How To Make Chapatti (Paratha)
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
For a detailed recipe, please click on the link:
http://www.showmethecurry.com/2007/04/14/chapatti/
- You Will Need
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Step 1:
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Preparing The Dough
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To make the dough we're going to add our flour to a bowl and sprinkle the salt. This is optional, in case you know you don't use salt that's fine too.
Incorporate the salt well, and then we'll pour oil inside it.
Now you want to mix the flour again to make sure all the oil gets incorporated in to the flour and you don't want lumps of oil in there. just for a few seconds.
When the oil and salt are nicely incorporated, add water slowly. This water has been warmed in the microwave for about 30 seconds, pour little at a time and just mix.
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Step 2:
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Top Tip: Whole Wheat Flour
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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.
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Step 3:
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Coat The Dough
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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.
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Step 4:
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An Alternative Method
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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 if you notice I'm using 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.
I'm going to 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.
I've also 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.
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Step 5:
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Size The Dough
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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.
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Step 6:
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Prepare The Pan
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Before we start rolling out our chapattis we'll go ahead and turn on our stove and get our pan heated.
The pan we 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.
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Step 7:
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Shape The Dough
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So while our pan is heating, we're going to take our 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.
We're then going to dip it in some dry flour, shake off the excess and role 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
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Step 8:
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Cook The Chapatti
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The tawa looks hot so we're going to put our rolled chapatti in and move it around to make sure it doesn't stick.
Then we leave it alone until we start seeing bubbles appearing, and then we're going to flip it around, and let go for a few seconds.
Now we're going to take some oil and you can 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.
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Step 9:
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Serve
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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.
Join us again on another episode of showmethecurry.com - Adding a pinch of spice to your life.