Topic: chapatti

[qprbob]

Another tip when cooking Chapatti, is to hold down the chapatti with a t-towel. This will cause it to blister and the blisters become brown when turned over. Do this on both sides and the chapatti will have an authentic look about it.

[Salvador Dhali]

Another tip when cooking Chapatti, is to hold down the chapatti with a t-towel. This will cause it to blister and the blisters become brown when turned over. Do this on both sides and the chapatti will have an authentic look about it.

I've seen them get the blistering in BIR kitchens by holding the chapatti over the gas flame, but for those (like me) with electric hobs, simply use the rack from your grill and cook your chapatti directly over the hob for blisters galore:

[Ian S.]

I'm glad someone's posted about chappatis. I was going to start a thread - I must've missed this one.

When I started making them, before I knew where or how to get chappati flour locally, I used to use a mix of strong bread flours. My best results came with using 2 parts white to 1 part wholemeal, though I went through all sorts of ratios until I settled on that.

I remember seeing the episode of Michael Palin's 'Around the World in 80 Days' where he travels on the dhow, and it showed the ship's cook making chappatis on a tava over a gas burner. I was intrigued at the way the bread puffed up like a pillow on the tava, without being waved over an open flame.

It's a bit of a dark art getting that to happen in my kitchen, and I always feel disappointed when it doesn't, despite the chappatis being perfectly edible. I can remember a time when I could get that to happen on a regular basis, when I was using the bread flour mix. Funnily enough, it's been harder since I started using chappati flour.

I hadn't made them for a while, until I started posting here again. I bought some East End flour and just couldn't get it to puff up, although the flavour of the chappatis was lovely. Recently I bought a bag of Rajah Gold chappati flour, and had a bit of a breakthrough with it.

What I do is to place the raw chappati on the frying pan and just leave it for a few seconds - maybe 10 - before flipping it over, just to seal it. There are no brown spots at this point. Then I leave it for the standard 30 - 45 seconds or so, until the bubbles start to form in the bread. I lift it up to check that some brown blisters are appearing on the underside. and when they do, I flip again.

Then the thing starts to puff in places, and I've found the best way to encourage it is to press very gently with the back of a fish slice in circular motions, pushing the bubbles out until the whole thing puffs up. This can go wrong very easily; if I burst a blister or crack the surface it's game over, in terms of puffage. But when it goes right it looks like this, as it did last night:



 ... in which case I dance around the kitchen with joy.  When the chappati's cooked it has the brown blisters on one side, but the other side just looks toasted and caramelised, which is how they generally look when I order them from takeaways around here. It doesn't always work that way, but I can usually get them to puff a bit. I have a gas hob, and can ride the heat as it goes along, but I haven't found an 'ideal' setting. It seems to depend upon the mix and, possibly, how much beer I've drunk when I come to cook them.

I generally cook a bunch of them and fold them in quarters, putting them into plastic food bags 2 at a time. I find they keep in the fridge for 2-3 days easily, with a 30-second blast in the microwave restoring them to their soft doughy glory. I've never tried freezing them.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Oohhh, if I could achieve those, I would be a happy man indeed ...
** Phil.

[curryhell]

That is a pretty chapatti Ian.  I don't have the luxury of a gas hob but i get good results on my electic stove with my tawa.  Haven't tried the egg slice method.  Like others i tend to press them down with a tea towel. I make a dozen, wrap them in foil, let them cool, place them in a freezer bag and in they go. Very easily separated when frozen.  Onto a plate, 30 seconds full power, taste like they've just been cooked - simples ;D
Here is an excellent video which shows exactly what you're experiencing and looking for Paul.

Roti, Chapati (Flat Indian Bread) Recipe by Manjula

[haldi]

I love chapattis
That looks great
I had them instead of rice last night
I love naans on their own, but chapattis and curry mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Lovely
I use a chapatti no2 flour
They sell big bags in Asian shops, round here, it's what the takeaways use
I just add water, leave twenty minutes and cook on my tava
Now that is a simple recipe

[colin grigson]

I've tried these a couple of times and the second time around ( yesterday ) was far better .. there's no chance of getting chapatti flour here in Slovakia so I tried 'oo' white and wholemeal at 2:1 with luke warm water and the result was much better ... really tasty light and elastic chapattis which when used as a scoop holding a tiny amount of rice and a generous piece of chicken phall and sauce was pure pleasure ... oh by the way I did brush them with melted butter too   

What I'm still struggling to understand is how only flour and water can taste so good ... at school we called it glue !!

[Stephen Lindsay]

In Scotland we call a deep fried Mars Bar and chips one of our five a day.

[DeadBeat]

Chapatti flours I have had great success with are:
Pilsbury Atta (Asda I think)
Elephant Atta (medium Brown)

[Petrolhead360]

Probably a silly question,
I made a batch for the first time last night and they have all pretty well ended too stiff and crispy (they snap) and not soft like you get in a restaurant.

Possible reasons
Rolled out too thin
Not enough water
Over cooked

Recipe on the packet says rest the initial mixture for 10 mins
Flour = NATO medium chapati flour