Roti is an absolute staple of north Indian cuisine prepared every day for each member of the family as all types of north Indian curries and lentils based tadkas are complemented with roti. Its variants can be found in Indo-Caribbean, south-east Asia ( Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand), African and Middle East cuisine. In Iran, it is called khaboos and nowadays it can be found in abundance in other parts of the world like the US, the UK and European countries.
At some Indian restaurants, one can find hundreds of variants of dough made from multiple grains, vegetable stuffing, lentil- stuffing and stuffing made from herbs/greens, each prepared differently offering distinctively unique flavour and health benefits. The most prominently found variants of roti in Indian restaurants are the Tandoori roti –prepared in a desi tandoor.
Information
Roti ( or Paratha) is served with curries, unlike Chinese cuisine, where curries are served with noodles or fried rice or as wraps.
About Roti
Roti is a type of Indian bread, also known as phulka. It can be found in Thai, the Caribbean and Malaysian cuisine. It is made from whole wheat flour that comes from hard wheat grown across the Indian subcontinent. This flour (also called atta) is made by grinding the whole grain, which gives light creamy brown flour. Ground whole wheat flour contains vitamins, minerals and complex carbohydrates that give sustained energy to the body. Atta has a high gluten content, hence, not advised to people who are allergic to gluten.
Restaurant-style roti
Restaurants sprinkle oil and add enough water to make soft dough of the atta ( the refined flour of wheat) to make numerous variants of roti. They sometimes add vegetables, salt or ghee to make it rich to enhance its simple flavour. They can use fillings of vegetables or cheese, which can be served with curd, pickles, creams or sauces.
Homemade Roti
At homes, one can use whole wheat flour instead of refined. It requires great skills to get the thinnest puffed up roti which is an indicator of excellence in cooking as per North Indian home –cooking experts. It is mostly made without any oil for everyday meals, or one can use butter ( or ghee) on hot roti at the time of breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be made with a combination of nutritious seasonal grains like ragi, soya, chickpea, millet, ragi, rice etc., and seasonal vegetables.
How to serve?
One can serve it with any vegetarian or non–vegetarian curry recipe, fruit jams, curd, lentils or pickles.