Indian Bread(Roti) accomplishments

[Cookwithlove]

I went through my first hurdle in understanding the various types of Roti(Bread served Indian food. The Indian vegetarian is very healthy and the range of bean products is abundance.

Now I would like to understand some of the popular dishes that goes well with the following roti: Chapati/Dosa(Thosai)/Puram Poli/Roomali roti/Pakora Pakoda/Naan/Poori/Bhatura. Let me know if I miss out any?

Namaste

[liv4fud]

Check out the egci section on this very same site.

There are a couple of courses on north indian and south indian breads.

Let me know if it helps.

[v. gautam]

Dear Cook,

Please let me clarify some points:

Some of the foods you mentioned are not strictly "breads" although they are often lumped into that category: the various dosa-a would fall into this category. They may resist being pigeonholed into some defined Western food classification, and we should not force the issue.

Some others like pakoras are not breads at all. Rather, they are various mixtures of vegetables and chickpea flour, to be eaten as snacks accompanied by green and tamarind chutneys in the north, or along with a meal in Gujarat and Bengal.

Pakoras can be thin slices of vegetables, like eggplants or slightly boiled potato, calabaza pumpkin, blanched cauliflower florets, spinach leaves, etc, dipped into a lightly spiced batter of chickpea flour mixed with various proportions of rice flour, and nowadays corn strarch, to give crispness. These are deep fried in vegetable oil of appropriate temperature. Such "fritters' are also known as "bajjis" in some South Indian languages.

However, only in the North will you find, panir slices and white bread slices being prepared in the above manner.

A second type of "pakora", popular in the Punjab, consists of chopped spinach, grated potato, sliced onions, etc. spiced with a specific flavor that could include pounded raw coriander seeds and carom seeds, besides a few other things. These are loosely bound with added chickpea flour, gathered into loose balls and fried. Also consumed with sweet-sour tamrind chutney.

As you can see, this is not bread!

Extending this variation, but now, going towards Gujarat, in the westernmost part of India, we have mashed potatoes that are tossed in hot oil that has been flavored with mustard seeds that have been allowed to pop in it, followed by a hint of asafetida, then crushed ginger root, and chopped green chillies, sligh turmeric, sugar, salt. This makes up a filling formed into little balls dipped into chickpea batter and deep fried, the whole called bondas.

Remember the flavor components of the potato mixture above? Almost the same, but adding curry leaves, some urad and chick pea dals in the hot oil, and some tamarind or sour flavor instead of the sugar we get the basic filling or "masala" that goes into a masala dosa, which is served with a coconut chutney plus a sambar. So a dosa is a full meal.

A puran poli is a dough that has fat in it but also has a filling made of dals, ground up and sweetened with cane jaggery [brown sugar] and various flavorings. It may be cooked with ghee on a griddle, and is eaten as a sweet dish, on its own.

After that, the other names you mention fall into the category of true breads, made from wheat, eaten with accompaniments.

Naans when plain are famously eaten with tandoori chicken, chicken butter masala, or slow-cooked urad dal+ kidney beans rich with butter and green cardamom [dal makhani].

Rotis/chapatis are eaten with dals, or with simple vegetables, complicated vegetables, meat and chicken preparations, with butter and salt alone hot off the griddle. You can eat them with butter, bananas and guava jelly if you wish, with indian style scrambled eggs, with anything your heart desires to experiment with.

Pooris, I have wriiten to you, as also some other types of north Indian breads.

There are many other types of breads from other parts of the country, millet breads, rice breads, flour breads and so on. But best to go slow, and develop some confidence in one thing at a time. It takes a great deal of care and attention to understand how to make a good dosa, your favorite. Peppertrail, Ammini Ramachandran, has given exhaustive details on selecting the type of dal, [whole skinned urad], type of rice [long grain or ponni] etc. and the various methods and additives that go into preparing a good dosa.

Making a good chapati.

Making a good paratha.

Indian foods look deceptively simple but are hard to master and prepare well, hence the nastiness of most indian restaurant food!

