The mystery of making a perfect roti/chapati

R

rootyme

Gold is old
Adept
I am not new to cooking. I help all the elder females at home with cooking and household chores. While I am decent at most, the ways of making palatable rotis remains a mystery to me.

I have no problem kneading the aata (wheat flour) dough. It's a enjoyable process actually. I spend a good 2-3 minutes punching it once I am done kneading, every single time. Rolling the smaller dough balls is no tough job either. All my rotis are as round as the face of Saitama.

The problem begins with the hot tawa/pan. I somehow fail to find the sweet spot upto which these rolled rotis should be warmed. I over-warm them most of the times, or leave them kachha by warming too little sometimes.

The final stage where we put the warmed rotis on top of direct flame (fire) doesn't really matter much. The dreaded tawa ultimately determines the fate of the rotis. The flame part just serves as the marksheet of your exam. I have so many zeros...

The odds of warming a roti to perfection is like 1 out of 10 for me and we usually cook around 9 rotis per session. As you can guess, I manage to make one perfect roti every 2nd session.

Please share your tips and tricks to help me develop top roti making skills. None of the internet tutorials has worked so far. I want to help my future spouse in household chores. Any help is much appreciated.
 
I too cook myself but I hate making chapati- kneading aata etc. But totally cool with cooking on the pan.
Just today after yrs, cooked ready made rolled chapatis by wife.
Initial 2 chapatis got a bit overcooked & I was figuring how to cook them just fine and gradually got them. In fact, all my chapatis went fluffy during the process
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My Tip: Initially, flame the pan on full gas for 2 mins and then keep the flame low as pans wont cool down so easily.
Then ensure you cook the chapatis at the center only from both sides each side for not more than a minute.
You can sense from the burning type smell as well if the chapatis are fully cooked as well as by looking at them. The edges will sometimes look raw/uncooked but thats fine as they get cooked auto once you remove the chapati from the pan.

I have tried this both on non-stick and on normal tava and its same on both at least for me.

I'm not a pro at all but intermediate and always open for tips/tricks in cooking!

Hope this small tip helps you, do let me know!
 
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rootyme said:
Please share your tips and tricks to help me develop top roti making skills. None of the internet tutorials has worked so far. I want to help my future spouse in household chores. Any help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Get this -
in.rotimatic.com

Buy Rotimatic Automatic Robotic Roti Maker Online In India

Buy Rotimatic Automatic Robotic Roti/Chapati Maker Machine For Home Online In India. Makes Soft, Round Atta/Jowar/Bajra Rotis, Puris, Parathas & Pizza Base.
in.rotimatic.com in.rotimatic.com
Only Rs. 1.31 L
That apart, as mentioned above, non stick tawa works well.
 
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you need to trap the steam in order to make fluffy chapatis.

1) make sure tawa is sufficiently hot but not super hot. sprinkle tiny bit of flour on hot tawa and check how quickly it turns brown. within 3~5 seconds is a good indicator.
2) place rolled chapati on tawa and cook only one side up to 80~90% done. don't move the chapati. it'll start to unstick on its own.
3) turn it over. chapati will start to puff up in a short time and then it's up to you how much you want to play with it. turn over if required.
 
nRiTeCh said:
Initially, flame the pan on full gas for 2 mins and then keep the flame low as pans wont cool down so easily.
Then ensure you cook the chapatis at the center only from both sides each side for not more than a minute.
You can sense from the burning type smell as well if the chapatis are fully cooked as well as by looking at them. The edges will sometimes look raw/uncooked but thats fine as they get cooked auto once you remove the chapati from the pan
Click to expand...
I already follow this method. Somehow I fail to get the timing right. Let's see how it goes next time. Maybe I was missing some TechEnclave magic in the mix. ;)
nRiTeCh said:
I have tried this both on non-stick and on normal tava and its same on both at least for me.
Click to expand...
Normal tawa user here. Mother nails it every single time.
gourav said:
Try using a non-stick tawa maybe? I also struggle with this part on hard anodized tawa, but it's perfectly fine with a non-stick tawa.
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We are yet to have any non-stick utensil at home. I personally decided to avoid that after reading about the potential harms involved.
m.timesofindia.com

Non-stick Cooking Pans: Is Non-Stick cookware harmful to health? Read this!

Disadvantages of Non-stick Pan: Here are the problems may occur using non-stick pans and the health issues like Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was used to layer non-stick teflon pans and it t was associated with several health problems and more on Times of India
m.timesofindia.com m.timesofindia.com

+ The satisfaction of making delicious chakuli pitha on steel kadai/tawa is just something else. And one just can't ignore the grand noise resonating from that palta (turner) smashing against the tough steel surface and reverberating throughout the home and over to the neighbors, sometimes.

Recipe of chakuli in case you're not aware:
www.firsttimercook.com

Chakuli Pitha from Odia Cuisine - First Timer Cook

Breakfast is the starting food of a day and that decides the mood for most people through out the whole day (a belive). Odias also love to have varieties of breakfasts like pakhala (water rice), paratha with aloo bhaja, dahibara …
www.firsttimercook.com www.firsttimercook.com
ibose said:
Only Rs. 1.31 L
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Always prefer handmade stuff as it involves the love and affection of the one cooking. This robot would be my last resort.. If someday I find myself without humans or aata. :)
chyawanprash said:
you need to trap the steam in order to make fluffy chapatis.

1) make sure tawa is sufficiently hot but not super hot. sprinkle tiny bit of flour on hot tawa and check how quickly it turns brown. within 3~5 seconds is a good indicator.
2) place rolled chapati on tawa and cook only one side up to 80~90% done. don't move the chapati. it'll start to unstick on its own.
3) turn it over. chapati will start to puff up in a short time and then it's up to you how much you want to play with it. turn over if required.
Click to expand...
Noted. Will be more careful about these minute details next time.
 
