Basicrotisorchappatis Recipes

BASIC ROTIS OR CHAPPATIS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, add the flour, making a small depression in the centre.
• Pour 1/4 cup water into the flour and start mixing with the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
• Add remaining water as required, until the flour comes together to form a dough.
• If the mixture is too dry and falls apart, add some more water; if it is too sticky and sticks to your fingers, dust it with some more flour.
• Now knead the dough well for about 5 to 10 minutes; the more you knead it, the softer your rotis will be.
• Cover and keep aside for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Heat a heavy skillet on a low flame.
• Meanwhile, divide the dough into 6 lemon-sized balls and roll into 7-inch circles on a generously floured board using a rolling pin, adding sprinklings of flour to keep the roti from sticking to the rolling pin.
• Once the skillet is sufficiently hot, place one roti on it and increase the flame to medium-high.
• After about 20 seconds, turn the roti and cook on the other side.
• When small-medium bubbles start to appear on the surface of the roti (about 1 minute), remove it from the skillet, remove the skillet from the flame and turn the roti over directly on the flame.
• It should puff up completely; you might need some practice with it.
• Once it puffs up, remove it from the flame and serve hot with any vegetable side!
• Oh, and repeat the cooking procedure for all 6 balls.

CHAPATI (EAST AFRICAN BREAD)

Steps:

• Mix 2 cups flour and salt together in a bowl. Slowly mix in enough water to make a thick dough. Mix in oil until combined.
• Knead dough on a cool surface for a few minutes, adding a few spoonfuls of flour. Return dough to the bowl, cover with a clean cloth, and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C).
• Heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat.
• Divide dough into orange-sized balls. Flatten into 6-inch circles. Fry in batches in the hot skillet, turning once, until golden brown and spotted, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Keep chapatis warm in the oven.

INDIAN CHAPATI BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the olive oil and enough water to make a soft dough that is elastic but not sticky. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth. Divide into 10 parts, or less if you want bigger breads. Roll each piece into a ball. Let rest for a few minutes.
• Heat a skillet over medium heat until hot, and grease lightly. On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out the balls of dough until very thin like a tortilla. When the pan starts smoking, put a chapati on it. Cook until the underside has brown spots, about 30 seconds, then flip and cook on the other side. Continue with remaining dough.

CHAPATI BREADS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flours, salt and, if desired, garlic powder. Stir in water and oil. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 8-10 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 10 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 6-in. circle. In a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet, cook breads over medium heat until lightly browned, 1 minute on each side. Keep warm.

HOW TO MAKE CHAPATIS

Steps:

• To make the dough we're going to add our flour to a bowl and sprinkle the salt. This is optional, in case you know you don't use salt that's fine too.
• Incorporate the salt well, and then we'll pour oil inside it.
• Now you want to mix the flour again to make sure all the oil gets incorporated in to the flour and you don't want lumps of oil in there. just for a few seconds.
• When the oil and salt are nicely incorporated, add water slowly. This water has been warmed in the microwave for about 30 seconds, pour little at a time and just mix.
• We have used whole wheat flour from the Indian store as its a little different from the whole wheat flour that you find in the grocery stores.
• The one in the American grocery stores is usually a lot darker in color, so chapattis turn a little browner than you probably like them, this one is available in any Indian store its called chapatti atta and is readily available.
• Just mix all that dough in and form a nice ball.
• It doesn't take a lot of time at all, but people are scared to do this, because you're using your hands and that freaks people out, but it really is not that bad. It literally takes under a minute to make this dough.
• When the dough is in a nice ball, we're going to take just a couple of drops of oil, just to lightly coat it and in that way it doesn't form a dry skin on top of the dough. Then keep it covered for about 15 to 20 minutes.
• So if you are not comfortable using your hands while making the dough, here's another alternative way of doing it. Here's the whole wheat flour, I'm going to use the food processor, and if you notice I'm using a chopping blade instead of a dough blade, because it just mixes better and it gets all the edges and there's nothing left at the sides.
• I'm going to mix in the salt at this point and I'm going to give it a mix.
• Then I'm going to add in the oil.
• I've also heated up the water for 30 seconds and am going to pour it in very slowly once i have the food processor on. This is just as easy.
• It's best just to give it one knead by hand just to incorporate everything and make sure there's no air bubbles and all in it.
• This food processor option is really good if you're making dough in bulk because i understand that dough freezes really well
• Then put a couple of drops of oil and just smother a little bit, rub it a little bit so that it doesn't dry out and cover it up. Then set it aside for 15 minutes as before.
• After it has been resting for about 15 to 20 minutes we're going to knead the dough one more time quickly.
• This is 1 and 1/2 cups of dry flour, so it makes approximately 9 chapattis. But there's no signs involved, so if you like really big chapattis it can be less and if you want small ones you know it'll make more.
• But something that fits in to your palm or close fist, a kind of a golf size ball is perfect.So just divide it out.
• Before we start rolling out our chapattis we'll go ahead and turn on our stove and get our pan heated.
• The pan we are using is called a tawa. You can also use a non stick frying pan.
• Put the stove on medium heat, or a little bit higher than medium. And you want to make sure your pan is really hot before you put your first chapatti on.
• So while our pan is heating, we're going to take our dough and form a nice round ball. If you start off with a round ball, the shape changes, but your final chapatti will probably be round also.
• We're then going to dip it in some dry flour, shake off the excess and role it out.
• Now this rolling pin is my favorite. It's a thinner version, but a lot of people are used to the thicker version of the rolling pins. Whatever you have is absolutely fine and if you notice that your chapatti is sticking to the ground or to whatever surface you are rolling out on, take it and dip it again in the dry flour.
• This is a trick that my mom taught me when i was learning how to do this when i was little, you rub your hand across it, and instantly you'll feel where its thicker and where it's thinner and then you can just roll the parts that are thicker, that way you don't have a chapatti that is really thin on one side and really thick on the other side that also helps in blowing up when you're cooking it.
• The tawa looks hot so we're going to put our rolled chapatti in and move it around to make sure it doesn't stick.
• Then we leave it alone until we start seeing bubbles appearing, and then we're going to flip it around, and let go for a few seconds.
• Now we're going to take some oil and you can just dip your spoon in to your oil and then whatever is left, the remainder few drops, just put it on and smear it on like that and flip it around and press. You want to press where it bubbles to force the air to the other side which is not risen yet. Smear the oil again and press.
• You want to cook the chapatti until you see that all the doughiness is gone and it looks fully cooked. It's ok to have little brown spots on it.
• It looks delicious and there's nothing like home made chapattis. You can buy these from the store but when you taste these like fresh off the stove it's awesome.
• And one of the other reasons why it doesn't taste as nice sometimes is a lot of people don't use oil in their chapattis, but I put oil inside the dough and what happens with that is that when you eat the chapatti a little bit later on, it still tastes nice and soft, as supposed to the dough which has been prepared without oil, which tends to turn a little bit chewier.
• Once the chapatti is cooked I like to keep it in a nice insulated cannister like this. It helps it to stay nice and warm. So you can finish all your chapattis and sit with you family and enjoy your dinner and they'll still be piping hot.
• note: if u dont wish to use oil on ur chapatis just use a clean cloth to press the chapatis after u have flipped them the second time n press lightly to ensure the air is distributed evenly and the chapatis wud puff up.enjoy !

CHAPATIS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, stir together the flours and salt. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the olive oil and enough water to make a soft dough that is elastic but not sticky.
• Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 mins until it is smooth. Divide into 10 pieces, or less if you want bigger breads. Roll each piece into a ball. Let rest for a few mins.
• Heat a frying pan over medium heat until hot, and grease lightly. On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out the balls of dough until very thin like a tortilla.
• When the pan starts smoking, put a chapati on it. Cook until the underside has brown spots, about 30 seconds, then flip and cook on the other side. Put on a plate and keep warm while you cook the rest of the chapatis.