[Cookwithlove]

Dear Cook,

Please let me clarify some points:

Some of the foods you mentioned are not strictly "breads" although they are often lumped into that category: the various dosa-a would fall into this category. They may resist being pigeonholed into some defined Western food classification, and we should not force the issue.

Some others like pakoras are not breads at all. Rather, they are various mixtures of vegetables and chickpea flour, to be eaten as snacks accompanied by green and tamarind chutneys in the north, or along with a meal in Gujarat and Bengal.

Pakoras can be thin slices of vegetables, like eggplants or slightly boiled potato, calabaza pumpkin, blanched cauliflower florets, spinach leaves, etc, dipped into a lightly spiced batter of chickpea flour mixed with various proportions of rice flour, and nowadays corn strarch, to give crispness. These are deep fried in vegetable oil of appropriate temperature. Such "fritters' are also known as "bajjis" in some South Indian languages.

However, only in the North will you find, panir slices and white bread slices being prepared in the above manner.

A second type of "pakora", popular in the Punjab, consists of chopped spinach, grated potato, sliced onions, etc. spiced with a specific flavor that could include pounded raw coriander seeds and carom seeds, besides a few other things. These are loosely bound with added chickpea flour, gathered into loose balls and fried. Also consumed with sweet-sour tamrind chutney.

As you can see, this is not bread!

Extending this variation, but now, going towards Gujarat, in the westernmost part of India, we have mashed potatoes that are tossed in hot oil that has been flavored with mustard seeds that have been allowed to pop in it, followed by a hint of asafetida, then crushed ginger root, and chopped green chillies, sligh turmeric, sugar, salt. This makes up a filling formed into little balls dipped into chickpea batter and deep fried, the whole called bondas.

Remember the flavor components of the potato mixture above? Almost the same, but adding curry leaves, some urad and chick pea dals in the hot oil, and some tamarind or sour flavor instead of the sugar we get the basic filling or "masala" that goes into a masala dosa, which is served with a coconut chutney plus a sambar. So a dosa is a full meal.

A puran poli is a dough that has fat in it but also has a filling made of dals, ground up and sweetened with cane jaggery [brown sugar] and various flavorings. It may be cooked with ghee on a griddle, and is eaten as a sweet dish, on its own.

After that, the other names you mention fall into the category of true breads, made from wheat, eaten with accompaniments.

Naans when plain are famously eaten with tandoori chicken, chicken butter masala, or slow-cooked urad dal+ kidney beans rich with butter and green cardamom [dal makhani].

Rotis/chapatis are eaten with dals, or with simple vegetables, complicated vegetables, meat and chicken preparations, with butter and salt alone hot off the griddle. You can eat them with butter, bananas and guava jelly if you wish, with indian style scrambled eggs, with anything your heart desires to experiment with.

Pooris, I have wriiten to you, as also some other types of north Indian breads.

There are many other types of breads from other parts of the country, millet breads, rice breads, flour breads and so on. But best to go slow, and develop some confidence in one thing at a time. It takes a great deal of care and attention to understand how to make a good dosa, your favorite. Peppertrail, Ammini Ramachandran, has given exhaustive details on selecting the type of dal, [whole skinned urad], type of rice [long grain or ponni] etc. and the various methods and additives that go into preparing a good dosa.

Making a good chapati.

Making a good paratha.

Indian foods look deceptively simple but are hard to master and prepare well, hence the nastiness of most indian restaurant food!

←

Hi Gautam,

Thanks again for your very comprehensive reply to my questions. Gradually my knowledge of Indian food is increasing. You have a wealth of knowledge on food particularly Indian. If those are not bread, just discard them. I enjoyed and benefited watching the many cooking videos produced by Chef Sanjay Thumma.

By the way where are you located? I have a list of the various calling names of Indian food, perhaps in this short space we have, could you kindly educate me on the list of calling names appended below. I have make a list of all the ingredients when I last visited Mustapha shopping cente some times ago.

Meaning of the followings:

masala, paneer, Halwa, puranpoli Bohathlu, Pulao, Aloo, Hyderabadi, Palak, Korta, Blendi, Sooji, Tikka, Kadai Bhendi, Semiya Paysam, Ka Meeta, Channa, Korma, Podimes,Burji, Vada and Palak. Dear Gautam, let me double check with you again Bhatura(Is a big poori is that correct?

