Chirote Recipe

1. Add a pinch of salt, 3 tbsp hot oil, and food color (optional) to 1 & 1/2 cup of all purpose flour.
2. Knead into a semi hard dough (like a poori dough), using water. Keep it aside, covered for 15 minutes.
   
3. Mix the arrowroot powder (or cornflour) with the ghee nicely and keep aside. (You may adjust the quantity of the arrowroot or cornflour to get a consistency similar to the dough prepared above.)
   
4. Divide the dough into small equal parts about 1" in size. Adjust the size of each part such that the total number of parts is a multiple of 4. The number of parts can be 4, 8, 12, and so on.
5. Roll each part between your palms and press to flatten.
   
6. Heat oil in a pan for frying. Keep it on low-medium heat.
7. Take two parts of the dough at a time. Make a small ball with the arrowroot-ghee mixture (about 1/4 th the size of the ball of dough), and keep this in between the two dough parts, and seal the edges firmly.
   
8. Press between your palms and roll it into a thin circle, as thin as you can, on a rolling board.
   
9. Fold it into 1/4th and keep aside for some time.
   
10. Repeat the same with two more dough parts. But this time do not fold into 1/4th.
11. Instead, add about 1/2 tsp hot oil from the frying pan, and use fingers to spread evenly on the surface.
    
12. Unfold and keep the first dough circle on it, such that the two circles exactly overlap each other.
    
13. Now add 1/2 tsp of hot oil from the frying pan on the surface of the top circle, and spread evenly again.
14. Roll both the circles together, like a carpet, to make a long cylinder.
    
15. Cut the cylinder into small 1" big rectangles, with a knife.
    
16. Repeat with the rest of the dough parts. Now all the dough should be in the form of small 1" big cylinders.
17. From here onwards, you can chose the shape of chirota that you want to make:

For flower shaped chirota:

1. Take one of the small cylinders and keep it upright, so that the cut edges are at the top and at the bottom.
   
2. Press down firmly, and roll into a thin circle, about a millimeter thick.
   
3. Fry in the frying pan, on low- medium heat, while gently splashing oil in the center. All the layers of the chirota will now open up in the center like a flower.
   
4. Let it fry this way for 30-45 seconds and then remove on a paper towel. It should retain its color after frying and not turn brown.

For rectangular chirota:

1. Take one 1" cylinder of the dough and keep it flat, so that the cut edges are on the sides.
   
2. Roll in both directions, into a thin rectangle, about a millimeter thick.
   
3. Fry in the frying pan, using this special way, as shown in the video below:
4. The chirota should take at least 30-45 seconds to be done. It should retain its color and not turn brown.
5. Remove on a paper towel.

Storing :

1. Allow to cool completely.
2. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on all the chirote (as per taste), and store in an air tight container.