Sel Roti

Nepal's crisp fermented rice ring, poured in a circle into hot ghee by hand and fried until it puffs and crackles

Origin: Kathmandu & the Nepal Himalaya

From the journey of Rice.

Sel roti is a ring rather than a bread, and it is made by a technique that takes most people several attempts to manage. Rice is soaked overnight, ground wet with sugar and spices into a thick batter, left to ferment, and then poured, by hand and in a single continuous stream, in a circle directly into hot ghee. It puffs almost at once, is turned with a long skewer, and comes out crisp on the outside and springy within, sweet and faintly sour, with a texture no wheat doughnut approaches. The fermentation is what gives it the sourness and the lift. The ground batter is left for six hours or overnight, and it is the wild lactic activity in that time that makes the ring rise in the oil without any raising agent at all. A batter used immediately gives a flat, heavy sel that Nepali cooks would not serve. The pouring is the skill and it cannot really be taught in writing. The batter must be exactly thick enough to hold a ring and exactly loose enough to pour in an unbroken line, and it is dropped from a height of a few inches with the hand moving in a smooth circle so the two ends meet. Practised makers manage a perfect circle every time; everyone else produces a few figures of eight and eats them anyway. It belongs to Tihar, the autumn festival of lights, and to Dashain, and it is made in quantity, given between households, and stacked in tall rings on the table. It travels well and keeps for days, which is why it went with Nepali communities into Sikkim, Darjeeling, and Bhutan and is now made across that whole eastern Himalayan belt.

Ingredients

Batter

  • 500 g short or medium-grain white rice
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 3 tbsp ghee, melted, plus more for frying
  • 120 ml milk or water, approximately
  • 1 banana, mashed (optional, for softness)
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
  • 0.25 tsp ground cloves
  • 0.5 tsp salt

Frying

  • 1 litre ghee or neutral oil, for deep frying

Method

  1. Rinse the rice and soak it in plenty of cold water overnight, or for at least eight hours.
  2. Drain it thoroughly and grind it, in batches and with as little liquid as you can manage, to a thick smooth paste. A wet grinder or a powerful blender is needed; a food processor will leave it gritty.
  3. Beat in the sugar, melted ghee, spices, salt, and the banana if using, then add the milk a little at a time.
  4. Stop when the batter falls from a spoon in a thick unbroken ribbon that holds its shape for a second before settling. This consistency is everything: too thin and the ring breaks apart in the oil, too thick and it will not pour.
  5. Cover and leave at warm room temperature for six hours, or overnight in a cool kitchen. It will lighten, smell faintly sour, and show small bubbles.
  6. Beat the fermented batter well for two or three minutes to bring air into it before frying.
  7. Heat the ghee in a wide deep pan to about 170°C. Too hot and the outside colours before the inside cooks; too cool and it drinks fat.
  8. Take a handful of batter, close your fist, and let it run from between your thumb and forefinger from a few inches above the oil, moving your hand in a circle so the ends meet.
  9. Alternatively pour it from a jug or a squeeze bottle, which is what most home cooks now do and which is a good deal easier.
  10. The ring will float and puff within seconds. Let it set for thirty seconds before touching it.
  11. Turn it with a long skewer or two chopsticks and fry until both sides are deep golden and the surface has crackled, about three minutes in all.
  12. Lift out, drain on a rack rather than paper so it stays crisp, and cool completely before stacking. It keeps for three or four days.

Notes

The batter consistency and the fermentation are the two things that decide this, and neither can be hurried. Grind the rice as smoothly as you can with as little water as possible, then adjust at the end. Use a squeeze bottle or a jug for your first attempts rather than the hand-pour, which takes practice and wastes batter. Keep the oil at a steady moderate heat and fry only two or three at a time so the temperature does not crash. Ghee gives the correct flavour and oil is the practical substitute. Cool them fully before stacking, since a warm sel roti stacked on another goes soft.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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