Indian Cuisine: How to Make Indian Bread
Indian Cuisine: How to Make Indian Bread - as part of the food and kitchen series by GeoBeats.
Now I shall show you how to make two types of Indian breads. The first one is the most basic bread. It is called the Chapati. It is made with whole-wheat flour, water and salt, kneaded together until pliable, pretty much like this. The dough is kneaded; I like to let it rest for about half an hour to one hour at room temperature. It is for a good Chapati to have a really hot skillet. Since these breads do not get done in the oven, it is kind of you are using the skillet to essentially bake it. You roll a piece of the dough into a round circle, dip it in more flour just like I am doing here, roll the Chapati out into as close a circle as you get. The objective for this is hopefully to get the Chapati to puff up and this happens because of the water vapor that is in the dough. It rises into a puffy, round circle. Let me hope that my skillet is hot enough.
What happens is, after a couple of seconds, you start seeing this color on surface of the Chapati changing. You turn it around and you do the same on the other side. What you start seeing at this point is tiny little puffy circles. This is basically the water rising. This is telling you that the Chapati is getting ready. If you have an open gas flame like I do here, the next stage with this Chapati is to put it on the flame. There you watch it puff up and you actually have a complete Chapati.
The second bread that I shall be showing you how to make is the Paratha bread. It is similar to the Chapati bread in that it is also unleavened bread. It is made with whole-wheat flour. Here I have mint in it for seasoning. So we go through the process, I roll it out. I like to use a pastry brush for adding the grease to Paratha because I feel this way you get an even amount without too much grease. You can use a spoon for the same purpose. It dries out in spots; gradually starts puffing up and at that point you apply oil or melted butter to it. You can see the bread puffing up. What you want is nicely puffed bread. It is dry and brown in spots, and at this point, it is ready to eat.
Now I shall show you how to make two types of Indian breads. The first one is the most basic bread. It is called the Chapati. It is made with whole-wheat flour, water and salt, kneaded together until pliable, pretty much like this. The dough is kneaded; I like to let it rest for about half an hour to one hour at room temperature. It is for a good Chapati to have a really hot skillet. Since these breads do not get done in the oven, it is kind of you are using the skillet to essentially bake it. You roll a piece of the dough into a round circle, dip it in more flour just like I am doing here, roll the Chapati out into as close a circle as you get. The objective for this is hopefully to get the Chapati to puff up and this happens because of the water vapor that is in the dough. It rises into a puffy, round circle. Let me hope that my skillet is hot enough.
What happens is, after a couple of seconds, you start seeing this color on surface of the Chapati changing. You turn it around and you do the same on the other side. What you start seeing at this point is tiny little puffy circles. This is basically the water rising. This is telling you that the Chapati is getting ready. If you have an open gas flame like I do here, the next stage with this Chapati is to put it on the flame. There you watch it puff up and you actually have a complete Chapati.
The second bread that I shall be showing you how to make is the Paratha bread. It is similar to the Chapati bread in that it is also unleavened bread. It is made with whole-wheat flour. Here I have mint in it for seasoning. So we go through the process, I roll it out. I like to use a pastry brush for adding the grease to Paratha because I feel this way you get an even amount without too much grease. You can use a spoon for the same purpose. It dries out in spots; gradually starts puffing up and at that point you apply oil or melted butter to it. You can see the bread puffing up. What you want is nicely puffed bread. It is dry and brown in spots, and at this point, it is ready to eat.