The breakfast roti of your dreams
How to make my mom’s Friday morning staple
When I was a little boy my mom would ask me this question every Friday morning:
Bursting with enthusiasm I would almost always say Yes! and she would quickly whip up these rotis and serve them with 2 (or more!) eggs.
Rotis, for those who aren’t familiar with them are flatbreads eaten all over the Indian subcontinent. They are quite similar to tortillas, except they are made with stoneground flour called “atta” or chapatti flour which is finer than regular all-purpose flour [1].
The distinguishing feature of roghni rotis however is that clarified butter (ghee) and salt is mixed into the flour. Traditionally these are made in various ways using different flours such as millet flour but my mum usually opted for whatever was convenient and used chapatti flour instead.
It’s only after doing a lot more pie crust making that I realised this dough (flour+ghee/butter+salt) is similar to a short crust pastry dough. It’s not the same thing but I think you get the idea. So you can think of this roti as eating cooked pie crust with eggs for breakfast — it’s very buttery, slightly salty and very moreish. Like a good pie crust, except it’s softer and more malleable.
