How To Make a Seriously Good Chappati

TheFoolOnTheHill

OK – this one’s for you Zoeperman

How to prepare a seriously good Indian chappati…didn’t think it was that hard till wisdom dawned: I realized that it took an Italian to teach me how to really make seriously decent pesto.

The same rules apply to Italian and Indian cuisine: be fussy beyond belief about using

a) natural organic fresh fresh fresh ingredients
b) using utensils made of natural material
c) cooking with a truckload of lurrrrve and laughter (makes a difference!)
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Making the Chappati:

Ok, into a cold, large, open mouthed steel pan, shake in organic whole wheat flour. If you can get the stone ground flour, not machine ground, so much the better

Drizzle in cool ( not cold, never warm) water; quickly start fingering/forking the flour into a breadcrumb-like state. If you’re using your hands, make sure your hands are cool!
Working quickly, dribble in more cool water to make a semi-solid lump of dough
Now – knead the dough really really really well, using your fist to constantly roll towards the centre and sides of the lump of dough ( the same way you’d knead pasta dough to get that smooth glassy surface). This step is really important – will result in a homogenous chappati
Now leave the lump in a warm, airy place, either covered with a very slightly damp cotton cloth or with a mesh lid/ loose lid. The lump needs to breathe, and will take a few minutes to become long-staple or glutenise or do whatever The Secret Life of the Rising Dough does.
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When you’re Rady To Eat: roll a lime sized piece of the dough quickly into an evenly flat circle ( my circles look like the changing Arctic outline but hey). Use a wooden rolling pin and a wooden board – I think it makes a difference! Do not use more dry flour when rolling out the chappati – that’s the reason those black spots appear when you heat the chappati.

Place the circle on a lightly oiled, hot iron tawa. Flip over quickly at least 4 – 5 times.

Sunflower oil is best, olive oil isn’t a good idea.

How hot should the tawa be? Hot enough to make you think of Pamela Anderson, not so smokin’ that you can light your Ganesh beedi off of it.
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Now – eat the chappati rightaway, while it is steaming hot. 99% of the taste is in the heat.

Sorry - don't have a YouTube video yet to demonstrate

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mirjamd

Thanks for the description. Just yesterday I was struggling with hard chapati's.... I think my mistake was not kneading it enough, and not letting it rise.... Too impatient in the morning to wait for all that. but now I know better!

TheFoolOnTheHill

I've described the purist way of making chappati...I know others recommend adding salt, a tsp of curd, cumin seeds et al to the mix but you don't need any of that!

OK - if you're too impatient to wait, you can add a tsp of sunflower oil into the dough as you knead from the breadcrumb-to-lump stage.

It will soften the dough enough to roll out faster.

sssall

There are a couple of Youtube videos that show how to make roti.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT642_NjYlE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWn8fBuyKR0

Zoeperman

Thanks a lot!

Now it is up to my cooking skills

/me will let you know the result (either it works out fine, or my kitchen burns down) :P

machadinha

Simple as they are, I find them surprisingly hard to get right. Esp. not to make them too stiff indeed.

Briefly turning them over an open fire (can be your gas stove for lack of anything better) with a pair of kitchen tongs (or a fork and spoon or something if you don't have any) in the final instance helps to make them puff up and lend them that airy texture. Is this not standard procedure?

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zoltan

My neighbour (non-Indian), makes the best naan outside of India (even better than the Indian restaurants).

She makes up a dough (using a bread maker) then rolls out the dough into an oval shape and puts onto a terracotta roof tile which is in her oven. Within a few minutes, the bread rises and is ready to eat.

The key is using a clean tile (and it must be terracotta - other tiles may explode).

I'm intrigued with the recipe from TheFoolOnTheHill, aren't chapattis supposed to be made without oil on a pan ? I've always been taught that you should have a hot dry pan and never to use any oils on it.

Cheers
Zoltan

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machadinha

That's my understanding too yes (no oil) -- just thought I'd not be my snotty old self for a change

It's been a while since I tried, can't remember if I use oil or not. Probably not. Between numerous variations (including Surinamese in these parts) there's quite some ways to go about it really.

The basics (for chapatis) is just flour and water indeed I think, in keeping with Fool's description. Which is also why they easily come out too stiff though. I'm quite willing to believe getting "real" flour makes all the difference, it is so for many breads and the likes. Not so easily accomplished in an urban western setting, although where I live at least there should be a friendly mill never too far away. Try your local organic (or, indeed, subcontinental) store.

That terra cotta tile by way of imitating a tandoor (for naan) sounds like a good idea Zoltan. I thought you guys go nowhere without your barbecues anyway?

