Can any Indian cooks help me with my rotis please?

[Anonymous]

My rotis come out great if I want to eat immediately but if I want to pack the leftovers for lunch, they get hard. Why is that?
I use the wheat flour from Indian store, knead well, add a little oil into the dough, and fry them on a flat pan with a tiny bit oil rubbed on both sides. If I want to take them for lunch the next day, I let them cool and then wrap them in foil.

What do I need to do to keep the soft for a later meal?

[Anonymous]

Brush generously with ghee/melted butter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rotis come out great if I want to eat immediately but if I want to pack the leftovers for lunch, they get hard. Why is that?
I use the wheat flour from Indian store, knead well, add a little oil into the dough, and fry them on a flat pan with a tiny bit oil rubbed on both sides. If I want to take them for lunch the next day, I let them cool and then wrap them in foil.

What do I need to do to keep the soft for a later meal?

What you are describing is parantha, not roti. Roti becomes soft because of the steam inside it. It should puff up like a ball while cooking. Roti is roasted without any oil on the flat pan.

Here is my recipe for the softest roti.

- Make dough of 1:1 wheat flour and oats fufu. You can buy oats fufu from African grocery store. Also, instead of wheat flour, you can also use multigrain atta alone or with the oats fufu. Magic ingredient is the oats fufu.
- Use warm milk to knead the dough, and make a very well kneaded but a very loose dough. The surface of the dough should be very smooth without any lumps. To knead a loose dough, keep on slowly incorporating as much liquid (milk, or milk+water) as you can and continue to knead for a long time.
- Keep dough in container with a lid and put in the fridge for 2-3 hours. This will allow the dough to properly absorb all the liquid and it will firm up the dough.
- Roll thin and even roties by using a rolling pin and dusting of dry flour.
- Puff it on the pan by using a clean cloth and pressing it down when both sides are adequately cooked.
- Once the roti is cooked and has puffed up like a ball, take it off from the griddle and apply some ghee on one side while it is still warm. Fold it in half so the ghee side is inside. I normally wrap the stack of rotis in a clean muslin napkin, and then put it in a ziplock bag or foil.

[Anonymous]

Don’t let them cool before wrapping in foil. You’re losing the moisture. Just let them partially cool.

You also could microwave them between damp paper towels for 10 seconds or so when you’re ready to eat. That always works for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t let them cool before wrapping in foil. You’re losing the moisture. Just let them partially cool.

You also could microwave them between damp paper towels for 10 seconds or so when you’re ready to eat. That always works for me.

+1
All good tips.

For me, putting in a muslin or linen cloth napkin after applying ghee (while the roti is still warm) also protects the moisture. The napkin prevents the roti from getting soggy or too dry. I then use the foil to pack it.

[Anonymous]

Im jealous. I’m Indian and I duck at making roti. Either too thick or thin and don’t peel off the surface where I’m rolling it. Or they are undercooked in places. Always mishappen. Why am I a reject?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Im jealous. I’m Indian and I duck at making roti. Either too thick or thin and don’t peel off the surface where I’m rolling it. Or they are undercooked in places. Always mishappen. Why am I a reject?

Another Indian whose roti-making efforts used to be the butt of endless jokes. This recipe works very well for me:
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/roti-recipe