Chapatti

Another cooking related post. Get ready.

My Nairobi mom, Betty, decided I should learn how to cook chapatti. What is a chapatti you ask?

That is a chapatti.

It's kind of a mix of a tortilla, naan, and a pancake. It probably uses enough cooking oil to make all three. Originally, chapattis are from India. Mama Betty says Kenya perfected it, like France with the croissant or New York with pizza. 

How to make chapatti:

Boil water. Add salt. Add to chapatti flour in a big bowl. My mom says its a mix of barely and wheat, but the bag just said wheat. So I think you can just use wheat. Someone try it and report back. 

Mix with a wooden spoon. Mom says this is crucial because you just added boiling water to the flour. Makes sense. Once the flour is cool, mix with your hands. Here, it's always a better options to use your hands. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. If it's too crumbly, add more water. Mix until not sticky. 

You may have noticed by now that there are no measurements and no length of time in which to mix. Measuring when you cook is not important. 

When the dough is no longer sticky, make a small well in the dough ball. Fill with vegetable oil. Mix well with your hands. Then, roll it out.

Easily the happiest chapatti maker ever

Brush with cooking oil...



Then roll into a log. By trapping the oil in the dough, it makes the chapatti have layers, making it fun to eat and not like a pancake.










Cut the log into sections and fold the edges over, making smaller dough balls.

Aren't they cute?

Chapatti pan

Next, roll out the dough balls while heating your chapatti pan. You all have chapatti pans, right?

 

Christmas themed towel in the background

Place flat chapatti on the pan and wait till it puffs. Spin the chapatti. Then flip. Brush face-up side with more oil. Once that side puffs, flip, and repeat brushing. It will look like this

NOW YOU TRY!

In other news, we got an apartment. It's not too far from where we are now, which is nice. I visited my ISP site, which was also awesome and really helpful. Too helpful almost, most of my questions were answered. I have a month to do this project, but I'm now almost done...more sight-seeing I guess.

Sunday morning we are leaving for a week in Tanzania. Get ready for a much cooler post upon return. As exciting as chapatti is, it's really not. Thanks for reading anyway. :-)