Muhammad Amir Hakim
A Peek Into Indian Cuisine – Chapatti
In
Malaysia, there are many types of races that can be found such as Malay, Indian and
Chinese. When it comes to Malaysian cuisine, there are thousands of super fabulous food
that we could find in this beloved country. During these times, we have been exposing to all our readers about the wonders of Malay cuisine on both sides
which are the main course and the desserts. Those food that were being posted seems to be so delicious. As for this week, we will be highlighting on the main course that is related to Indian cuisine which is the very well-known
flatbread, Chapatti.
Chapatti is originally from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Chapatti is also
known as Phulka, Roti and Poli. It also spelled as Chapathi and Chappati. Some people said that each country has their
own style of making Chapatti. Basically, Chapatti is made up of wheat. For the Indian
people, Chapatti is an important dish as rice for us. One of the oldest versions
of Chapatti came from the North India. Next, the word “chapat” in Hindu means
‘to slap’. This is because the traditional way to make rounded shape is by
slapping the dough between the cooker’s palms of the hands. With each slap, the
round of dough is rotated.
In the
Indian country, Chapatti is mostly served with curry. People in Malaysia eat
Chapatti in many ways. Normally, the ‘mamak’
stall will serve the customers as the traditional way in which the Chapatti is
served with curry or dhal. In the other way, Malaysian people also eat Chapatti
with red spicy sauce or we called it as ‘sambal’.
As we all know that Chapatti is a nutritious and low calorie food, people
that are on diet are usually advised to have Chapatti as their breakfast or
snack. The way the Chapatti is cooked made it more healthy compared to other types
of bread as it is cooked in a dry way without having to use cooking oil.
Notice that all of the ingredients being used to make a Chapatti are very
healthy and easy to get in most supermarket here in Malaysia. The main
ingredient that you should have is the whole wheat sieved flour or ‘Atta’
wheat. ‘Atta’ is made from Indian wheat and it is more fine compared to the
western-style wheat flours. Next is a cup of water; it depends on the quantity of
Chapatti that you want to make. Optionally, you can put a pinch of salt if you want the
taste to be slightly salty.
Besides of not using cooking oil in its cooking process, Chapatti is also cooked traditionally without using any
pinch of salt. The reason that it is prepared this way is to
ensure the taste of Chapatti which is to be served with spicy gravy such as curry. It
is easy to prepare and to cook Chapatti. Firstly, after the dough is completely prepared, they will be formed into round balls. The balls were formed by pressing the dough between the palms of the hands as mentioned
earlier. After this stage is completed, the rounded balls will then be turned into
disc shaped which are then dipped into flour and rolled out on a circular
rolling board using the rolling stick. After that, it will turn into a
perfect circle. Then, at this stage, the perfect circle dough will finally be thrown on the preheated griddle and cooked on both sides.
Finally,
the Chapatti is ready to be served. If one wants to make it more delicious and
moist, the Chapatti surface can be brushed on with ghee or melted butter.
However, it is best to eat them using the old style which is without having to put on the
ghee as to preserve its traditional taste.
Tune in next week as we will be bringing you more about the wonderful and mouth-watering Indian cultured food.
[1] Dash, M. (2015). Food Story: How India’s favourite flatbread Roti was born.
The Indian Express.
Retrieved from
http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/food-wine/food-story-how-indias-favourite-flatbread-roti-was-born/
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