10 ways of eating wheat in India

One Page Cookbooks 10 ways of eating wheat in India All recipes copyrighted. No reproduction / commercial use without permission. Siramki@Gmail.com
1.: Unleavened flatbreads Sample Recipe : Chappati Take a cup of whole wheat flour. Add two pinches of salt. Gradually mix in half a cup of water and knead to a smooth dough, adding more water if required. Rest for 30 minutes. Pinch off lemon sized balls, roll into thin rounds and cook both sides on a hot skillet till brown spots appear all over.	Wheat is the staple food of almost all of North India. It is eaten in a variety of different ways as listed here. Unleavened flatbreads: This is by far the most popular bread across north India, eaten twice or even thrice a day. Though unleavened breads made from wheat flour is the most popular and the easiest to work with, a variety of cereal flours (Maize, millets, sorghum, even rice), are used across the country to make flatbreads. Most other flours lack gluten and so cannot be kneaded or rolled out as easily as wheat flour. They are either mixed in with wheat flour or kneaded with boiling water. Boiling water partially cooks them into starch and makes kneading possible. Experiment by mixing various flours with wheat flour to create your own unleavened flatbreads. Fried unleavened flatbreads: Though chiefly made from wholewheat flour, eastern India prefers all purpose flour and the recipe becomes a luchi. A variety of stuffings can be used to create numerous ftuffed pooris / luchis. A smaller, thicker version of a Poori called Kachori is popular in east India. Leavened breads: Fermenting, baking and leavening were techniques Indian cuisine learnt from Central Asia. Leavened breads are usually baked in a tandoor. They can be made from all purpose flour ( Naan) or from whole wheat flour ( Tandoori Roti). A kind of sour dough bread which is yeast leavened ( Khameeri roti) is also cooked in a Tandoor. When the leavened all purpose dough is cooked on a skillet, it is called a Kulcha. Leavened breads can also be deep fried ( Bhatura / Badshahi naan). They can also be stuffed with a variety of additives and baked (stuffed naan) or cooked on a skillet ( stuffed kulcha).. Layered / stuffed unleavened flatbreads: Indian cuisine discovered that a thick flatbread can be made edible without leavening by stuffing it or layering it like a puff pastry. With this discovery arose a huge range of stuffed parathas and layered parathas. Layered parathas are popular across the country. In the south they are called parota and are made from all purpose flour. In some places these are deep fried to make a crumbly, flaky bread. Crepes Thin crepes from a wheat flour batter (whole wheat flour or all purpose flour) are eaten in south India as a kind of dosa and in Orissa as chakuli. It is usually eaten with a variety of chutneys. A variety of flours like rice flour, semolina can be mixed in to produce a range of different crepes. Wheat grit porridge : Wheat grits / semolina is cooked as the popular Upma in south. A sweet version called sooji Halwa is popular in the north as a dessert Shopping List 1kg : Whole wheat flour ( atta), all purpose flour ( maida), Oil 250 gms : Salt, ghee, butter, paneer, yogurt 100 gms : Chili powder, baking powder, cashew, raisins.
2.: Fried unleavened flatbreads Sample Recipe: Poori: Prepare the dough and roll out thin circles as above. Heat two cups oil. Slide the dough round and deep fry both sides till puffed and golden. Drain oil and serve.
