Roti pairs perfectly with any kind of indian dish imaginable- dal, meat curries, tikkas & kababs. I am sharing a ton of pictures in this post to help you make perfect roti each and every time. I can’t remember a single meal in my home when there weren’t homemade rotis. Mom or grandmother served soft rotis straight off the tawa (griddle)smeared with homemade ghee or with grainy white butter on to everyone’s plate. You would hardly count how many you to eat,the ladies of the house took rounds to help each other on occasions like Sunday lunch when the whole family was eating together. My badi mummy made the best rotis and parathas. She rolled perfect soft rounds,charred with black spots from the high flame on both sides. My mother makes the second best to her. I might already be sounding obsessive with these sorts of descriptions but trust me in indian homes, especially in northern parts, roti making is a serious business. Roti is after all the revered daily bread, something you start and end your day with.
What Is Roti
Roti is a everyday unleavened flatbread made using whole wheat flour(atta) in indian homes. Some families also refer to roti as chapati.The slight difference is in process of rolling the dough. Chapati is flattened using hands by slapping the dough on a hard surface. Fulka/ phulka is another name used in India for much thinner, puffy rotis. It would be really surprising but as compared to the naan, which got more popular in the west, in indian homes, naan is a once in a while thing. Naan is something you order when eating at restaurants.When mom made really special exotic curries or we had family gatherings, she would send us with home-made yeasty dough to the street side guy with the tandoor and we came back with stacks of naan for supper.
Ingredients Needed To Make Roti
You just need 2 ingredients to make roti.
Atta- Atta is fine milled whole wheat flour. Atta is easily available in any indian store or online. I wot suggest substituting atta with whole wheat flour available in baking aisle of store. Rotis are much darker in color and tough to make with regular whole wheat flour. If you can find sharbati atta which is made from one of the finest wheat variety, go for it. I rotate between whole wheat atta and multigrain atta in my house. Water- Slightly warm water makes soft rotis.
Optional Ingredients Salt - Can be added to dough. I don’t. Ghee- For smearing on cooked rotis. I highly recommend but you can skip.
Process of Making Soft Roti (Step By Step Pictures)
Let’s get to making some rotis.Shall we? I have invariably used the word ‘atta’ in my post and recipe. Atta is nothing Hindi for whole wheat flour (atta is used for both dry as well as wet flour as well as the dough)
Making The Roti Dough
Step1:- Measure the atta (durum wheat flour) and slowly, start adding (warm) water to it.In India, we use a paraat (a utensil made of brass/copper/stainless less specifically for kneading roti dough). The one you see in pictures, is some 40 year old treasure from my grandmother, still going strong. Incorporate water in a circular motion into the atta with your fingers.Start kneading gently. As the atta absorbs water,it will start clumping up. Continue to add water till all the dry flour becomes wet, your hands will be mighty messy but the flour starts to come together. At this point,ensure that the atta is not very dry,try to squeeze it between your palms as if making a fist and it should be soft and sticky (and messy!). Start using your knuckles to knead the atta next. Use your knuckles to flatten it out and then pull it all together towards yourself using your palm & fingers,then knead again with knuckles to flatten out. Knead this way (flatten and bring together) repeatedly for 5-7 minutes. At any point you feel that the dough is tight or drying out, add a light splash of warm water. Towards the last 1-2 minutes of kneading, use both hands to knead for a very smooth & elastic dough (this will work up the gluten really fast).You could add a bit to oil while kneading to make it smoother. Time to rest those gluten.Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for (not more than) 15-18 minutes.You could smear a layer of melted ghee or oil on top but you really do not need it if the proportion of water is correct and you made sure that the dough didn’t feel or look dry when kneading dough will stay moist during rest time but starts losing moisture after 20 minutes. If you are not planning to make rotis right away, place the dough into an air tight container with lid and refrigerate. When ready to make rotis, uncover and divide into equal portions.If you refrigerated the dough, take it out 10-15 minutes before and let sit on kitchen counter.
Roll the Roti Dough
Take each dough portion between palms of your both hands and roll to make as smooth balls as possible. Flatten the balls. Get some loose atta on to the dish. Its time to roll rotis! Roll each ball in the loose atta and place on a smooth rolling stone or pastry board or kitchen surface. Flatten out lightly from edges using tips of your finger. Using a rolling-pin, start rolling the dough to a flat circle. Dust the board or the roti as and when required when rolling. Initially, you will need to dust more but it will get easier as you continue. It takes practice to get the shape. Even if you don’t get perfect rounds its okay,doesnt affect the taste.The trick to roll perfect rotis is that when you are rolling the dough it should also be moving in circular direction by itself. If not, you can move it yourself and flatten from all sides to get a 6-7" round. Tip :-to get thin edges of rotis is that towards the last 15-20 seconds of rolling, your rolling-pin should be half on the rolling board and half of the roti.
Cook Roti on Tawa
Place a tawa (cast iron griddle), I use 12" cast iron on high to heat up. Keep the box lined with kitchen towel near by to store rotis. Tip:- To find out that the tawa is hot enough, sprinkle a little dry flour on the hot tawa. If the flour darkens, tawa is ready for cooking rotis. Dont forget to wipe out the dry flour before placing the roti. When the griddle is hot, flour one of your hands and carefully, lift the roti. Place the roti on the hot tawa.Cook it for 30-40 seconds (this time will depend on thicken of your roti too) on first side,just so you see the surface changing color or trying slightly. I would say about 25% cooked. Flip using kitchen tongs and let cook for another 30-40 seconds on the other side. You might or might not get charred dots but do not cook on griddle for too long else the rotis will dry out. Pick the roti with tongs and place it on open flame on the first side directly on fire and very lightly press with tongs to help it puff.Let puff and get charred on first side. About 10-15 seconds.Flip and repeat for the second side. If you storing rotis, you should not let it brown too much else it will dry up. Some people like crispy and chewy rotis, so you can char them to liking. In case, you have a electrical stove with no flame, see the recipe on how to puff up the rotis. Very gently press on when you puff the second side too. Smear with ghee and wrap in a kitchen towel to store.
Serving Roti
Typically, you can serve rotis as a side bread with all sorts of things - curries (both dry & wet) to lentils to as a wrap or fried and a chips or any which way you like. One of my personal favorites is warm roti, smothered with ghee and sprinkled with sugar, rolled up. In India, it is normal to consume rotis for all meals, two, sometimes three times a day, sometimes in our house we serve roti alongside for breakfast or quick lunch too. One of my close friend once told me a very interesting way to introduce the correct way of eating rotis to the western world.“Use roti as a spoon to eat the curry and later eat the spoon”, he said. Spot on!
Freezing & Reheating Rotis
In case you want to freeze the rotis , make all the rotis and let them cool down to room temperature wrapped inside the towel. Then stack them on top of each other with a large piece of wax or parchment paper in between. When wanting to use the frozen rotis, thaw them in the fridge and warm up on high for 8-10 seconds in the microwave. You can also warm them on a warm tawa. In other news, Sinfully Spicy was featured last week by SBS Australia as a favorite indian food blog in their food section. You could read the feature here.
