ROTI | CHAPATI

Step 1

Put the atta (flour) into a bowl and start adding the water in parts.

Step 2

Use your fingertips to start mixing the 2 together - that's really the trick of how to keep the atta off your hands. As you start adding the water in, pour it onto your fingers so it takes off any atta that's stuck. Once mixed, leave to set for about 20 minutes.

The consistency should become soft so you can press into it, but you don't want it to be wet or soggy.

Step 3

Knead the dough using your fist.

If you find that the atta is too sticky, just wet your hand a little bit and it'll make it a lot easier.

Step 4

Take a small amount of atta and roll it up into a ball. You can start to slightly flatten it by rolling it between your hands. Once you've got that ball shape, drop it into your dry flour and just make sure it's covered properly.

Now (the tricky bit), place that ball into one of your hands and start flattening it with the other hand slowly rotating it as you do it. You'll end up with this small little pancake shaped roti. Start rolling that out with your rolling pin.

Once you've got it into a small roti shape, you can add a little bit more flour just to stop it sticking.

Tip: if you apply slightly more pressure to just one side of the rolling pin, you'll see that the roti actually turns itself around and that's how you get the even thickness throughout. If your roti starts to stick, don't be afraid to use your hand to move it slightly too.

Step 5

Let's pick that up, give it a little pat over to make sure we get any of the dry atta off and we're going to put it onto the thavaa (iron pan).

Typically your thavaa needs to be on a medium heat but again depending on what atta you're using you might have to adjust this.

The more you start making roti, the more you'll figure out the temperatures and it'll start to become really clear.

You'll see very quickly that the roti starts to change colour.

Once the majority of the roti has changed colour, it's time to flip your roti.

This is where temperature is really important. You need the temperature to be right for the roti not to come out hard. Too hot you'll end up burning your roti, but too low will make it dry. You need to experiment with the temperatures, the gas or the heat that you have and find what works for you.

Once we've got the even dots over one side, we'll flip it back over just to let it cook properly and you'll see this is where it can start to puff up. To help the roti puff out, you can press down on the parts that haven't puffed up, this should give them a little prompt to join in.. If it doesn't puff up, don't worry, it will still be made as normal.

Transfer this over to another plate and put some butter over it or some oil if you want to keep it vegan and there you have your roti.