Now that the A-Z challenge is over I am trying to get back on my bloggy schedule. Before the challenge I had started a weekly edition of "Across the Pond". If this is your first time to walk across the pond, then you can read the guidelines here. If you are unable to join us, then you can always wait in the Q with the Sabzi Wala.
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| Roti |
I mentioned in one my last few challenge posts that we make bread 3 times a day. Most people had a hard time comprehending it so I thought it would make a great "Across the Pond" post. We have bread with every meal and I know what you're thinking; CARBS, but you would be surprised at how THIN everyone in my husband's family is. Which is totally unfair but that is another post altogether. The bread we eat is called "roti" and it is a flat yeastless bread that is "baked" over a gas stove called a "chula".
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| chula |
This one is a bit more modern than the one we use. Ours sits on the counter top. We don't have an oven so all of our food is cooked on the chula. Breakfast roti is called "prata". The difference between roti and prata is that prata is fried in oil where as roti is more like "pita bread". The food is eaten by hand with the roti instead of silverware.
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| how to eat using roti |
The fact I can actually do this and eat as well as anyone else shocks everyone. How and what do I eat are the two questions EVERYONE asks me. I have no idea why this is so amazing to people, but everyone is just amazed by this fact.
I would attempt to explain how roti is made but I found this video on youtube. It was easier than trying to explain each step. There are a few differences as to how we make the roti though. We use a tsp of salt in our dough and they don't in the video. At the end they add oil on top, but we don't. Other than that it is basically the same process. Also in the video, they call the flour "chapati flour" which is basically whole wheat flour, but any flour would work.
This is how roti is cooked in the home, but my favorite roti is the ones that are cooked in a tandoor. All of the roti from the bakery, restaurants, or street vendors is cooked in a tandoor. To me, a tandoor looks nothing more than a hole in the ground with a fire at the bottom, but it is actually a clay oven which is heated by charcoal or wood fire. The roti is placed a long side the walls of the oven and baked. It makes the bread extremely soft and delicious.
Here is a very short video of how roti is cooked in the tandoor. It's only about a minute long but you can get the idea of how they get it in and out as well as see the coals at the bottom.
Two roti is normal serving size for an adult per meal (at least in our household). Until I came overseas I never realized exactly how LARGE the serving sizes in USA are. When I went home to visit a few years ago, it was definitely culture shock. The serving sizes overseas are less than half what you get in the USA. A medium sized soft drink from a fast food place here is smaller than the small size in USA.
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| sample meal serving with roti |
I hope you enjoyed learning how bread is made across the pond.
PS: sorry about the false start earlier. I was trying to save the post but blogger had other ideas (insert eye roll here)
