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    The art of making roti: Indian bread has many forms - Baqarkhani, baati, chapati or parantha

    Synopsis

    A newer way of eating the bread seems to be an emerging trend for the urban millennials.

    1ThinkStock Photos
    As pictures of beautiful bakes are posted on social media, the many traditions of making Indian rotis — from baati to baqarkhani — are languishing.
    Soda bread, sourdough, focaccia, burger buns, handmade pizza — baking bread has, perhaps, never been such a popular pastime in Indian metros as it is during the lockdown. So furiously have home cooks been baking in the past two months that not just yeast but even the otherwise plentiful maida seems to have flown off retail shelves. Sundry friends, on weekly grocery runs, have found that sliced bread is more easily available than flour.

    As pictures of beautiful bakes are posted on social media, with people claiming gratification not only with the outcome but also the deeply meditative process of preparing the dough, and as we top or sandwich the “global” breads with “Indianish” elements such as paneer bhurji, potato bhaji and chicken sukka, a newer way of eating seems to be emerging for urban millennials.

    However, in the process, what seems to be falling into disuse is the indigenous tradition of making bread or roti, which is deemed tedious and time-consuming — ironical, given that making any bread is about cultivating loving patience (a sourdough starter takes five days of “feeding”, after all) rather than hurried devouring.
    1Agencies
    Making litti stuffed with spiced mince or truffled potato mash can be an interesting lockdown pursuit.


    The chapati recently made an appearance in NYT Cooking as an unleavened curiosity in a world overrun with fluffed-up delights. It may be the most common way in which north Indian homes make their daily bread but there is more to it than simply roasting it on a hot iron tawa. The chapati is not the same as a roti — which is a generic word for bread. Instead, it gets its name from the technique of making it; from “chapat” or slap!

    A perfect chapati needs to slapped into shape and thinness, between two hands, before being put on a hot tawa. In traditional homes that could afford time and attention to food, the hallmark of a perfect chapati was its extreme thinness, verging on transparency. The thicker the chapati, the more rustic or unsophisticated the meal was deemed to be.
    2Agencies
    In varqui parantha, flaky layers are created by spreading ghee over them.


    The gluten in the wheat allows the dough to be stretched thin — into chapati. But gluten-free jowar, bajra, besani and makki make thick rotis. Then there are other elite breads that we no longer make at home but have been happy to consume at restaurants. Sheermal and baqarkhani fall in this rich category. Breads developed in the Mughal/nawabi/nizami kitchens marry the tradition of ghee-laced paranthas with ovenbaked breads of Central Asia. Sheermal, as the name suggests (sheer means milk, mal means riches), is made from dough kneaded with milk. It is a Persian bread modified in Indian kitchens.
    3Agencies
    Gluten-free jowar, bajra, besan and makki make thick rotis.


    Kewra or screwpine essence is added to give it a more sophisticated flavour profile, and ghee (as a replacement for eggs in the Persian tradition) is added to the dough, along with sugar, saffron and yeast. It can be roasted either on a hot iron tawa or in an oven/tandoor. The main difference between the Hyderabadi and Avadhi sheermal is in the saffron colouring that the latter is imbued with.
    4Agencies
    Sheermal is made from dough kneaded with milk. It is a Persian bread modified in Indian kitchens.


    Baqarkhani, developed in the later Mughal period, is similar but with even more riches such as almonds, raisins, poppy and sunflower seeds. Both these breads are mentioned by the poet Mir Taqi Mir in his 18th century autobiography Zikr-e-Mir, where he gives an account of a banquet hosted by Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula for Warren Hastings in 1784 that he attended. “There was every kind of bread… nan-i-badam (almond bread); shirmal and baqar-khani both coloured with saffron that would put the sun to shame, nan-i-javan, so soft and warm that if an old man were to eat it he would act like a youth, nan-i-varqui (literally “paper bread”), nan-i-zanjabil (ginger bread),” the poet writes.

    Some of these such as varqui parantha, where flaky layers are created by spreading ghee over them, are still in existence and may have given birth to later inventions such as the Malabari porotta.
    5Agencies
    The varqui parantha may have given birth to later inventions such as the Malabari porotta.


    The art of creating flaky layers may have come to India as a French influence. It finds expression in several other lesser-known breads that are disappearing from our tables. Murassa from Murshidabad is a seven-layered wheat roti, where cream, pistachios and other dried fruit are spread between the layers. Rice flour rotis like mande from Karnataka and chitua from Bengal also use the same technique of layering.

    The diversity of Indian breads can perhaps be best seen in pooris, kachoris and paranthas — with flour, fillings and spicing changing across regions. Chana dal or Bengal gram (which got its name because the British discovered it in Bengal) is a favourite protein-stuffing for rotis and paranthas. So are besan (in Uttar Pradesh) and sattu (in Bihar).
    6Agencies
    Diversity of Indian breads can be seen in the different fillings for kachoris.


    Earlier, breads were simpler affairs. Dubki is a medieval bread that finds a mention in the Manasollasa. Balls of dough were simmered in lentil broth to make a wholesome dalroti staple in a less tedious way. We no longer have this. However, dishes like litti, baati or bafla (boiled baatis), which are still prevalent as the common man’s slow cooked food in the villages of northern, western and central India, are a throwback to earlier centuries.

    In fact, making a whole-wheat baati or litti stuffed with ingredients such as spiced mince or truffled potato mash in your home oven may be as interesting a lockdown pursuit as baking other breads. It is time we looked at India’s bread diversity.

    (The writer looks at culinary trends and traditions)



    ( Originally published on May 09, 2020 )
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