Roomali Roti

People often ask where I learned Indian cooking and how I'm able to make it so authentically having grown up the first 25 years of my life completely without it. I have to give most of the credit to my husband, grudgingly, and the rest to his Mom, of course. She has very patiently and graciously dictated and demonstrated recipes to me over the years. Bartee has a different style of improving my cooking... it's called criticism, which I think he would prefer me to call "constructive criticism". He almost always has something to say about the food I put on his plate... "not enough salt", "there should be more gravy, it's too dry", "the dahl in here was a mistake", "the lentils should be more separated... not so mushy", "there should be big chunks of tomatoes", etc. On the flip side however, on the rare occasion when something is cooked just right... he is my biggest fan. "Wow, Mommy cooked a delicious dinner tonight... this is really tasty, the rice is cooked perfectly". Over the years I have really grown to appreciate this judgement and criticism, as I know without it, my sambhar and rasam would still taste as unexciting and amateur as it did back in 1999. He is well-known in his family for his honesty when it comes to his appreciation, or lack thereof, of the meals prepared for him. Often, he is asked to be the taste-tester... to judge whether something needs more salt or additional spice.

So that's the background, now let's get to today's story. I tell him that I'm planning mutter paneer with chappathi for dinner and it's no surprise that he would like to alter the dinner plan a bit. He asks me to make Roomali "meaning handkerchief" Roti instead of chappathi. So, I'm up for the challenge even though I have never seen or heard of this roti, let alone tasted it, ever in my life. It wasn't too difficult to find the recipe online... however, the steps were overwhelming. And it turns out they make a special appliance (oven) for cooking this type of bread, because it's so difficult to make. It should be cooked on a wok-shaped pan, without a non-stick surface, turned upside down on the gas burner (we have an electric stove).

What have I gotten myself into?

The dough is already made, so I can't back out now. I'm rolling the dough, which according to the recipe, should be "as thin as a tissue". And I think this is where I went wrong... the recipe says, "try to swing the roti in the air circling your wrist in a counterclockwise motion". I'm pretty sure I spun mine clockwise and in doing so... my Roomali Roti came out almost exactly as my chappathi's do. So, he was a bit disappointed when these Handkerchief Roti's looked, felt and tasted just like the same old bread I usually make with mutter paneer.

Had I discovered this step-by-step video for making them before attempting it alone... things may have turned out differently. They do look mighty tasty!