Thread by @CulinaryCultrCo

1/8 Unless you are the luckiest man in the world you will find it impossible to get a good kulcha outside of Amritsar.

There is a reason for that. At most restaurants, there is just one tandoor and everything goes into that.

2/8 But you can’t cook a good kulcha in a hot tandoor like you can cook a naan or a tandoori roti. A kulcha needs its own special tandoor kept at a gentle temperature.

3/8 Only in Punjab are there so many restaurants dedicated to kulchas which have tandoors kept at perfect kulcha temperatures. The cook will roll out the dough in layers, smearing each layer with a coating of ghee.

4/8 He will then add stuffing (say gobhi or aloo) and smack the kulcha onto the inside wall of a warm tandoor.

In the ten minutes that the kulcha spends in the tandoor, the ghee will slowly start to melt between the layers of dough.

5/8 As the kulcha cooks the melting ghee imparts delicious flakiness which is the hallmark of a good kulcha.

You can get good kulchas in say, Ludhiana but only Amritsar’s cooks know how to make great kulchas.

6/8 At a busy restaurant, there will often be twenty kulchas stuck to the walls of the tandoor. Each will have been put in at a different time. Nobody can keep track of when each kulcha went in so you need a cook with an expert eye and an instinct for exactly..

7/8 ..when each kulcha is ready. Pull it out too early and there will be no flakiness. Pull it out too late and the kulcha will be dry.

Once a kulcha is ready you don’t need very much else. Unlike a tandoori roti which is usually an accompaniment..

8/8 ..the kulcha is the star of the show. Kulchas or Naans? Comment below!

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