Chapati and Dal

What to eat, what to eat? After arriving home after our annual binge feast in Malaysia, our stomachs were caught in gastronomical jet lag.... Hunger struck at odd hours. At times, we knew we had to eat but were not hungry. Once night, the solution was a simple Chapati and Dal. Luckily, I had a bag of atta flour in the fridge but the bottle of ghee from my pantry that I opened smelt rancid. I substituted unsalted butter which surprisingly resulted in a richer, more tasty chapati.

Some might say that this is a recipe for Paratha........ it appears that there is a general confusion as to what constitute a chapati or a paratha. Generally, chapati are thinner than paratha. Parathas tend to be more flaky because of the folding of dough. In the past, I had just rolled out the dough ball to circles and cooked them - chapati. This time I folded the dough to form more layers - parathas. Either way, plain good eats!

Ingredients
12 oz atta flour or wholemeal flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 oz unsalted butter
4 fl. oz warm water

Method
Whisk salt into atta flour. Rub unsalted butter into atta flour. Slowly add warm water to atta flour, moistening all the flour, kneading to form a soft pliable dough. Add more water if necessary. Divide the dough into four equal sized balls. Dust each ball with more flour before rolling out into 8 inch circle. Brush with melted butter and cook on a non stick pan or roti pan until lightly brown.

For Parathas

 Roll up the 8 inch dough circle tightly from one edge
to form a tube about an inch wide and 8 inch wide.
Gently stretch the tube lengthwise. Cut tube into 2 if
 smaller parathas is desired.

Curl each end towards the center

The curled ends meeting in the center

 Flip one swirl end unto the other 

Swirled ends stacked

 Gently flatten together

 Using your thumbs, gently flatten out stacked circle

while rotating the dough in your hands. Do not flatten
edges of circle. This will help keep dough circle
shaped when rolling out.

 Lightly flour the dough circle before rolling out

into an 8 inch circle

 Preheat a non stick pan or roti pan over medium

 heat. Place paratha on it. Flip it over after 30 seconds.

 Brush with a little melted butter. Flip it over again. 

Brush the second side with melted butter. Lower

the heat. The dough will bubble up.

 Use a spatula to gently press paratha in the pan.

Take care to press the edges down.

 Flip over to the other side after a minute

 Repeat pressing action. Cook for 1 minute.

Cook until both sides are uniformly light

brown 

serve with dal curry