Cardamom

Maybe this makes me bad, but I put my chappatis in the freezer after I make them I never have enough time to make them fresh each and every meal. So I make a big batch (30 or so) and then freeze them between parchment paper. I add a little ghee to the recipe and some salt which seems to revive them when it comes to cookin' time. They come out really great - OK so not as good as being fresh, but it's still pretty good. I just refuse to buy the pre-made frozen ones when it's so much cheaper to make them myself.

-C (Cheap and Lazy)

brishti

hmm... the first time i tried to make roti's/chappati's -
they totally resembled/tasted like papads/papadams and the shape kinda resembled a rounded italy

then i learnt the trick!
whilst kneading the dough - yup a teaspoonful of oil, together with water.
the more you knead the dough - the better it is.[ great way to take out all them suppressed wants! ]
so after kneading/thumping/boxing the lump - yup - set it aside for an hour as OT suggested - covered with a damp cloth.

second trick:
whilst rolling out a ball of dough - dont roll it out too thin.
keep it a lil thick.
no oil on the pan... parathas need that.
heat the tawa - turn chappati over just a couple of times.
take tawa off fire - with tongs flip chappati directly on the gas fire till it fluffs out.

nowadays - them chappati's kinda have the australia shape.
one of these days - will get them to look round



:brishti

MrsC_772

Glad I'm not the only one who has trouble making round chapatis!

I was taught to simply use flour and water, and no oil either in the dough or in the pan. I suspect the texture of mine is a bit heavy and stiff because I don't knead the dough for long enough, or leave it to stand before dividing and rolling out.

I was also taught to keep the chapati moving in the pan (I just use a small non-stick frying pan, not a tawa - if it was good enough for Ganesh, my Delhi friends' cook, it's good enough for me). Use a folded up piece of kitchen roll to push down on the edge of the chapati, and move it round the pan (ie either clockwise or anticlockwise, rotating around the centre of the chapati), and push down on the edges of the chapati "lightly, lightly!" as you do this (I can still hear the voice of Ganesh saying this whenever I make chapatis) on the edge. Ganesh claimed that this helped start off the process of getting the air/steam bubbles in the dough, that mean that when you then hold the chapati directly over the gas flame, it puffs up properly.

federica

I am another one the most interesting one had the shape of Africa

edwardseco

All I remember was that it was well nigh impossible for me to learn the kneading process and that it takes a long time for women to complete it even with skill. So, in a moment generously fueled by a bottle of Chivas Regal, I became a consultant to a venture to machine produce such in India. Fortunately, I sobered up..

TheFoolOnTheHill

(whoops with joy at each of your replies )

Isn't a simple, soft, super hot chappatti a Thing of Beauty and a Joy Forever?!

Quickie points: no non-stick frying pans please, if possible! Apart from being carcinogenic, they don't emit that earthy organic texturey taste that iron/clay does. I make no apologies for being a snotty purist ...!

I haven't eaten one made on a terracotta tile ( ref. Zoltan) but have licked my fingers after slurping over my clay-oven baked tandoor naans. Oh - well, if the pan isn't the exact perfect degree of hot ( hot is when Enrique Iglesias starts kissing my neck in my dreams...) then yes, you do need that drop of oil in the iron tawa.

Yes, all you need is lurrrrrve; well, just plain whole wheat flour and cool water. Maybe a tsp of oil ( I prefer a tsp of pure ghee at the very end).

Freezing is an inevitable necessity these days but try to make as little dough as possible, so there's less to freeze! ( Sorry!) Even if you do freeze, remember to thaw / air in a warm airy spot.

Brishti! Aiiiieyeeeee Please don't thump / box the dough! It should be kneaded in a forward-forward-sideway-forward continuous loving – take-out-all-the-weeks’- frustration kind of motion...

Macha: maybe you need to add an extra kiss of water...too dry means stiff chapattis.

Oh and the last point: I never advocate the hold over the naked gas flame trick. Again - that gassy chemical taste! I did warn you, I'm a purist!

The magic is in the thorough kneading.

nosianai

My Mom-in-law kneads the dough faster than I can pretend to be busy with something else so she won't ask me to do it. It's a 3min job right from taking out the atta and adding room-temp water, messing it up, kneading it together et voila: there you go. She roasts them on an old tawa. It used to be non-stick. But that's a long, long time ago. They won't roast there for even a minute before being tossed onto the flame. She basically flaunts all rules of the trade, but those rotis are the best.

I have been trying to make the perfect roti for the past six years. By now I managed to roll them out round, but though i spend an eternity on the kneading process they are just no good. My husband, though, professes he likes them. Must be one of his major marital adjustments.