3.: Layered flatbreads Sample Recipe : Lachcha paratha Knead dough as in recipe #1. Pinch off a tomato sized ball and roll out into a large thin sheet. Smear liberally with ghee. Cut up the sheet with a pizza cutter into 10-12 pieces. Stack the pieces over one another. Flatten with hand and press gently into a thick round. Cook both sides on a hot skillet over medium flame drizzling with butter/ ghee. Once ready, place the edges of your hands on either side of the paratha. Bring them sharply together, crushing it and separating the layers.
4.: Stuffed unleavened flatbreads Sample Recipe : Paneer Paratha Prepare dough as in recipe #1. Take a handful of grated paneer. Mix in two pinches each of salt & chili powder. Shape into lemon sized balls. Pinch off a tomato sized ball of dough and roll out into a disc. Place a ball of stuffing in the center. Gather the edges of the dough together, enclosing the stuffing. Flatten with palm and roll gently into a thick disc. Cook both sides on a hot skillet liberally using butter / ghee.
5.: Leavened flatbreads . Sample Recipe : Naan Take a cup of maida ( all purpose flour). Mix in two pinches each of salt, baking powder and half a cup of yogurt. Add water if needed and knead well. Rest for 10 minutes. Pinch off a tomato sized ball and roll into ovals. Bake in an electric tandoor / tandoor / very hot oven till brown spots appear.
6.: Stuffed leavened flatbreads Sample Recipe : Peshawari Naan Blend half a handful of cashew and raisins to a thick paste.. Make dough as above #5). Pinch off a tomato sized ball. Shape into a cup. Add a lemon sized ball of cashew –raisin paste. Seal in the stuffing, flatten gently with hand and roll into thick ovals. Bake in an electric tandoor / hot oven till brown spots appear.
7.: Skillet cooked leavened flatbreads Sample Recipe : Kulcha Prepare dough as in recipe #5. Pinch off a tomato sized ball of dough and roll out into a thick disc. Cook both sides on a hot skillet over medium flame till brown spots appear all over.
8.:. Fried leavened flatbreads Sample Recipe: Bhatura Prepare dough as in recipe #5. Pinch off tomato sized balls and roll into large thin rounds. Heat three cups of oil in a wide and deep pan. Slide in dough sheet and deep fry till puffed and golden.
9.: Crepes Sample Recipe : Wheat flour Dosa. Take a cup of whole wheat flour / all purpose flour. Mix with a cup of water to a soup like batter. Add more water if needed. Mix in two pinches of salt and baking powder. Heat a non stick skillet. Pour a ladle of batter and spread into a thick / thin round. Cook on medium flame till bubbles appear on top. Flip and cook the other side.
10.: Regional specialties Sample Recipe: Bati: Take a cup of wheat flour, two pinches of cumin, two pinches of salt and a spoon of ghee. Mix in half a cup of water and knead to a stiff dough. Let rest for an hour. Pinch of tomato sized balls, flatten them slightly and bake in a hot oven (200 c) for 10 minute still they brown. Flip them and bake them for 10 minutes more till they brown all over. Let cool. Crush them till the crust breaks, dip in ghee and serve. (Rajasthan). Bafla: Make dough as above. Pinch off a tomato sized ball and flatten to a thick disc. Bring 10 cups of water to a boil. Add half a handful of salt. Add the flattened discs and let water come to a boil again. Turn down heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain. Heat two spoons of ghee in a skillet. Add the cooked discs and cook both sides till surface browns all over. (or deep dry both sides till golden). Sindhi Lolo: In recipe #1, use sugar syrup instead of water for kneading the dough. Pinch off tomato sized balls, roll into a thick disc and cook both sides on a medium hot skillet, drizzling with ghee.

