ROTI
3 Cups Flour (I use 2 cups of plain and 1 cup of wholemeal) plus more to dust. You don’t have to have chapatti flour, you can use it if its available and you wish to do so.
½ tsp salt (optional)
1 tbl melted ghee or butter
1 cup quite warm water
Makes 10-12
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre add the melted butter/ghee, then slowly add the warm water mixing it into a soft, pliable dough. Kneed for 8-10 min and then place in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth for 20 min.
Put a nonstick frying pan, a flat griddle pan or a tava/tawri ( if you have one) over a medium to high heat.
Divide the dough into equal portions (10-12) depending on the size. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin ( I use an indian rolling pin that is thin and tapered towards the ends). Flatten each portion into discs using your hands, smear with a little melted butter/ghee and sprinkle some plain flour in each. Pinch to make a parcel and the roll into a ball and place it under the damp cloth, until you have done all of them.
On your floured surface roll out each ball into a 15-16 cm circle, turn the dough a ¼ circle to get the round shape you want, you can dust with more flour while rolling. Just remember to to remove the excess flour at the end by placing the roti in the palm of your end and gently slapping it from one hand to the other.
Place the roti on the hot pan for 10 sec or until bubbles form on the underside, turn the roti using a spatula and press down as you cook the other side ( pressing down will make the roti puff up) turn once more pressing down again, once cooked ( each roti shouldn’t take more than 30-40 seconds to cook. Smear the roti with melted ghee or butter and leaved stacked on a plate with a tea towel until you have cooked them all.
Serve hot with any curry of your choice.