Lastly before I forget you know about Putu Mayam and where can I buy the Putu Maker?

Take care and take your time.

[jw46]

Lastly before I forget you know about Putu Mayam and where can I buy the Putu Maker?

Looks like anything that can extrude vermicelli can make that... A Sev press, or a ratchet powered cookie press with very fine holes....

If you have the cookie press, you can make your own disk to shape them, a blank of aluminum and an electric drill....

[v. gautam]

Dear Cookwithlove,

Please pardon me if I insert a very strong cautionary note here. It seems to me that you are trying to attempt too many things here without a clear focus of what you really want to achieve. Please understand clearly a few points:

1. There is nothing called "Indian" food just as there is nothing called European or Asian food.

India is as large as Western Europe and has even more diversity, languages, cultures and subcultures all of which have their distinct culinary traditions. None of these is equivalent to the mishmas popularized as "restaurant" menus, that vary in taste and composition from nation to nation across the world. What you eat in Singapore will be different from the same item called by the same name in London or Birmingham, New York Tokyo, Delhi, etc.

2. First you must know what you are doing, learn about your subject matter at least a little. That cannot happen through a forum like this. Either take a cooking class, not difficult in a place like Singapore, or start reading some elementary books on Indian cooking, so as to get a beginner's grasp of what a "masala" might mean in several different contexts, in different regional contexts for example.

Then, what the basic flavors of the various regional cuisines are.

Then, try to focus on a single region, like the North, and try to master a few signature dishes or techniques.

This way of scrabbling wildly all over the place will end up with extraordinarily disappointing results for you. No one has yet been born on this earth who has mastered in days dozens of dishes, and retained them. Not possible, otherwise, we would have had fantasic cookery coming out of the kitchens of Indian restaurants.

Since the opposite is true, and since these cooks get a lot of daily practice in just a single style of cooking without substantially improving their skills in a competitive environment where it would benefit them to do so, don't you think there is a lesson to be learned there?

No serious person will waste their time working with you or mentoring with you if they feel they are dealing with an unbalanced or non-serious individual. Time and effort is precious for all of us. Moreover, our national cuisines is a matter of some pride and honor.

One day you want to master breads, then dosa, then throw out pakoras, then add in putu: what do you really want to do? Seriously?

Each takes a lot of time and effort, each type of bread takes a while to get right.

If you are serious, you should slow down and consider buying or borrowing some basic cookery books.

Madhur Jaffrey, Julie Sahni, Suvir Saran, Santha Rama Rau in the Time Life Series of World COoking, Charmaine Solomon, and many others have written books that can help you to slowly grasp the beginning techniques of Indian cooking.

When you are familiar with the basics, then people will be more than happy to help you along with any and all problems you might encounter, answe r questions you may have about things you do not understand about things you are reading or have problems reproducing in your kitchen.

But at this point, the program you seem to have chosen, to an outsider appears without focus or balance moving erratically from this to that.

Where is the logical learning process that will help you understand the cooking of an alien culture and retain what you learn? That must be established, if you are to have any chance of success. A book or books, supplemented by videos, plus asking questions when needed, and cooking classes with genuine teachers: those are the ingredients for success. It will bring you lasting confidence, joy, and, eqaully important, safety in the kitchen.

[Cookwithlove]

Many Thanks. To cut the long story short, I know what i had in mind. Been cooking professionally for some 30years I have hands on working experience in practically most session of the kitchen in diverse cuisine in many countries.

[v. gautam]

If so, then your questions, and the territory they cover, the exceptionally disorganized way they approach the subject matter, do not give me confidence that you understand, are trying to understand or will ever understand any basic mastery of the very preparations to seek to gain knowledge about.

Not just you, many of us have equally long experience in prfessional and other venues including teaching a wide variety of students. It is not difficult to spot from the beginning who will succeed well and who will not. Thus my caution. It is not possible to learn dozens of types of breads, Indian, Middle Eastern etc. plus the accompanying dishes with any degree of skill from a zero base, no matter how expert one believes oneself to be without a cumulative, organized approach.

