Chapati

Chapati with palak paneer

Chapatis are a perfect complement to dishes such as palak paneer and the chick-pea brunch. It is worth the time and effort taken to make your own (though as Mandy Rice-Davies may have quipped, "She would say that, wouldn't she?").


Chapati Recipe

4 handfuls of flour mixture (roughly a cup of flour or 125g) is sufficient to make 6 - 7 chapatis for 2 people. I would use two cups for a family. 

Add one to two tablespoons of oil to the flour, to help make it a little soft and knead it into the bread. You can skip out the oil, but it tends, unfortunately (if you worry about your waistline, that is, otherwise it's not unfortunate at all), to make the chapati both a lot easier to work with and much more palatable. 

Add water, delicately (or just any old how), just enough to make a dough that will come off your hands easily as you work with it, and you can knead it properly (getting the quantities right is a right royal pain in the proverbial, actually)

Let the dough stand for at least 15 - 20 minutes, so as to ensure the flour fully absorbs the water and oil. Otherwise, it will not roll out very well (in fact, generally speaking, it does not roll out very well. Get used to it). 

Roll into balls of "mince-ball" size (whatever size that is, depends on how you like your mince balls). OK, small mince balls (not too small, not too big, we're talking "Goldilocks" here, OK?). Remember, when the dough is rolled out thin, it must just cover the biggest plate on your stove (Goldilock's size clearly dependent on size of biggest plate on stove. If you have a stove with a plate that is - when it comes to gas cookers, you're on your own unfortunately). So that should give you a way of working out the requisite size. Or, if you are not cooking directly on the hot plate, then work on the size of your pan (ah, finally some sense emanates). That is, the size of your balls must be directly related to the size of your pan or hot-plate (don't quote me on this though). 

Roll out all the balls of chapati first, since you will be cooking directly on top of the hot plate of the stove (if you have an electrical stove) or on top of a pan (if you have a pan). Hence you will be hard pressed to undertake all the manoeuvring required per chapati (in fact, you're going to be hard-pressed regardless) unless you prepare them all before-hand (or get someone else to prepare them before-hand). Alternatively, you could get someone else (such as your husband and/or the kids) to do all the cooking, in which case you can in fact work simultaneously on the rolling out of the chapattis while he cooks them (in which case, he'll probably just stop at that nice little shop selling Indian spices on the way home, and buy freshly made ones from the woman running it if he's in time before they sell out). 

As you finish making each ball, dip it in white flour (yes, the colour of the flour is important. Why? I don't know). 

With a rolling pin, press down on each ball hard, and roll it into an oval shape. Yes, that's right - the same shape as a cricket pitch (for those not emanating from former British colonies, think egg-shaped, without a pointy bit at one end). 

Sprinkle flour on both sides of the oval (or deformed egg).

Do likewise to all the other balls (actually, just to the ones you are busy making).

Coat with a bit of oil placed on one side of the oval, making sure the oil stays on the whole in the hole within the middle of the oval (or whatever). 

Press or pinch the oval in its centre, to make a shape like a bow-tie. That is, you have two circles that are joined together in the middle (where you have pinched the oval) by a bridge of dough (if you can't make a bridge then get over it already). 

Your chapati should look like this, only much, much better

Next, fold the two circles together, so that you have again one thick circle in front of you. Press it down flat.

Coat with flour. Roll out into big circles, that are even and not too thick. (Good luck with that, it takes practice. Clearly, I haven't had enough practice.)

You will therefore end up with large thin circles of rolled out chapatis with a thin layer of oil floating between the two layers of the dough, which, in turn, will then cause the roti, when being cooked, to "puff out" and in some places separate back again into its two constituent layers. (That's the theory, anyway, in reality, mine look like hearts, triangles, squares and an entire array of mis-shapen objects in-between. My only consolation is that it makes no difference to the taste. That's my story and I'm sticking to it much as the chapatis stick to the stove). 

Chapati Cooking Method:

Set hot plate on 6 (or highest number or notch on your stove); move down to 4 (or medium-hot) once it is sufficiently hot. 

Cook on 4. Use an implement (not your hand) to press the rotis down onto the stove, since when they "puff out" they release steam which is above boiling point (obviously) and which can cause severe burns, particularly to your nerve-rich and delicate hands. If you are cooking on a hot plate with an indentation or depression in the middle of it, make sure that you move the chapati about a bit such that it cooks adequately in the middle.

Turn it over about 3 to 4 times, to make sure it's well cooked. 

Look out for any bits that are less well-cooked (i.e., often slightly thicker than in other places), and press down on these against the plate of the stove hard to make sure they are cooked.

It turns a slightly different, darker colour as it cooks, and will end up a bit "spotty" with darker patches in places. (If you can substitute charred for spotty, maybe it's time to call husband and remind him of nice little shop selling Indian spices which is on his way home). 

Important tips:

We cannot stress enough how wary you must be of steam burns, particularly that arising from the edges where they can pop open (In other words, it flipping hurts).

Fem and I normally keep the oven on low, and whip the chapatis onto a plate in the oven whilst the cooking procedure is happening. This ensures that they remain warm for serving. (It is to be noted that these kind of nice touches are often lacking when Fem isn't around to help, we have more of a "Come and eat your chapati while it is still steaming hot, burnt on the outside, slightly raw in the middle and keep quiet about it already.)

If your chapatis are not a nice round circle - "moenie worry nie" (you will get used to ignoring the plaintive wails of your children, over time) - ours aren't either! (nor are likely to be).  It takes a lot of practice (that's the theory, but if ours is a case study in support of the theory, the theory's wrong) to get them into a perfect round shape, and well, we don't have it down pat yet (nor, truth to tell, are we likely to have it down pat anytime soon, or ever). But we've found they taste just as good as the prettier-looking ones anyway (despite the arguments of my children whose plaintive wails can be heard faintly in the distance). 

The above children eat their chapatis without any fuss at all - look at how healthy and happy they are