First things first, non stick is big No, always cast iron. Thicker the pan better it is, helps is distributing the heat evenly.
The trick is to not flip the chapatis too often, 2 is the ideal no of time.
It also depends on how firm is the dough.
Yup i used to make chapatis at my restaurant once upon a time.
Per session about 300-320 in an hour twice a day, 7 times a week....
Maybe you can call me , will be a great discussion.
Yes chapati making is therapeutic .
 
Gas is the easiest to make rotis. Try induction cooktop. Lot of headache because the power levels are not linear in most cooktops. You have to keep jumping between two levels now and then.

Do not use those sandwich steel 3 ply tawas like the Hawkins Tri Ply stainless steel tawa or the Solimo tri ply tawa. Those will burn anything on them. from rotis to papads. These things heat up fast and keep getting hotter and hotter. They dont cool down even after half an hour. Real pain in the neck stuff. I had kept the tri ply on marble chakla after heating rotis and the chakla got so hot i couldn't clean it after use even after 25 minutes. :oops:
Best i found to heat rotis is non stick aluminium tawas because they keep heat well and have the rotis slide off them. Iron becomes hot fast and retains heat but its easy to burn stuff on it if you dont get the timing right.
sanjeevram said:
The trick is to not flip the chapatis too often, 2 is the ideal no of time.
Click to expand...

First time we flip it is when we put the raw roti on the hot tawa and it heats up and bubbles start forming on the top surface. So now the top side is on tawa. After this side becomes hot and starts forming bubbles, no more flipping? you remove from flame after checking it?
 
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ibose said:
Get this -
in.rotimatic.com

Buy Rotimatic Automatic Robotic Roti Maker Online In India

Buy Rotimatic Automatic Robotic Roti/Chapati Maker Machine For Home Online In India. Makes Soft, Round Atta/Jowar/Bajra Rotis, Puris, Parathas & Pizza Base.
in.rotimatic.com in.rotimatic.com
Only Rs. 1.31 L
That apart, as mentioned above, non stick tawa works well.
Click to expand...
Eeew... thats one costly printer for chapatis.
Can order above a lakh chapatis with that cost.
 
anyone knows how they make tissue paper like rotis so fast in hotels? i tried a lot of times but only got khakra like hard rotis. hard rotis dont taste good. thick rotis dont taste good.
 
not rumali roti. if you go to a hotel and ask for roti, you get those simple small rotis which is very very thin like tissue paper. i want to make that.
 
For chapatis ill suggest concave iron tawa its available at cheaper cost, cast iron is good for dosas or shallow frying.
6pack said:
not rumali roti. if you go to a hotel and ask for roti, you get those simple small rotis which is very very thin like tissue paper. i want to make that.
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I think those are called fulkas. High quality wheat and good skills are needed for those.
 
6pack said:
not rumali roti. if you go to a hotel and ask for roti, you get those simple small rotis which is very very thin like tissue paper. i want to make that.
Click to expand...
Thats what I eat..fulka chapati!
Its same just that they are thinner finer than a normal chapati.

And don't buy any additional appliance or vessels just for this roti making as its all skills in play irrespective of where you cook.
Why don't you learn or master it from your mother, aunt or any family member women instead of searching in the wild..
 
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MiteshR said:
For chapatis ill suggest concave iron tawa its available at cheaper cost, cast iron is good for dosas or shallow frying.

I think those are called fulkas. High quality wheat and good skills are needed for those.
Click to expand...
i thought fulka meant any roti that puffs up into a ball while heating up. Even thick rotis puff up according to my observation. And high quality / low quality does not seem to matter. I've used cheap no name wheat flour to branded expensive flour and in all of them you can get thin rotis if you roll the dough thin enough. I think the quantity of water in dough is the key here.

@nRiTeCh , i stay alone so i usually learn by looking at yt videos. In August i had made some sri lankan godamba roti just looking at the yt video. it was lot of work so didn't do it again. I ate it with potatoes and peas curry. Really delicious and flaky. And oily. Everyone should try this once imo.

 
6pack said:
anyone knows how they make tissue paper like rotis so fast in hotels? i tried a lot of times but only got khakra like hard rotis. hard rotis dont taste good. thick rotis dont taste good.
Click to expand...
Assuming you are talking about thin Phulkas and not Roomali, here's what you do not do to make them dry and hard.

- You add fat to your dough. I like adding a bit of ghee (approx. 1 tbsp in 200-300g flour.)
- The thinner your dough, the higher the heat you need to cook it. One of the most prominent reasons for khakra like roti is that it absorbs way more heat and that results in complete evaporation of the moisture from the roti. Preheat your tawa and always cook at high heat if your flatbread is thin; moreover, you can flip it constantly to avoid getting too much char or color on any side.
- The next thing is its immediate storage. You always cover your cooked rotis with a cotton cloth to keep them soft and moist, because if your rotis are left exposed to air when they are thin, they will dry out no matter how perfect they are.

Happy Cooking!
Feel free to ask me more questions related to cooking, Happy to help anyone here as I am a professional chef.
 
@TheNawab Unfortunately, I'm lactose intolerant so i stay away from anything which has milk products in it. I usually use sunflower oil or rice bran oil and about 2 spoons per cup. I still get hard rotis. Maybe I overcook it. I think rotis cook properly when they get dark brown spots on them. How soon does thin flat bread cook? 1 -2 minutes?
 
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