this might end badly...

 

I've been craving chapathi, and while Panda has been sweet enough to grab take-out from Amma, it's just not the same as the softer, buttery perfection my moms makes like it ain't no thang.

When I was younger and more useful, I made it (dough and all) by myself a few times, but mostly I was called upon to assist my father by adding water (as needed) to the atta, salt and oil which he was mixing, hours in advance of dinner...or to flip what was in the cast-iron pan as moms rolled out more. So I'm not totally unaware of how it all works.

Still, that doesn't mean that I have any confidence in what might emerge from that deceptively-correct-looking dough in the steel bowl there...I'll keep you posted.

Comments

[Sibil]

i made chappati today! chappati making was a chore that either my sister or i had to do for my dad when my mom was at work. she'd mostly make the dough for us to roll out those nights she had night duty, but sometimes she was too busy and we had to do it from scratch. my sister was wayy better at it than i was, mostly because she had the patience to add little dashes of water and not whole cupfuls to it like i did. but i guess with age comes patience, and i'm not as freewheelin' with the water.

i hope your experiment was a buttery success! (btw, if there's butter in it, does it make it paratha?)

[yasmine]

anna,
i don't know why this post makes me want to croon, 'aww, too much cuteness! shabash, beta!'

must be the desi auntie in me. =)
i hope it did indeed turn out well. keep us updated! with footoos, of course!

sibil,
in my family, we make roti (chapati) by rolling out the dough into a circle, spreading butter (now: olive oil) in the center, rolling the dough back up, then rolling it out once more before sticking it on the griddle. and then we sprinkle a bit of butter/olive oil on both sides while the roti's on the griddle, too.

but it's not a parathha (at least, not in our family), unless it's SLATHERED in butter.

so, in my family, both versions have butter, but the parathha has WAY more! how do yours go?

[Sibil]

i think i'm thinking of sukha (dry) chappati, the kind my dad ate with no butter, oil or fat. we puffed those right up over an open flame or tava. but i do recall a tiny bit of oil goes to moisten the dough sometimes for us kids, but otherwise if it involved butter, oil, or ghee, it was rolled into triangular shapes and deemed paratha.