Make roti, not naan

Because roti is "home food" and naan is "restaurant food"

• Skip to the full roti recipe

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“I made Indian food at home on the weekend,” my friend at work told me. 

“Yeah? What did you cook?” I asked.

“A Paneer Saag using your Saagwala paste and Butter Garlic Naan,” she tells me before admitting that while the Paneer Saag only took 15 minutes, the naan was way harder than she expected. 

By the time the food got to the table, she was exhausted. Plus, the kids barely touched the naan because they weren’t as fluffy as the ones in the restaurant.

My heart sank. I’m very familiar with the feeling of spending hours cooking something and not having it turn out like you were expecting in your head. It makes you not want to try again.

And, that’s going to happen with Naan - a leavened, tear-drop-shaped flatbread - almost always when you make it at home.

Naan is like Indian film actresses Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra

They are on the international stage.

Outside of India, they are very popular; you’ll see them at all major film festivals. But back home in Bollywood, they are far from being the most talented or popular.

Similarly, almost every Indian restaurant in New Zealand, and overseas serves naan. That doesn’t mean you should make them at home.

Freshly made roti

Indians don’t actually eat that much naan

Naan is why I eat Indian food at a restaurant twice a year. Even though I know that most of the food I’ll eat will be mediocre.

I go there to scoop up my creamy dahl makhani with a piece of thick, smoky, garlicky naan.

While pillowy naan tastes great dunked with Indian curries, the amount of flour and ghee used makes them unhealthy to eat with every meal.

It’s time-consuming to make at home one at a time. Also, without a tandoor - the large, clay, charcoal-fired oven - they never taste light and fluffy like the real thing. I could cook an entire week’s worth of Indian lunches in the time it would take me to make ten Naan. 

Roti, on the other hand, is made in almost all Indian homes.

Everyday. In some homes, with every meal.

Everyone eats it. Rich, poor, healthy, sick, children, adults. Made from wheat flour rather than all-purpose flour, Roti is an unleavened flatbread that comes together in minutes. Roti is to Indians what pasta is to Italians.

We love them so much that someone even invented a 3D Roti printing machine that my next-door neighbour paid $2500+ for.

Not from the future. A Rotimatic roti printing machine that I wish someone would buy for me.

While I don’t own a roti machine, I did have some roti privilege. Growing up in Mumbai, a maid came to our home just to make us roti.

Grandpa had organised so she’d come to our home at 3.30pm, just when I came home from school. She'd get the dough ready as I would change out of my uniform. And just as she got the first few rotis off the tava, I’d come to steal two hot rotis. Each would get a thick slather of butter before I sprinkled on some sugar, rolled it into a tight cigar and hungrily gobbled them up.

I took roti for granted because someone in my life has always made them for me

I only started my roti-making experimentation last year when my school-aged kiddo fell in love with roti and demanded Alphabet Roti for his school lunchbox.

When you get started, roti can feel hard to make too. But that’s the learning curve and not the flatbread itself.

My son loves when I cut up his roti into alphabets.

Krish Ashok shares a great scientific explanation for making the perfect roti in his book, Masala Lab. The trick lies in using a hydration model, like the one bakers use for sourdough, to make your roti dough. Krish shares, “If you are new to roti making, start with 80 percent hydration and work your way up to 100 percent hydration as you get comfortable”. 

For roti rookies like you and me, that’s 80gm water for every 100gm flour. He had a few other tips, which I’ve included for you in the recipe below.

When I tried making roti using this formula, I made soft, chewy roti that fluffed up on the tava and held their own when I dunked them in dahl and curry alike. They were not perfectly round, but who cares?

Practising my roti every weekend has made me faster

Not as fast as my cook Oberoi (named after the 5-star hotel), but they get done by the time I’m done with my weekly two vegetables, one curry meal prep. I make the dough twice a week and store it in my fridge. Then, whenever I feel like eating some, I roll out a few, cook them on my tava and have a perfect accompaniment for my dahl, masala potatoes, or even wrap some leftover roast chicken in.

The next time you’re tempted to make naan, make roti instead. It will go perfectly with whatever Indian dish you’re cooking up, whether that’s a curry, some paneer or even butter chicken.

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Make roti at home (about 15)

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - Aashirvad Aata is the best
Water
Oil
Salt

Optional Equipment:
A good tava will serve you well both for dosas and for roti-making

Method

• Mix the wheat flour and warm water using an 80% hydration ratio to make your dough. That’s 80 gm of warm water for every 100 gm of flour. Mix the flour and water and roughly bring it to a shaggy mix till there are no dry bits of flour.

• Important step: let this sit for 30 minutes. Both warm water and resting trigger gluten development which is the reaction that gives your roti a good chew.

• After 30 minutes, add salt to the dough. Add a bit of oil and knead the dough until it’s slick and shiny. 

• If you’re storing the dough, sprinkle some more flour on it and store it in an air-tight container in the fridge (fine for 3-4 days).

• Divide the dough into small balls.

• Before rolling out your roti, cover the surface you plan to use with a silicon baking sheet. Also, heat up your tava or other flat, pancake-making pan, ensuring you use the highest heat setting on your stove.

• Dip the dough ball in some dry flour and then start rolling it out on your silicon baking sheet into a thin circle using a rolling pin. Go as thin as you can, flipping the roti a couple times so it doesn’t stick. Don’t be afraid to sprinkle it with dry flour to help you with the rolling. 

• Place the roti on the hot tava and cook on both sides until dark brown spots appear and it fluffs up a little.

• Remove the roti onto a plate, and top with ¼ tsp ghee.

• Keep stacking the rotis on top of one another until you’re done.

• Important step: Allow to cool slightly and then store in an air-tight container to prevent drying out.