chapatis

On my recent trip to india, i must have eaten in excess of a hundred chapatis in just 2.5 weeks. are chapatis the same as naan bread, because ther are no chapatis in stores in England and no naan bread in India, or at least i didnt eat any!

indianprincess Happened to ask
"are chapatis the same as naan bread"
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No Chappatties are completely different from Naans,,,,,,,
Chappatties are cooked on a hot plate, like perhaps an up-side-down wok, and are quite thin, Were as Naan bread is cooked in a Tandoor oven at very high temperature & is Umm,,,,,, more chunky.
Actually you can find both "ready to Heat" in places like Tesco in the uk, or whatever your equivalent is in Jersey
Enjoy,,,,,,,,,

nann bread if im correct are made in a tandoor oven

The greatest though are south indian parrotta ...the mix is poured in a spiral and it is quite simply the greatest bread in india though a good nann takes a lot of beating ...yes they are availbale in india that the humble chapatti is the most prevalent

A good subsitute for chapattis are the mexican tortillas available in all supermarkets in the UK

"a hundred chapatis in just 2.5 weeks" is really a lot ...

But i also really love chapattis, especially if there's some Palak Paneer involved .
Nice thing to do is to buy an apple/banana/mango and ask the roadside chapatti-wallah to bake some pieces in/along with the chapatti
(they might look at you as if you're crazy, but it's delicious ---
If you're staying longer in the same place, a total stranger may come up to you & call you the "banana-chapati-wo/man"...)

Chapatis, Naans, Dosas, you name it... Basicly its just different words for...
yeah (you guessed right)... PANCAKE!

Does anyone know a good recipe and how to make chapatis? I have a few recipes from books which I am scared to try.

After the reading the "Whats for Dinner" thread I know we have budding chefs hanging around

And I know there is more of a technique to it than just following a recipe as in India I saw them made.

Janelle

Not much to an ordinary chapatti. Mix your flour with water and kneed well untill. It should not be a very loose mixure (ie too much water). Then break a small ball of dough and roll it with a rolling pin. Have a frying pan (or a tava as they use in India) on your cooker and put your now rolled dough on to the hot pan. Let it cook and then turn over and cooke the other side. I like my chapattis dry and cooked quite hard, but cook how you like them and if you want have a pack of butter to hand and rub it over one side of the chapatti as it begins to rise.

Stuffed fried chapattis (parotey) are where the real fun and experimenting begins with fillings. Onions, boiled potatoes, cheese, grated horse radish.

I add a little salt and ghee to the dough and let the dough rest at least half an hour after preperation.

When you have a gas stove you can hold the Chapattis quickly into the fire after frying – it's nice to see them inflating.

Don't be shy. Making chapattis is not difficult. But it will take some practice to roll out perfectly round circles. No biggie, other shapes will taste just as good!

2 1/4 cups chapatti flour, sieved
2/3 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon melted ghee or butter (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place the flour in a large bowl. Thoroughly mix in the butter/ghee and salt. (the ghee will give a softer result.) Pour in the water all at once and work the flour until you have a kneadable mass. You may need to add a small amount of extra water depending on your flour. Knead the dough about 8 minutes until smooth and pliable. Cover the dough and let rest for up to 3 hours.

Knead the dough again and divide into 14 portions. Form each portion into a ball. Roll out each ball into a thin round about 6 inches in diameter. Shake off excess flour and slap the round onto your hot griddle. Cook until the bottom has brown spots. Flip it over and cook the other side. When done, brush one side with ghee or butter.

My husband and I press out any air bubbles that form during cooking. Others do not. Your choice. We also like our chapattis really thin but this is our preference and you can make them thicker if you like.

Have fun!

My boyfriend and I make chapattis all the time now, don't be afraid, they are great- and even if you mess up, the mess ups don't taste half bad. I like mine without ghee and instead I eat them with mango pickle.
oh, and any leftovers (rare), my dogs love as a treat.

Aaaah thanks guys! I'm hungry now!

Thanks for the specific recipe Kalyani as I am going to try them in the next few days so I will let you know how it goes.

And mango pickle sounds just as good too!

This is going to be fun! Will get back to you and let you know how I go!

Janelle

I've read that nan is made with white flour, chapatis are made with atta or whole wheat flour, roti... same as chapati? Try MY chapatis sometime: atta, millet & urad flour. Then try my pecan pancakes with banana syrup. Dosas, haven't made them yet.

My understanding is that "chappati" is just the universal word for "flat round bread" (not counting iddly or dosas, of course, which is a totally different ballgame). You have several basic varieties of chappati - the most common being roti, puri, parantha, and naan.

Naan is cooked in a tandoori, while roti and parantha are cooked on a griddle. Roti and parantha are just different preparations of the same basic concept, as far as I can tell. A parantha will be more elaborate with inner layers, sometimes stuffings, often topped with butter or ghee. Sometimes they're triangular or square shaped, too.

Puri is the same idea as a roti, but fried and sometimes they come all puffed up with air (though none I've had in India actually have been served this way).

I have yet to figure out what a kulcha is, though. And let's not even get into bati...

If you have withdrawal symptoms, there definitely are chapattis in stores in England!!

Asda sells some in packs of 8 - think the brand is Blue Elephant but can't be sure of that.

And big branches of Tescos sell chapatti flour. My other half has just mastered making authentic-tasting ones, so I am currently in chapatti heaven!!

Don't forget the humble (but tasty!) tandoori roti, which is different from both tava (griddle) roti and tandoori naan. The dough is not pulled the way it is with naan, and personally I often enjoy a good tandoori roti more than tandoori naan. Also, tandoori roti doesn't get as rubbery when it gets cold as naan does, giving it a slightly longer shelf life.