Monday 9 June 2014

How To Make Perfectly Soft Phulkas | Rotis

How To Make Perfectly Soft Phulkas | Rotis

If you are new to cooking and still face tough time to make soft phulkas then this post is just for you. Simplest way shown here to make wonderful soft Phulkas Or Rotis


It is not rocket science But softness of phulkas highly depend on just the way we knead and make it.

Now Call it Roti/ Phulka/ Chappati its all the same term used for one thing which is make out of aata and water when combined. Some people make it dry some people make it greasy using oil. It is basic bread made in India with different names depending upon the region and how they term it.

When I was searching what is exact difference between Chapati/ Roti/ Phulka... I got this beautiful line written by Dr Satish

When poor man eats it is roti!
When sardarji eats it is Phulka
When rich people eat it is chapati.........

No wonder different people have different perspectives to look at one thing from various angle. We at home term it as ROTI, so lets continue with the post as roti :)

Sharing all my years of experience making roti into points today!! 

Starting with kneading dough! Though I wanted to make it as a different post but then I think its much better to have it as one post at a stretch easy for readers too :)

Ingredients 
Wheat flour - As required
Water - half the portion of flour taken
Salt

Ratio of wheat flour and water should be 1: 1/2  Example for 2 cups flour take 1cup water, you may need more or less depending upon the wheat absorption!!

Method (Please go through the notes for more details)
Take flour, salt in a deep bowl or karai or large flat place depends upon choices how freely you can knead.
Mix water into flour slowly binding it to make dough. Just enough that you get a unshaped mass of ball moving around smoothly (no need to spend extra energy just little of ur energy used is enough for this bind)
Now sprinkle some more water generously over the dough let the water spread evenly press it flat too if u like and cover the vessel with a lid. Keep it to rest for 1/2 hr to 1hr.
After this we can see wheat has absorbed most of the liquid it needs and sends down the extra water to the bottom

- Gently Lift the dough and remove excess water which is now settled at the bottom.
- By now the dough is very soft. Knead knead knead with firm pressures till it becomes like a smooth ball (needs little bit energy as we apply pressure) it may feel little sticky when you start but it will absorb all the extra moisture as we knead.



- Work with dough till it becomes like a smooth ball as shown in pic below, As we knead to smoothen it, sides of vessel gets cleaned up from dough sticking around. You can make difference from 2nd pic to the pic below!!



- Now pinch out dough to make uniform size balls accordingly



Close the lid of the vessel dont allow the balls to xpose much to the air



- As you start making roti take one dough ball and roll it nicely in between palms to make smooth crack free balls (one at a time, just before rolling)

- Keep the tava on stove top to heat up
- Now roll the balls it into roti using some dry flour, rolling pin and board making sure there is no cracks and folds coming while rolling. Any cracks or folds coming at this point may affect the puffing of roti at the end stage



- Dust off the extra flour if any and place the rolled out roti over the hot tava, making sure temp of tava is not very high nor very low, for better result cook the roti in medium flame.



- After 30 seconds you will start seeing the color change of the roti from top (see pic below)



- This is the perfect time to flip the roti to the other side.



- After fliping it will looks something like this as shown in pic above. Gently press the sides giving it a chance to touch the tava (sides of roti will have tendency to uplift from sides, so gentle pressing will help at perfect cooking at end stage)

- You will start seeing bubbles showing on top. Flip it and you will see brown spots showing on the other side of roti. Press over the bubble using spatula or use a cotton cloth to press the sides of rotis.


- As you press over the bubbles the roti will start puffing up (dont press hardly it might break the layer of roti) see the pic below.



- Once the steam inside the roti spreads evenly you can see the whole roti puffed up nicely.
- Your Garma Garam Roti/ Phulka is Ready!!


Serve it hot / Store it in casserole. You can look up at my post on  How To Keep Roti | Phulkas | Parathas Soft For Longer Time

