I often write my blog entries under the assumption that no one looks at them. On many occasions, that’s probably true, but yesterday I got a bit of a surprise that not only made my day but also made me want to do more baking.
No idea how or why he saw it, but Richard Bertinet read one of my blog entries and posted a link to it on his twitter page! For those who don’t know, many of the recipes that I’ve done so far on this blog so far are by Richard Bertinet. Bring on massive hyperness on my part and messages to anyone I know that knows who Richard Bertinet is.
And, as I say, it also brought on an impromptu bit of baking. No yeast to hand, but I found a recipe for an unleavened bread called missi roti (unleavened gram flour bread) that I could start off and finish the following day. So that was lunch sorted!
It started with sifting together 250g gram (chick pea) flour (how handy that I’d thrown some in the shopping basket, for no particular reason, on our previous shopping trip) and 250g wholemeal plain flour. I then finely chopped 45g onion (and had to put just under half an onion in the fridge), 2 fresh green chillies (I chickened out and removed most of the seeds) and 2 tablespoons fresh coriander and threw those in the mixing bowl with 1 teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, ½ teaspoon hot chilli powder and a very large pinch of salt (the recipe said “to taste”. I’m not in the habit of eating bread dough, so I thought this would be a bit difficult to judge by “taste”). This got mixed together which kicked up some great smells, although the chilli, coriander and cumin did remind me of my version of chilli con carne.
Next step, add enough water to bring together as a soft dough. The next lot of mixing kicked up a different smell... mostly chickpea. I turned it out of the bowl and kneaded it until smooth (my hands slightly tingling from the chilli), then returned it to the bowl, covered it and shoved it in the fridge for finishing the following day.
I occupied myself in the morning by walking to a well known supermarket chain (one that I worked at for a week and a half... don’t ask) to buy some raita to go with my roti. Should have set out earlier... lunch ended up rather late.
I turned the dough out onto a worktop and formed it into a sausage, which I cut in half. Each half then got cut into 4 and then formed into a ball. On a floured surface, I rolled each one out to a disc about 15cm in diameter... and yes, I cracked out a ruler for the first one.
Next, it was time to have lots of plates handy, 2 frying pans and saucepan containing 2 tablespoons of melted ghee. It was a good job that no one else wanted to use the hob. I put one of the pans on a high heat and used this for the first phase of cooking; a dry fry on each side for 1-2 minutes until slightly blistered. The roti went from the pan to a plate and got brushed on each side with ghee, then went into the other frying pan (had to mess about with the heat with the first few, just like when making pancakes) to fry until crisp. Some wouldn’t sit flat and took a little persuasion... holding it with my fingers seemed a bit hazardous so they got squished with my flask instead.
The batch took a little time but they came out looking incredibly appetising, a nice vibrant mix of yellow from the chickpea and turmeric, green splashes from the coriander and chilli and the dark blistered bits from the frying. The flavour wasn’t quite as strong as I was expecting, but that may be my fault for chickening out with the chilli seeds. The flavour was a little reminiscent of onion bhaji... not surprising, what with the ingredients being very similar.
Not a bad impromptu bit of baking. Thanks for the tweet and the inspiration, Richard Bertinet!
Simplified recipe
Ingredients
250g gram (chick pea) flour
250g wholemeal plain flour
45g onion, finely chopped
2 fresh green chillies, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped finely
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon ground dried red chilli (I just went for hot chilli powder)
Salt (the recipe said “to taste”. I’d give a guideline of teaspoon... I think)
Enough water to bring the ingredients together as a dough
Ghee, melted (for frying. If you don’t have any, use butter)
Method
1. Sieve together the gram flour and the wholemeal flour. If you end up with a lot of bran from the wholemeal flour left in the sieve, just throw it in too
2. Add the onion, chilli, coriander, cumin, turmeric, chilli powder and salt and combine thoroughly
3. Add enough water to bring the mix together into a soft dough, then turn out onto a worktop and knead until even, which shouldn’t take too long
4. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and leave to rest, for at least 3-4 hours at room temperature. Alternatively, do what I did and leave it to rest overnight in the fridge
5. Once rested, turn the dough out and form into a sausage. Cut the sausage in half and then cut each piece into 4, so that you have 8 equal pieces of dough
6. Form each piece into a ball and then press or roll out the dough on a lightly floured worktop to a circle between 15 to 20 cm in diameter
7. Put one frying pan on a high heat and have another waiting on the hob. In the hot pan, dry-fry the rotis for 1-2 minutes on each side until slightly blistered
8. Put the other pan on a medium heat. Brush the pan-fried rotis on each side with ghee and then place in the pan over the medium heat and fry on each side until crisp
9. To serve, top with a little more butter and accompany with a glass of lassi
References
A Taste of Punjab, Lali Nayar, Merehurst, 1995
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