Slow Roti and Quick Curry

Here's a basic flatbread, cooked over a hot griddle. This is made with yeast, so you will need two or three hours before you cook and serve. It's perfect for a late breakfast or brunch, with baigan (melongene or eggplant) choka or tomato choka. Or with lunch, to soak up the sauces of a curry made with vegetables (chickpeas and potato) or meat (chicken, goat or lamb). The recipes here allow you to make a yeast based roti - slower than with baking powder, but resulting in a tender yielding flat bread.

Griddle cooked rotis develop these brown patches with distinctive flavour

Just before you put your roti on the griddle, you can put together this vegetable curry. While the veggies are simmering and fragrant, roll out the roti. This flatbread cooks quickly - a couple minutes on each side - and you can pull each pair apart.

SLOW ROTI
Flour, three cups (two cups white, one cup wholewheat) plus more for rolling
Yeast, bare teaspoon
Milk, one cup
Salt, teaspoon
Sugar, tablespoon
Butter, few pats (at room temperature)
Coconut oil, tablespoon

It's best if all ingredients are at room temperature, but I have started with flour and milk cold from the refrigerator; it takes a little longer for the first rising.

Mix yeast, salt, sugar and milk in a large bowl.  Add flour and stir until you can form a ball. Knead lightly, sprinkle with a pinch of flour, cover with a cloth and set aside for an hour or more to rise.

One or two hours after mixing, punch down and knead. Dust with flour.

After the second rising, make eight balls and allow them to rise for half an hour.

Flatten each ball: put two together with a dab of butter between

Use a rolling pin to flatten the pairs as thin as you want

Punch down and knead again, with a little more flour if the dough is still sticky. Allow to rise again for 30 minutes or so. Depending on how much time you have before serving, you can let it rise again, or skip this step.

Cut dough into eight pieces, form balls and dust each ball with flour. Flatten two balls at a time, put a dab of butter on one side, press the balls together and roll with a rolling pin, to form a circle the size of a tea plate.

Heat a heavy frying pan or griddle over medium heat with a smear of coconut oil on the surface. Cook each pair of roti on the hot griddle, for a few minutes on each side. You will see the roti swelling in the middle as the sides cook with brown patches. Cover the cooked rotis on a plate with a tea cloth and serve immediately. You can separate each pair at the table.

Cook each side of roti on a greased griddle or cast iron frying pan

Your double rotis should pull apart easily

QUICK CURRY

Channa, (chickpeas) one can (400 gm)
Potato, one large, peeled and cubed
Pumpkin, one pound, peeled and cubed
Garlic, three or four cloves smashed
Geera (cumin), teaspoon
Cooking oil, two or three tablespoons
Curry powder, two tablespoons
Hot pepper, piece
Chadon benne, four or five leaves cut up
Salt to taste

(Other vegetables may be added: carrots sliced; bodi beans cut in one-inch lengths)

Heat pot and put in whole geera until the seeds are releasing their aroma.
Add oil to pot with hot pepper and garlic. Add curry powder.
Saute potato and pumpkin cubes for a few minutes. Then add drained chickpeas. Reserve the liquid to add later.

Stir and allow the vegetables to simmer. Add water as necessary. When the potato is soft, add chadon benne and salt to taste. Add carrots and bodi beans at this point, if you wish.  Simmer with enough liquid so that the peas don't dry out, while you cook the rotis.

Curried vegetables: channa aloo with pumpkin, pleasing blend of flavours

Split your rotis apart, the outside may be browned and crisp, the inside soft and yielding. Break bread and dip up the curried vegetables.