I worked on my attitude first. Roti might be a 'simple', everyday dish for majority of Indians, but it is still challenging to make if you don't have practice. So, I started out telling myself that it is a hard task but I could do it, if I followed a methodical process and didn't get frustrated during the process. However, if I managed to screw up, it was OK. I could always try again tomorrow. Here goes my process ....
I took 2 cups wheat flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp oil in a bowl and mixed these for a few seconds. Added about half a cup of warm water (in two installments) and just mixed it to make a non-sticky mass. I know... looks weird but hang on!
I left this dough covered for a little over half an hour. Then, I kneaded the dough to make a nice, pliable mass.
Made little balls(!) out of the dough and rolled each one out. I am not exactly proud of the shape but I am not ashamed enough to not post the picture!
I, of course, wanted to capture the roasting of the roti as well but I had to take a call between a picture and a unburnt meal. The obvious option won.
Oh, and I am having this with a whole moong - chana dal curry. One difference was - I soaked the chana dal along with the whole moong overnight, since I am a little afraid of chana induced indigestion.
More than just getting over my cook's block, I am extremely happy about the timing. Today is a special day (not for bloggable reasons) and I couldn't have chosen a better day to let go of my roti demon. Yay!
PS: By the way, I am a camera phobe and still picking up the reins of using the most basic point and shoot features (another potential mind over matter issue but for later)
Update: Though I was happy with getting over my phobia, I was not completely happy with the output. It was nowhere close to as soft as it could or should be :) I think I have figured out what was wrong. In my anxiety to not make the dough sticky, I have in fact been using too little water. Today, for 3 cups of flour, I added close to 1 cup water and the resulting rotis were W.A.Y. better.
4 comments:
I went through this a while ago. I managed everything but I still can't do the dough kneading part very well. If someone else makes the dough, I can maker passable rotis.
I find the parallel rolling out + roasting difficult. I get worried about burning the roti that I end up focusing on that without rolling out at all!
Oh I can't do parallel. Have to roll, roast, put in hot dish and then start the next one. Most tedious!
haha, can i give you guys a tip? i can't do the two together either, so what i do is roll out cling film or newspaper and roll ALL the rotis out and lay them on it.
cook at one go.
:D
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