Making chapati

Boaz's coworkers do not believe something constitutes a meal unless it includes rice or chapati.  Samosas?  A snack.  Pizza?  A snack.  Fettuccine alfredo?  Also not a meal apparently.  The western style bread here is pretty terrible.  And we love bread.  So I have to make lots of chapati.  I don't mind.  Today I am going to experiment with making and rolling a bunch of dough to cook up as needed later.  Wish me luck!

(Siera's version of a) recipe and pictures after the jump.

 

You'll need a clean, dry working surface; flour; salt; ghee or butter, though ghee has a nice nutty flavor; water; a fork; and probably a bigger bowl.

 

The ratio is about 2 parts flour to 1 scant part water.  Throw in a blob of ghee and a little salt. 

 Mix until it starts to form a ball.  (Blogger won't let me reorient these pictures and it's too late to retake them with my phone's facial recognition turned off. Sorry!)

Start to kneed the dough, adding flour and water as necessary.  It should be wet/dry/oily enough that you do not need a floured working surface.

Knead until you have a smooth, slightly elastic ball of dough.  This takes me about 5 minutes.

You can let it rest on the counter, but it will stick.  I put it on some flour in a bowl and cover with a towel.

Make yourself some chai and frantically search for your winebottle-cum-rollingpin while your dough rests for 30 minutes.

Make doughy golf balls.

Coat each ball with flour as you go.

Keep your work surface and rolling pin floured as you roll out very thin discs.  I dusted each disc with extra flour, stacked them up, gingerly placed them in a clean tea towel, put that in a plastic bag and shoved it in the fridge.  We'll see if they are usable later.  But to cook them:

I use the medium setting on my smaller gas burner and grease the pan with a little more ghee.

Cook until it starts to bubble all over.

Flip and cook on the other side for 10-15 seconds.  If your chapati isn't browning, the heat isn't high enough.  If you want a more restaurant like chapati and to hasten the expansion of your waistline, brush both sides with more ghee.  It'll burn, but eat the first one straight off the skillet, just to check it is okay.  Maybe the second one too.

So, are y'all even interested in these kinds of recipe posts?  If not, I won't make them, but you'll still see a lot of our dinners.