Fulkas/Roti or Indian Flat Bread

Puffed up Fulka or Roti,

Fulka or Roti is the Indian flat bread made up of wholewheat flour. There are many types or variety of Indian breads like Chappatis, Parathas, many types of Naans & Puris, Kulchas etc. Most of the curries and Indian vegetable preparations go well with the Fulkas. I prefer this type of roti for my meals, I mentioned and posted picture in my previous post of Prawn curry (click for recipe).

In most of our Indian households the main meal of the day includes Roti, Vegetables, Rice, and Dal (Pulses), along with salads, assortment of Chutneys & Raita and Papads. Different states and regions have different staple food and most of the meals will have a set menu along with regular accompaniments. I have always found our Indian menus to be balanced diets, as they include all the required dietary components. I find the combination of Rice and Dal as the best. When on tours, away from home and eating  restaurant food than this is the one homemade food that we all crave for. Though it is the simplest form of cooked food item, but it also happens to be the most loved one by all of us. ( I will be including my favorite Dal preparations as future posts.)

Coming back to Fulkas, these are best when freshly made, direct on the plate from the stove. Oh, it is so difficult to control the urge to eat more than the daily quota of rotis when they are served hot. If a favorite curry is made than one could end up eating unlimited number of fulkas, a personal experience from my school days!  I have observed previous generation relatives having a big appetite and they would eat quite a number of chappatis, off course the size and thickness of the roti would not be the same as I have shown in this post. This could be attributed to the type of work they did, but it is a different story nowadays for the sedentary folks. Changing lifestyle, sedentary work habits, and ever evolving food habits have resulted in quite less consumption of rotis on a daily basis.  We never ate outside food in hotels or restaurants so frequently as compared to my kids. Those days the outings were extremely rare treats that were given only on some special occasion.

In my cooking, I use the Fulkas as base for a variety of Wraps that I roll up for the kids. The inside filling of the Wrap is changed each time, the taste is maintained, and those eating the Wraps have no complaints, so this mom’s mission of giving them something nutritious, healthy is also accomplished.  No need to buy the ready-made Tortillas!

For a first timer those many years ago, it was a difficult and different experience of roti making. If too much water gets added to the dough it becomes gooey and rotis cannot be rolled out without sticking to the rolling-pin. If less water is added and dough is not kneaded well then soft rotis cannot be made. But with patience and proper follow of the basic steps, the whole roti making process is easier.

I have to post some recipes using the rotis that will follow shortly and hence the need for starting with the basic roti-making post. For all the first timers, for making the roti, wish you have fun trying out the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

wholewheat flour: 200 gm

Water: 1 Glass

Oil: 1 Tsp or less

Optional: Salt and Oil.

Note:

1. To keep the salt and oil intake minimum, I do not add salt and oil to the wheat dough while making roti or fulkas. I use few drops of oil just to knead the dough and make it soft. Kneading properly results in soft and puffed up Fulkas.

2. The quantity of water required depends upon the quality of wheat flour used, so do use your own discretion for adding water to make the dough.

METHOD:

Take the wholewheat flour in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour water into the flour. Mix with each addition of water and form a medium soft dough. Keep it covered for 10-15 min.

Wholewheat flour and water to make the flour dough.

Drop few drops of oil on the dough and knead it well so that it becomes soft.

Soft wheat flour dough for making roti.

Divide dough into small lemon-sized balls and dust the rolling board and using some flour roll out thin circular shaped rotis.

The rolled out circular-shaped dough ball.

Heat a Tava or pan on the gas stove and put the roti onto the hot pan. Cook for few seconds and turn over so the other side gets cooked. Now lift the roti and turn and put it on the gas flame directly so that it gets puffed up. Once the roti puffs up over the flame, remove and store into airtight hot pot casseroles wrapped in kitchen towel or serve directly on to plates.

The steps after putting rolled flour dough on the Tava.

One could add ghee to the fulkas and keep, it tastes very good.

I can say I loved writing this post, even though I had a few interval breaks, at one stage the scare whether the incomplete draft got published by click of the button, and finally now when I sat to complete it I could not locate my saved draft. Well indeed quite a memorable post of mine so far in terms of writing and posting experience, and before I wrongly hit the delete button I should get this published. Happy reading!

Enjoy the roti making experience,  different country maps being rolled out on the board as a first time experience! Have fun all of you who stopped by to read my post and reached this last line.

ashu