Notes:
- Minimum of 1/2hr to 1hr time should be given for the dough to rest after 1st knead
- Dont use a pointed spatula to handle rotis, it may break the roti's while puffing
- As you keep 1 roti to cook on tava quickly take another ball, roll it and be ready till the roti in tava is done! If you are new to making roti this will take some time to get in practice.
- If u make smooth balls and keep ahead before cooking, you may find cracks in the sides of roti, and also the layer of roti will not be smooth. So above shown method works best for me ( Im telling you this after so many years of practice over making roti's)
- Some people like rolling out all the rotis and keeping it in a big flat tray, then slowly they cook it over tava one by one!! This method sounds easy but again sometimes there is a risk of 
1) Roti's not puffing up
2) It might stick together if left like that for longer time.
3) There will be some hardness in roti's after cooking due to exposure of air when the balls are rolled and kept just like that in open air!!
- When you roll out balls into roti's one at a time you are sure that there is no cracks anywhere and no prolonged exposure to air.
- Some people make smooth balls out of dough, coat it with dry flour and keep aside till use! This will again give ugly crack looking texture to the roti in the surface and also sides, so pls avoid!!
- Cook in medium flame, I am used to adjusting the temperature of tava from time to time For example (after making 2-3 roti's tava's temp is quiet hot, so from 4th roti onwards, I take the flame to lowest when I put rolled roti in tava, once color changes I flip the roti, press the sides and increase the flame to high!! When bubbles show up reduce the flame to lowest flip the roti and puff up. Remove the cooked one and continue with the rest in same way)
- If you find tava has dry flour showing just dust off using a cloth, It might effect the texture and appearance of roti while cooking (when extra flour remains in tava and you continue making with rest of roti's it will give you a brownish colored burnt texture and also some roughness, and this might lead to even making your tava go rough and burnt) dusting off flour will ensure tava remains smooth as well!!
- When using cloth to puff up roti's then just slightly press on sides and keep rotating it will puff up in no time, but be careful with your hands, If you give hard pressure and the puffing process breaks the steam touching your hand it might give you a bad burn sensation for 4-5 days minimum (experienced)
- Some people feel it easy to keep the roti over flame to puff up!! Bad idea!!! ( Roti becomes a kind of chewy and cannot be stored for long, it will harden up quickly)
- When you apply oil while making roti, chances of puffing up is less, you may enjoy it without puffing up too
-If there is cracks and folds coming while rolling roti, dont give up, still the end product can be consumed happily




This can be kept in casserole for about over night or whole day if cooked in morning hours.

If you want it to store long, you can store the cooked rotis in fridge wrapped in plastic dont put it when still hot this can be kept for 2-3 days or up to a week if stored well!! (my family consumes more roti's than rice, sometimes I make rotis in bulk 25-30 maximum which can go for 2days)

You can easily reheat it in tava by applying some oil. It will soften as it heats up. Keep it in casserole!! the steam which will circulate inside casserole will make the rotis more softer. 

This post is too long in a way!! I dint compose it in a single day either!! I have tried jotting down all the possible points which can be troublesome while making roti.

Making roti needs practice practice and lots of practice until it becomes something you can make in a jiffy!!

Hope this post is useful to you and still if there is any doubt Please feel free to ask me!!




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26 comments:

  1. Looks perfect.. U justified ur title

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  2. wow... they look supersoft!!! we always prepare our chapathis in boiling water... hopefully will share sometime soon... but will try ur version as well...

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  3. Thank you so much for this. I've only recently started making chapathis and any advice is taken. i will let you know how mine turn out, Thanks again.

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  4. nice useful post dear.. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. This was such a useful post Aara. i was thinking why should read i will be just a regular post as anybody could write... but.. thank u so much for sharing, i could make out each of the mistakes i make while making roti's. some will puff up and some will not..So here lies the technique behind it.. And do join events running at my space.. i will be happy too...Keep in touch..

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    Replies
    1. Hey hope u are now able to get soft n fluffy rotis :)

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  6. Such a useful post and love your tips :) pulkas looks amazing.

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  7. very useful post for all roti lovers..loved the way you neatly jotted down dear :)

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  8. Useful post and well explained..

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  9. Informative post... Useful points to stick it n my kitchen..

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  10. Soft phulkas looks perfect.

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  11. Fluffy and soft chapaties........ Looks perfect!

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  12. The perfect post. I loved the way you explained the process of making a phulka!

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  13. Looks delicius and so soft. I like very much the step by step presentation.I love these a lot! chowringhee restaurent in satyaniketan

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  14. wow...your presentation and also your chapati is too good...its difficult for me to make a chapati like this...I am using the Best Atta for chapati , may be it will be my mistake and today on wards i am following your way..Thank you so much..

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  15. Nice post. Thank you :) any tips on how to roll them out round please ..mine get weird shapes :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by :) to roll it round perfectly the only key is patience and practice. Roll it light handed making sure you have applied enough dry flour to the dough ball you are about to roll. dust flour to each ball one at a time. if you dust it ahead and keep you may find cracks while rolling and also the flour would stick to the roti. If you dont have time to practice with patience then there is only one trick to save you from weird shapes. Roll the rotis as u can and use a tiffin lid or a round plate to get the right shape. cut off the extras and your round roti is ready :)

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  16. This method works .. and I can say because I've tried it 😊 Thank you so much .. can't say mine are perfect rounds but at least now they puff up and are soft ..

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