The final part of our Indian meal was made by my husband, Mark. After we’d finished, I told him “You made them, You write the article!” So here it is, the fourth installment of my taste of indian cuisine – Jen
It has to be said, I normally keep well clear of cooking in our house. Primarily because the excellent culinary skills of Jen mean that anything I do is going to be very poor by comparison, but also because I’m a danger to myself and others in the kitchen. The other day, for example, I rashly offered to make our evening meal, (a just-add-chicken Katsu Curry kit, I can’t cook from scratch! ) and in the course of an hour or so, I had deep fried a plastic spoon to oblivion and set fire to our halogen hob.
Anyway, while Jen was making our delicious Indian meal, Chicken Korma with Mushroom Pulao Rice and Indian Spiced Beetroot, I just happened to say that it would be nice to have some Chapatis to go with it. I was shot a withering glance by my wife who was busily juggling several pans and ingredients. “Not to worry,” I said, “I’ll make them!” I was shot another withering glance. “Go on then”, she replied, calling my bluff.
It turns out that chapatis are the ideal food for me to make. There are only two ingredients and they are supposed to catch slightly! How hard could it be?
Ingredients
4½ oz/125g chapati, wheatmeal or bread flour
3fl oz/90ml water
Method
Makes about 8 chapatis
Put the flour in a bowl. slowly add the water to form a soft dough. Knead it for about 5 or 6 minutes until it is smooth.
Put the dough into a bowl, cover and leave for half an hour.
Put a frying pan on a medium heat without any oil and leave it to heat up for about 10 minutes. A heavy cast iron one works best.
Knead the dough again and divide it into eight pieces. the dough is quite sticky so you’ll need to dust it with a lot of flour when working with it.
The traditional way to form the bread is to flatten it out with your fingers, spinning it and pinching it out between your thumb and forefingers. I tried this and ended up with something with the look and thickness of an elephant’s ear. So my advice is, forget the traditional method and just use a well floured rolling pin. form it into a ball then roll it out until it is very thin.
Take each chapati and slap it into your hot frying pan. cook it for about a minute then turn it over. the underside should start to have white spots on it. Turn it over and cook for another thirty seconds or so on the other side.
Now comes the fun bit. You take the chapati out of the pan, move the pan off the heat and place the chapati straight onto the heat source. If you’re using gas then you place it over the flame, which would be the traditional way to do this. However, as I’ve previously mentioned, we have a halogen hob, so I placed it straight on to the ring. I was a little sceptical as to whether this would work, but it did. What happens is that your chapati should puff up after a few seconds. turn it over and do the other side on the heat source. This should give you a nice bit of colouration.
Wrap your cooked chapatis in a cloth or some kitchen towels to keep them warm and fresh while you cook the rest.
The great thing about chapatis is that you use them as an edible eating implement. Scoop up some Korma and Rice with it and pop it straight in your mouth. Now I don’t like to blow my own trumpet but I do think that they were perhaps the perfect finishing touch to our meal. And if you ever need any Chapatis making, I’m your man!
These are gorgeous!!! I am loving your Indian cuisine series.
PS. Sorry I have been missing lately from your blog… with the demise of Foodbuzz… I’m trying to subscribe to all blogs I used to follow. I signed up for emails from your blog today so not to miss any more.
Thanks for sharing some Indian recipes. I’ve never had Indian food before, but hear it’s delicious. I will definitely have to give it a try in my own home.
I am so glad you like the look of the recipes. None of them are too spicey so, as a first timer, you should be OK. Hope you enjoy the food.
Hehehe, I have been thinking about making my husband write up a post too Jen. What a clever idea, and it gives me a break from the blogging
Looks like a winning recipe with only 2 ingredients Mark!!
I thought he should start off easy and build up from there. I think all the comments are going to his head though. Sadly we are both very busy with the day jobs at the moment and haven’t goat a spare minute to blog.
Not to worry we will be back as soon as we possible. 
I just popped in to let you know that I awarded you the One Lovely Blog Award: http://binomialbaker.blogspot.com/2012/05/one-lovely-blog-award.html
This post cracked me up with the deep frying of a spoon.
Mark is busy working at the moment so I am answering for him. Hope you don’t mind. You may have found the deep fried spoon funny, but I wasn’t laughing. I loved that spoon.
Not to worry he has promised to buy me a new one, someday. Glad you enjoyed the post. 
Yum! I want some. Can I come over for dinner?
I’ve nominated you for the One Lovely Blog award. See it here: http://treatstrinkets.blogspot.com/2012/05/dark-chocolate-dreams-cupcakes.html#
Hi Kim. Thank you for the award! I was over the moon to receive it. Sorry I haven’t responded sooner, I’ve been busy with the day job.
Glad you like the recipe. I’m not sure whether I’ll ever be able to get him to cook again. Although, at the moment his head is rather big from all the complements, so maybe he will.
I find your blog and you to be most lovely so I have awarded you the One Lovely Blog award my friend
Much deserved!
Check it out here: http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/rich-berry-cherry-chocolate-cheesecake-a-guest-post/
Congrats!
Choc Chip Uru
A BIG thank you for the award! I promise I will get around to putting forward my nominees as soon as I can. Bit hectic with work at the moment.
I love your website too. 
Love them, when I left home for Uni, it was something i missed. These are pretty impressive, almost see the puff in them.
I am replying on behalf of Mark because he is busy working.
Glad you like them. I was pretty impressed by him too. 
Wow – these only need two ingredients? Looks and sounds great!
I am replying on behalf of Mark because he is busy working.
This is my sort of recipe too! They are very easy to make. 
oh wow, only two ingredients! i need to try making these!
I am replying on behalf of Mark because he is busy working.
This is my sort of recipe too! Glad you like it. 
I never knew that chapatis only required 2 ingredients!! Sounds easy but I bet I’ll somehow make a mess of it when I attempt! hahaa.. Delicious! These would go so well with other Indian cuisines!
Trust me, If I can make them then they’re idiotproof!
they look perfect, with the charred marks and all… what a fabulous meal u must have enjoyed
Thanks! Although some were more charred than others! We are rather partial to our Indian food.
Mark, I am really impressed. Chapattis are one thing which even today,I don’t make for a gathering. I order it.
When I first learnt to make it I used tortilla press.Later I started rolling and cutting into circles with a round bowl. Traditional method is not important as long as you are getting what you want.
I only made eight, and I think that was more than enough! Any more and I think thew fun might have gone out of it!
Last week I cooked chicken Korma and rice Pulao using Jen recipes, next time I will also make chapatis …I agree with the roller pin tip. The easy way to make wraps.
I do agree. You should have seen him trying to do them by hand. I couldn’t work out why he was making more work for himself.
Can’t go wrong with chapatis my friend – they are Indian cooking foundation
They look simply stunning
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I will pass on your comments to the Chef.
The top one looks okay, you should have seen some of the ones at the bottom of the pile!