The scatter-shot approach you seem to have in mind may lead to great disppointment : what looks easy in videos turns out completely different in real life, especially for Indian spicing and techniques. The flavors become very strange, because the videography does not have the time to explain things in detail, simple things like cooking onions properly.

So yes, do go ahead, as you seem to be in a great huff, and immune to considerate suggestions from experienced teachers and cooks who have taken a great deal of time already to find you source material to help to learn Indian cooking. Such attitudes certainly confirm my impressions. If you have so much experience in diverse cuisines do they [include Indian], that wold have shown up in some basic understanding of Indian cooking. You will find it quite difficult to produce adequate authentic Indian food without going the process I have suggested above because so far, there is little evidence of even a preliminary understanding of the basics of India, its regional variations, and its cooking canon.

BTW, if years are so important to you, this will be my 44th year of cooking! Indian [several], Thai, Chinese, certain western, professionally and otherwise. I have many friends and cooperators in various expert Indian cooking websites who understand my expertise. Does that make me [at least !!!] 1/3 more skilled, more experienced than yourself as far advice regarding Indian cooking and your chances of success are concerned?

You may not understand this yet, but eGullet is dead as far as real Indian experts on cooking: they all have gone away to other sites, for certain reasons. When you wrote, I wrote replied, thinking here is a person who wants to learn. But i was wrong. Yoiu see, repeatedly this is what happens, negative experiences of this sort here, that i and others keep having again and again. That is precisely why the other Indians with useful information do not write. Did you see any other replies to you from any other expert Indians of whom there are dozens? As you love to say, the short answer is NO! Ask yourself WHY???

Edited January 11, 2008 by v. gautam (log)

[Cookwithlove]

If you don't open your mouth, i won't say you're dumm!

[Kouign Aman]

Please understand clearly a few points:

There is nothing called "Indian" food just as there is nothing called European or Asian food.

India is as large as Western Europe and has even more diversity, languages, cultures and subcultures all of which have their distinct culinary traditions.

...

Then, what the basic flavors of the various regional cuisines are.

...

Then, try to focus on a single region, like the North, and try to master a few signature dishes or techniques.

....

Madhur Jaffrey, Julie Sahni, Suvir Saran, Santha Rama Rau in the Time Life Series of World COoking, Charmaine Solomon, and many others have written books that can help you to slowly grasp the beginning techniques of Indian cooking.

←

Thank you. I think you've nicely defined one of my objectives for 2008.

It'll be a while before I can really dive in, but may I ask you a couple of introductory questions please?

Then I'll try to spend some time with the TimeLife book to begin the process (which obviously will take more than one year).

<editted to add: if the answers are covered here eGCI Intro course to "Indian" cooking, "nevermind!"!>

* How would you list the various cuisines of India?

(ex in the US we have TexMex, Southern Style, New England etc )

* And does geography matter as much as religion/culture?

* And lastly, since I'd like to start with a favorite dish and work in its milieu so to speak, where does palak paneer fit in?

Again, thanks.

Edited January 25, 2008 by Kouign Aman (log)

[liv4fud]

<editted to add: if the answers are covered here eGCI Intro course to "Indian" cooking, "nevermind!"!>

* How would you list the various cuisines of India? 

    (ex in the US we have TexMex, Southern Style, New England etc )

* And does geography matter as much as religion/culture?

* And lastly, since I'd like to start with a favorite dish and work in its milieu so to speak, where does palak paneer fit in?

Again, thanks.

←

Your first two questions are so broad - it can literally be a PhD subject

Cuisines are mainly related to geography

[v. gautam]

Dear KA,

You are right on target:

think of geography as the superset:

North

South

East

West

Within that, the dichotomy of religion, broadly speaking [it pays to keep things rather general, at first, in order to absorb the major themes, intellectually, rather than get hung up on niggling details of accuracy]. Hindu and Muslim cookery.

Nested within those : in an analogy to sets in mathematics, now you can furthers narrow down to ENDOGAMOUS GROUPS, an unlovely technical term that accurately defines wht we more loosely and more romantically might like to want to recognize as ethnic and regional cuisines.

