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Parathas are an Indian unleavened bread and an integral part of
many Indian meals. Any subzi (vegetable) or curry dish can be fabulous when
accompanied with fresh, hot parathas. Try this recipe. It’ll be worth your
while! Although we refer to this recipe as Chapatti in the video, this is
actually a Paratha recipe. The difference between the two is that Chapattis
are cooked without oil whereas Parathas are pan fried.
Ingredients
·
1 and ½ cups Whole Wheat Flour
·
¼ tsp Salt, or to taste
·
3 tsp Oil
·
½ cups Water
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Method:
Step
1: Top Tip: Whole Wheat Flour
We have used whole wheat flour from the Indian store as its a
little different from the whole wheat flour that you find in the grocery
stores.
The
one in the American grocery stores is usually a lot darker in color, so
chapattis turn a little browner than you probably like them, this one is
available in any Indian store its called chapatti atta and is readily
available.
Step
2: Coat The Dough
Just mix all that dough in and form a nice ball. It doesn't
take a lot of time at all, but people are scared to do this, because you're
using your hands and that freaks people out, but it really is not that bad.
It literally takes under a minute to make this dough. When the dough is in a
nice ball, we're going to take just a couple of drops of oil, just to lightly
coat it and in that way it doesn't form a dry skin on top of the dough. Then
keep it covered for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Step
3: An Alternative Method
So if you are not comfortable using your hands while making the
dough, here's another alternative way of doing it. Here's the whole wheat
flour, I'm going to use the food processor, and use a chopping blade instead
of a dough blade, because it just mixes better and it gets all the edges and
there's nothing left at the sides. Mix in the salt at this point and I'm
going to give it a mix. Then I'm going to add in the oil. Heated up the water
for 30 seconds and am going to pour it in very slowly once i have the food
processor on. This is just as easy. It's best just to give it one knead by
hand just to incorporate everything and make sure there's no air bubbles and
all in it. This food processor option is really good if you're making dough
in bulk because i understand that dough freezes really well Then put a couple
of drops of oil and just smother a little bit, rub it a little bit so that it
doesn't dry out and cover it up. Then set it aside for 15 minutes as before.
Step
4: Size The Dough
After it has been resting for about 15 to 20 minutes we're
going to knead the dough one more time quickly. This is 1 and 1/2 cups of dry
flour, so it makes approximately 9 chapattis. But there's no signs involved,
so if you like really big chapattis it can be less and if you want small ones
you know it'll make more. But something that fits in to your palm or close
fist, a kind of a golf size ball is perfect. So just divide it out.
Step
5: Prepare The Pan
Before we start rolling out chapattis go ahead and turn on our stove and get our
pan heated. The pan are using is called a tawa. You can also use a non stick
frying pan. Put the stove on medium heat, or a little bit higher than medium.
And you want to make sure your pan is really hot before you put your first
chapatti on.
Step
6: Shape The Dough
So while our pan is heating, take dough and form a nice round
ball. If you start off with a round ball, the shape changes, but your final
chapatti will probably be round also. Then go to dip it in some dry flour,
shake off the excess and roll it out. Now this rolling pin is my favorite.
It's a thinner version, but a lot of people are used to the thicker version
of the rolling pins. Whatever you have is absolutely fine and if you notice
that your chapatti is sticking to the ground or to whatever surface you are
rolling out on, take it and dip it again in the dry flour. This is a trick
that my mom taught me when i was learning how to do this when i was little,
you rub your hand across it, and instantly you'll feel where its thicker and
where it's thinner and then you can just roll the parts that are thicker,
that way you don't have a chapatti that is really thin on one side and really
thick on the other side that also helps in blowing up when you're cooking it.
Step 7:
Cook The Chapatti
The tawa looks hot so put rolled chapatti in and move it around
to make sure it doesn't stick. Then leave it alone until we start seeing
bubbles appearing, and then flip it around, and let go for a few seconds. Now take some oil and just dip your spoon in to
your oil and then whatever is left, the remainder few drops, just put it on
and smear it on like that and flip it around and press. You want to press
where it bubbles to force the air to the other side which is not risen yet.
Smear the oil again and press.
You
want to cook the chapatti until you see that all the doughiness is gone and
it looks fully cooked. It's ok to have little brown spots on it.
Step 8:
Serve
It
looks delicious and there's nothing like home made chapattis. You can buy
these from the store but when you taste these like fresh off the stove it's
awesome. And one of the other reasons why it doesn't taste as nice sometimes
is a lot of people don't use oil in their chapattis, but I put oil inside the
dough and what happens with that is that when you eat the chapatti a little
bit later on, it still tastes nice and soft, as supposed to the dough which
has been prepared without oil, which tends to turn a little bit chewier. Once
the chapatti is cooked I like to keep it in a nice insulated cannister like
this. It helps it to stay nice and warm. So you can finish all your chapattis
and sit with you family and enjoy your dinner and they'll still be piping
hot. So there we have it. Fresh home made chapattis.
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