Do you make Indian breads?

[David M. Bueker]

Made dal and whole wheat roti tonight. Dal came out very well. The roti was good, but could have used a touch more salt in the dough. Love fresh roti, but hate rolling out the dough.

Roti is one kind of bread that escaped from India and is eaten in other parts of the world -- at any Malaysian restaurant (say, Penang) you can order a "Roti Canai" as an appetizer (recommended). As you go East from India you see terminology like Roti Prata, and variations on Paratha. When I want Roti at home I generally buy it frozen from H-Mart. I'm not even sure what they call it but it is some variant of Prata or Roti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti

Anyway I haven't been big on Indian bread making but my neighbor has perfected his technique for a variant of Naan. It's slightly different from Indian Naan and it's something from Afghanistan called Nan-e Ferenghi, "foreign bread" which he cooks on a grill (not having a Tanoor or Tandoor handy). Not sure who the Ferenghi were but the Greeks showed up under Alexander and made an impression more than 2000 years ago. The remote Afghan province of Nuristan has blonde inhabitants who may trace their heritage back to Macedonia.

On my part -- I've made a lot of Puris over the years but have not done that recently. Deep frying makes food delicious but really fattening.

My wife looks upon rolling roti dough as form of relaxation (luckily for rest of the household ) as some would do with bread dough. The variations on unleavened bread in India alone is mind boggling. There are variations on rotis, parathas, chapatis including where some are stuffed with potatoes/spinach/cheese/lentils/onions etc. Frank, that is interesting about the naan-e-ferenghi. Now that you mention it, uncanny resemblance to pita bread!

[David M. Bueker]

Last night's breads

bread.jpg

Nicely done David! What did you have it with?
-Shaji

[David M. Bueker]

Dal

Perfect! that and some pickled mangoes...

[Jenise]

Shaji, when you say pickled mangoes, are you referring to mango pickle? I absolutely adore that stuff....

Jenise,
Mango pickle is exactly what I meant. There are several variations of these - spicy (my preference) or sweet. If I am out of them, spicy lime pickles will do just fine too.

[Jenise]

Shaji, we can dine together! It's the spicy I love too and ditto re the lime pickles. I keep a jar in the fridge at all times, and sometimes just eat a spoonful of it to satisfy a craving, like I do peanut butter.

A true story: I once dined Indian food with my brother Chris in Santa Monica just outside of L.A. where he lived at the time. Chris was the freak sibling who made life difficult for the rest of us when we were growing up because he ate and LOVED everything that children aren't supposed to like, such as blue cheese and octopus, to cite just two examples, and which our father, whose simple childhood diet was limited by South Dakota poverty vs. palate and preference, used to torture the rest of us.

So when Chris tasted the mango pickle I asked my server for, which he had never tasted before and immediately hated, declaring it "Janitor in a Drum", I was amazed and delighted. Finally, after all these years: got him! But the best part was when the white owner (a guy who had fallen in love with Indian food while in diplimatic service) of the restaurant barreled over to our table wanting to know who'd ordered the pickle. When I outed myself, he hugged me, declaring me the only other non-Indian he had ever met who liked it. Hard to imagine: it was instant love the first time I tried it at the home of an Indian friend who served a plate of mixed pickle with the meal. I had a hard time leaving it alone as the condiment it's meant to be vs. the meal I wanted to make of just that.