Chapati

So finally I’ve decided to make chapati. With a mixer with the dough hook attached, this is a painless exercise.

The tricky part now is getting that ball of dough to a flattened round shape. Which of course I couldn’t, but the Helper did a much better job than me.

The recipe I followed couldn’t work because of the humidity level here. It’s like almost 98 percent humidity all the time. So I’ll give the original, and what it should be if you love in the tropics.

Original: 2 cups whole meal or atta flour, 3/4 cup warm water, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp vegetable oil

My recipe that worked: 2 and 1/4 cup atta flour, 3/4 cup water, 3/4 tsp salt and 1 tbsp olive oil

Add all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, dry ones first. And then slowly incorporate water till a soft dough is formed. Line a bowl with olive oil and coat the dough with it. Leave to rest. I read that the longer it is allowed to rest, the softer the dough will be.

Even though I bought this wonderful mat from Amazon, I couldn’t keep to the round shape. 🤭

Place on a hot griddle without any oil or fat. I even bought this flat Indian chapati griddle a few months back before the lockdown. The dough will puff up. And when it does, flip over.

There’ll be pockets of coloured areas which is exactly how it’s supposed to be.

And here, I have to special mention a wonderful literary text titled The Village by the Sea. It’s been a literature text for secondary schools here for decades and it also happens to be the text that I did as a student decades ago. As a tribute, I will post these: