Food Diary: Know your Roti

For the first entry to my food diary of India, I'll start with the basics, the breads, or roti. Most restaurants in the US serve Indian food with rice, but for much of the country, especially the dryer places, roti is king. Roti also serves as a fork or spoon. Always eat with your right hand!

Chapati

Chapati is the easily the most common roti, especially in the North. It is a flour based unleavened flat bread that is basically a tortilla. In fact, I can't think of too many ways in how it differs from a tortilla except it's always fresh. Very rarely does a home-cooked meal come without it.

Here's a recipe (note, I haven't tried this recipe, but I've made it before at home. Super easy.)

Paratha (Parantha)

This is another flat bread, quite like the chapati, only slightly different. They are typically made with whole wheat flour and fried instead of grilled. Most paratha are stuffed with various fillings. Aloo Paratha is filled with potatoes. Gobi Paratha is filled with cauliflower and so on. Sometimes a dish one its own, often as a breakfast, parathas are among the tastiest snacks in India. Yummy.

Recipe (Please observe above note)

Naan

Naan is easily the most popular export or all the rotis. Few trips to an Indian restaurant are complete without naan. Though also a flat bread, it differs from the above in that it contains yeast and is cooked in an oven, not in a pan. Common variants of naan include garlic naan, pashwari naan (kashmiri naan) containing dried fruits, and keema naan, containing meat. Sadly, naan is not too easy to make at home as I've discovered many a time. Cooking naan in a normal oven, still yields a tasty bread, it is nothing compared to tandoori style, flattened, then slapped on the side of the Pujabi charcoal oven.

Here's a recipe, but don't expect any miracle unless you have a tandoor in your kitchen. (I find that to approximate tandoori naan, use the dough from above and cook in the oven on high broil, either directly on the shelf or on a pizza pan, brush with copious butter on both sides, flip a few times to keep from burning).

Puri

Puri is a common breakfast bread all over India. Another flat bread, it is deep fried until it poofs up like a big ball. It is then flattened then eaten with curry. If a chapati is like a flour tortilla, then puri is like a fried corn tortilla, even though it isn't made with corn (but it could be!!)

Recipe!(To really be authentic, substitute in a bit of coarse wheat flour or be adventurous, use some massa.

Papad (Papadums)

This is a super flat bread that is often a snack or served as an extra bread with many thalis. Crunchy and tasty, I believe this style of bread originally come from Malaysia. It is often made with rice or chickpea flour and seasoned with masala.

Here's a recipe, but wow, high yield!

Now, this is only a list of the most common breads found in every restaurant in the country, but there are so many more!