1001 Rotis

Express cooking in this issue of Ananda Vikatan focuses on different types of chappatis cooked across India. The vikatan article is based on this post.

 The word Roti (Hindi: bread) is used here as a general term to cover all unleavened Indian flatbreads. Leavened flatbreads, like the Naan and Kulcha, are covered in a separate post. ( Leavening is a process of letting the dough ferment - In south India, we use this technique for Idli batter. Leavening gives us soft idlis, Naans and breads.)

Rotis can be thick or thin, small or large, round, square or triangular, stuffed or plain. Though they are generally cooked on a skillet, they can also be baked in a tandoor, shallow fried or deep fried. Indian Rotis are eaten with a variety of dals, curries or raitas. It is easy to get lost in the huge variety of rotis eaten across the country. But remember that at their core, all rotis are just cooked dough sheets. The additives, the flours used and the cooking techniques combine to create hundreds of different types of rotis.

Rotis across India
Each state has its own flatbread, mostly made from the locally available grain. Let's start from the south and hop across India from flatbread to flatbread.
Parotas and a unique flatbread – the Pathiri are popular in Kerala. The moplah muslims of the Malabar coast make their super soft Pathris from rice flour. As rice flour is not kneadable, it is partially cooked into starch by mixing it with boiling water. It then becomes more pliable. The dough cannot be easily rolled and is either patted to shape on a skillet or rolled on thin parchment paper and then peeled and transferred to the skillet.This technique is used across India for kneading and rolling flours which are not easily kneadable.

Though wheat is not a staple, Tamilnadu loves the multilayered and flaky parota made from all purpose flour ( maida). This is served only in the evenings and is almost never used for breakfast. The cooked parota is then crushed between palms , separating the layers and making it flaky and crumbly. On roadside eateries you can frequently catch a glimpse of the dough being stretched wafer thin , a large as a newspapaer, by deft flicks of the wrist. The stretched out dough is then gathered to a long cylinder and is coiled on itself. This is then rolled out to a thick disc and shallow fried on a skillet. In southern districts, parotas are deep fried. They are also chopped up, mixed with onions, eggs and served as Kothu Parota. Another common flatbread is the Pori. Whole wheat dough is rolled out into thin discs and deep fried into Pooris which are popular breakfast dishes.

In the less fertile, drought prone regions of Andhra, rice was a luxury and Jonna roti made from sorghum ( cholam)  flour was a staple a few decades back. Karnataka loves the the Sajje roti made from pearl millet flour. It also has Obattu, a stufed paratha like dish made from all purpose flour coloured with turmeric powder and stuffed with sweet, boiled chana dal ( kadalai paruppu.

As foods do not respect man made boundaries, you’ll see a large overlap of recipes at the state borders. This is why obittu is also found in Maharashtra, but is called the puran poli. You’ll also bump into the Jowar Bhakri and Ragi Bhakri here (Bhakris are chapati like flatbreads made from sorghum flour & Ragi flour in central India). Maharashtra gives us the delicious Thalipith, a flatbread made from a mixture of wheat, rice, gram and millet flours. It is interesting to see that rotis become pancakes if too much water is added. To illustrate, check this version of of a Thalipith which is a pancake.

In the Madhya Pradesh we see the Palak Puri, where a whole wheat flour dough kneaded with spinach, ginger, chilies and yogurt is shaped into thin rounds and deep fried.

In Bihar, we see rice flour being used in rotis to make the Chaaur Ke Roti. Sattu ( roasted gram flour) is a popular stuffing in rotis here.

In Orissa and West Bengal, flat breads made from all purpose flour ( maida) are not cooked on a skillet, but are deep fried in oil and are known as Luchis.

In Uttar Pradesh we see the Nawabi version of rotis and parathas perfected by decades of experiments in the dastarkhanas ( royal kitchens). It is here we see the Warq-e-Sada ( ‘plain sheet’) ,a richer version of rumali roti and the warqui paratha which incorporates eggs and ghee into the dough.

The fertile Punjab has its array of delicious parathas. Makki roti, the flatbread made from maize flour is another Punjabi favourite.

In Haryana we have the Besan Roti made from gram flour and wheat flour mixture. It differs from the missi roti in the amount of gram flour used.

In Rajasthan we bump into the missi roti, made from a spiced up mixture of gram flour and wheat flour. It is Rajasthan which is the home of the unique bati - a flattened golf ball sized bread, which is roasted over hot coals and is eaten dipped in ghee.

The Gujarati rotla is made from millet flour and is served with ghee and jaggery. Theplas( wholewheat dough kneaded with yogurt, turmeric, chili and coriander powder) and the travel friendly Khakras (rotis cooked to be as crisp as papads) are other famous Gujarati flatbreads.

In the hilly Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh, we get a roti made from Mandwa flour. (Mandwa is the grain obtained from a hardy plant native to these hills). It is only here you’ll see the Gauhat Ka Paratha. Gauhat, a lentil unique to this region is boiled, mixed with onions, coriander and green chilies and is used as a stuffing in the Mandwa flour dough.

