup/ sauce with it. Better if it's Sri Lankan 'tomato ketchup' :)

It's hard to describe the feeling of awe when I discover that home is really where the food is.

Haha, I kid myself here a bit. But if I can't have the people, then at least the same food does give me some sort of satisfaction.

This 'particular elawalu rottiya had potatoe and turkey pepperoni inside.

Enjoy!