INDIAN CUISINE : Flatbreads!

If you do not know much about Indian cuisine, you will be surprised to find out that Indians usually do not make nor eat bread and buns as Westerns. Indians have more types of bread and sometimes even more names for each of them. Those which are not complicated to make will be made at home right before the meal - fresh.

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Most of the Indian breads are flatbreads - a flatbread is a type of thin unleavened bread. It basically means this - the dough is made without yeast (naans, for example, will be made with yeast), the bread is made by rolling the dough out into a layer and one bread is kind of equal to one slice of the Western bread. You are not making one whole bread from the dough. By cutting the dough and shaping the smaller parts into balls, you are making "breads." One bread will usually be for one person, just as a slice of bread is. The breads can be smaller or bigger, thinner or thicker, with or without stuffing. It depends on your preferences as well as on the method of making each type of the bread.

The simplest Indian flatbread to make is called roti and/or chapati. The basic ingredients for the dough are flour, a bit of salt and water. Some put a bit of oil into the dough as well, or any kind of other grease like butter or Ghee - clarified butter. These ingredients are basic for making any kind of Indian bread in general. Baking rotis can sometimes be tricky and this is the part where most of the Westerns will freak out because they have to accomplish that the bread puffs! It sounds difficult and unusual but it is not as difficult to achieve it as it seems. Once you have mastered the puffing part, you are literally ready for baking any kind of other Indian flatbread!

A puffed flatbread should look something like this:

Puffed Roti/Chapati - Indian Flatbread

The good thing about Indian home-made breads is that you know exactly what are the ingredients and they are additive-free. You can adjust the dough according to what you can eat. For example, if you can not tolerate gluten, you will simply use the gluten-free flour - such as rice flour, corn flour or the mixture of two or more gluten-free flours in case one is more expensive and the other is cheaper. In addition, this is a very good method of saving money on something you eat daily because one kilo of flour costs as much as one bread, while you can make more breads from one kilo of flour. To conclude, the breads will definitely be more healthy AND more fresh than those which you buy in a store.

The dough of each bread can be used in preparations of meals from other cuisines as well. For example, Indian flatbread called naan can also be used as a pizza dough like in Italian cuisine while rotis and parathas are good as flatbreads for making rolls such as for burritos from Mexican-American cuisine.

Creativity is your only limit!