Moving north, we see the rich Kashmiri roti made from a dough kneaded with milk, and spices like asafetida, anise seeds, cumin seeds, pepper powder and ajwain. North eastern India prefers rice over roti and so you’ll not see many indigenous rotis here.

Rotis moved out of India with the immigrants and have transformed to become the Loti prata of Singapore, Roti canai of Malaysia, Bussup shut of Trinidad, the Double of the Caribbean, the Palata or htat ta-ya ( Hundred layers) of Burma, the farata and Dholl purri of Mauritius.

The cooking technique changes the recipe:

Knead the dough, roll it into thin discs, cook it on a hot skillet and you have the basic roti. Shallow fry it and you have parathas. Deep fry to make luchis / pooris. Cook the rolled dough initially on a skillet and then cook it over an open fire, puffing it up and you get phulkas. Cook it on a skillet over a low fire till they are crisp and you have Khakras.

Flours used :
Wheat flour is the most common flour used in most Indian flatbreads. Numerous versions of local flatbreads use grains like maize, millets, rice, gram flour in place of or in addition to wheat flour. Add gram flour to wheat flour and you have the missi roti & Besan rotis. Use maize flour and you have Punjab’s Makki Roti. Using rice flour gives us the Ari Pathiris of the Malabar coast, Karnataka’s Akki Roti and Bihar’s Chaaur ka roti. Using sorghum flour gives the Bhakri / Jalad roti / Jowar roti / Jonna roti. Use pearl millet flour and you have the Gujarati rotlas, Bajre ki roti or Sajje roti. Using finger millet flour gives us the Ragi rotis.

Most flatbreads cooked in India are made from a single flour. However, any combination of flours can be used to cook up never before cooked rotis. To see how delicious a mixture of flours can be, check out the missi roti and the Thalipith, which are among the very few rotis which use a mixture of flours.

Special techniques :
Special cooking techniques and vessels are used to cook up several unique rotis. When all purpose dough is stretched wafer thin and cooked almost instantly on a hot inverted wok, we have the Rumali roti. Cook it instead on a large flat skillet, drizzling it with oil and you have the Tamil Veechu Parota. Spread the dough into a large thin sheet, roll it up into a swiss roll, roll out and shallow fry in oil to make the flaky, crumbly parota , so popular in Tamilnadu and Kerala. Shape the wholewheat dough into tomato sized balls, roast them over hot coals ( or bake them) and you get the Rajastani Bati.

Tandoori rotis :.
All flatbreads have their equivalent Tandoori version, where they are not cooked on a skillet, but are baked in a tandoor. These rotis are thicker than their skillet-cooked versions.

Stuffed rotis :
Anything that can be shaped into a tight ball can be used to stuff a roti. Anything wet and soggy will not make a good stuffing. Paneer/ boiled potato / boiled dal/ boiled green peas make easy stuffings, but grated radish / cauliflower take quite a bit of practice. Kneaded Wheat dough is pliable and is easy to stuff. It takes a good deal of skill to make stuffed rotis from other flours. Stuffed rotis are not covered here.

Sweet Rotis :
All Rotis have their sweet version, though most are not commonly cooked. The Sindhi meetha lo lo is one such sweet roti. Take handful of sugar / jaggery, mix in a cup of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes and let cool. Filter if needed. Use this liquid instead of water to knead the dough and your sweet roti is ready.
Interesting recipes

Here are some of the interesting recipes I’ve come across in the roti mela. The number in the brackets refers to the corresponding recipe number in the one page cookbook. The first digit denotes the base from column 1, the second denotes the flavouring from column 2 and the third digit denotes the additives from column3.

Trupti’s not so common Sweet Potato Rotis (007)
Veda’s step by step introduction to the delicious Akki Roti,(720)
Missi Roti (261)
Siri’s Bedmi Roti (068)
Anjali’s Doodhi Paratha (066)
The cooker’s fusion paratha - Agretti Paratha (015)
Vandana’s fusion Roti – The Tofu Roti. (046)
Medhaa’s Koki roti (016)

1001 Leavened Indian Rotis

Leavened Indian Breads : A Primer
Leavened breads are not indigenous to India and are not commonly made in Indian homes. Like China, baking never caught on in India, probably due to the scarcity of fuel. Baking is still viewed as an exotic skill and very few Indian recipes call for baking. Ovens are very uncommon in Indian homes. The only oven used is the Tandoor, the open pit clay oven invented in central Asia. Traditional tandoor is a pain to set up, light up and operate. I prefer to use the tabletop electric tandoor which is very convenient and can cook almost everthing a tandoor can.
Any thick bread needs to be leavened, so that it remains soft when baked. Leavening is the process of filling up the dough with a gas. This gas is normally generated by yeast or by baking powder. When dough is kneaded with yeast, you can actually watch it puff up like a balloon in a couple of hours. Baking powder works differently. On heating, it generates carbon di oxide, which inflates the dough from the inside like a balloon. Yeast requires a few hours to work and fill up the dough with gas. So the dough is rested for 3-5 hours before baking. Baking powder works instantly and so breads made with baking powder can be baked rightaway.

Most leavened Indian breads are cooked in a tandoor, though some like the Bhatura are deep fried. All breads listed here are designed to be cooked on an electric Tandoor. If you don’t have an electric tandoor, you can cook these in a preheated oven at its highest heat setting, in a skillet, on a grill or on the walls of a sturdy vessel. They’d taste different, but they’ll certainly be edible !

The Base (Column 1)
Kulcha is very similar to a Naan, but is usually leavened with baking powder and yogurt instead of yeast. Kulchas are often stuffed with a variety of fillings. It is normally shaped as a round disc unlike the teardrop shaped Naan.
· Tandoori roti is a thick , round roti made from wholewheat flour. It is generally leavened by wild yeast by letting the dough sit for a few hours before baking. Baking powder is now used widely in Tandoori rotis.
· The Bati is a unique bread, designed to last. It was the staple travel food of the Rajput warriors and Marwari traders. Tomato sized balls of whole wheat dough are roasted over hot coals and are eaten dipped in ghee. (They can also be cooked in an electric tandoor). Smaller Batis can be cooked without leavening. They may also be cooked in boiling water first and then baked.
· The most popular leavened bread in Asia, the teardrop shaped Naan, was cooked in central Asia long before it found its way into India. Naan is a staple food in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan & Tajikistan. That is why Naan is not a Hindi word. It is a pan asian word which means bread in all these languages- Persian, Urdu, Uzbek, Uyghur and Burmese. Sesame seeds / onion seeds / cilantro / garlic slivers are occasionally patted on the surface just before baking.
· When you knead Nan dough with semolina, you get a less chewy and more crumbly version of the Naan- the Khasta Naan.
· Rogani Naan is a richer version of Naan kneaded with milk and ghee.
· Khameeri roti is just a Tandoori roti leavened with yeast instead of baking powder. In some regions these are deep fried.
· Sheermal is an orange coloured, saffron flavoured, sweet version of the Naan. Some versions of sheermal use eggs.
· Taftan is a unique bread made from leavened rice flour. Rice flour is not easy to work with and needs quite a bit of practice to knead and shape. Use of some all purpose flour makes it easier to knead and shape.

Flavouring (Column 2)
Column 2 lists various flavourings from 0 to 9, which can be kneaded along with the dough. Most traditional flatbreads stop at 0 and do not use extra flavouring. The flavouring choices are numerous and you can create your signature dish by choosing your favourite flavouring for your bread.

Stuffing (Column 3)
A variety of stuffings listed in column 3 can be used to stuff the dough. Stuffings from 1 to 5 are easy to work with. Others take a bit of practice to master.

Have fun in cooking up your own combinations of new flatbreads !

And that's another entry for Srivalli’s Roti Mela