The reason we use this anthropological descriptor is that there are so many communities living cheek by jowl, sharing the same language, religion and genetics, yet significantly different cooking styles, each worth exploration.

Just to give an example, not to overwhelm you but to pique your curiousity: Take the megalopolis Mumbai, formerly Bombay. What about its names? These have a bearing on its food cultures, so please bear with me.

Anciently, the temple of the Mother Goddess, Mumba Devi, gave her name to the settlement, Mumbai, and its Hindu settlers, of diverse communities, generally were happy to refer to themselves as Mumbaikars. The Portuguese invaders and their Bom Jesus Cathedral led to the eponymous Bombay, that was ceded to the English via the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to an English king.

So, we can understand that there might be a Hindu community, long settled in Mumbai, with its distinctive cuisine. And there is, and this endogamous group, meaning one that retains its identity by marring within itself and preserving certain distinctive cultural pattern, is called the Chandraseni Kayastha Prahbu community. It is not the only one, merely one we have picked as an example. It has maintained a distinct identity and cuisine. Today, it is still recognizable by its English abbreviations, CKP, used even in Indian discourse. Such abbreviations are the bane of Indian existence, and will be found in oodles in the megalopolis for everything, but where it concerns us, for all manner of Hindu endogamous communities strung down the west coastal plain, from Mumbai, right up to the borders of Kerala in the deep south.

They share slight flavor affinities, and you may say, belong to the flavor palette of the West, subset west coastal plain: moving down north to south, Malvani, Gaud Saraswat Brahman [GSB], Goan Christian, Goan Hindu, after which I become quite ignorant!! : Udipi Brahman & Chetty, Mangalore Hindu and Christian, another Saraswat Brahman group on the border with Kerala

Kerala itself with its own rich mosaic sharing some broad themes, some unifying flavor principles: coconut, coconut milk & oil, Bananas & plantains, certain principles of spicing and bringing out those spice flavors: for which consult Ammini Ramachandran, our member Peppertrail and Kerala expert, plus general expert

But let us return to Mumbai, and leave the Portuguese aside for the moment and turn to those who were the result of intermarriages with both the Portuguese and the English at the time of the transfer to England. Those preferring to seek shelter under the English and remain in BOMBAY became know as the EAST INDIANS. This IS THE OFFICIAL AND PROPER designation of their community, how they identify and name themselves at present. They too chose to intermarry largely within themselves for ages, and create a disctintice culture and cuisine. Bottle masala is one of their signature elements.

Bombay attracted a lot of Muslim immigrants and settlers from all parts of the Near East as well as other parts of India. One branch of Shia Muslims, known as Ismailis, found a safe haven in Mumbai. Within this confession, there are two further endogamous groups, the Khojas and Bohras, and each have sufficiently distinctive and delicious cuisines to make acquaintance and mastery quite worthwhile.

Consequent to the Islamic invasion of Iran, the Zoroastrians sought and found refuge on the west coast of India. Their symbolic flame, the Lord of Iran, Aatish Behram Iranshah, has burned without a break for over a thousand years at Udwada, a place a many north of Mumbai. Many Zoroastrians settled in Mumbai and made that city their particular jewel, they themselves being among the finest of jewels that have blessed India in every imaginable manner, never ever harmed it in any way ever. Now, the Zoroastrians are called Parsees, but a group arriving later also call themselves Iranis.

Each of these two groups of Zorastrians have similar but recognizably different [and deligthfully so] ways of cooking.

Baghdadi Jews and Armenians also found a home in Bombay and also represent examples of endogamous groups.

By now, you will begun to appreciate the vibrant mosaic that is the Indian food world, a far cry from the restaurant cuisines created out of various exigencies, economic and other, in various nations of the world. Then again, restaurant cooking in India, and much home cooking too, can be very indiffferent, as you will understand.

That palak paneer loved by you can have so many redactions, from the onion base-heavy and very rich to the light, from the South Indian adaptions of what originally is a North Indian dish, made popular anywhere from western Uttar Pradesh [i.e. around the eastern margins of Delhi] towards Punjab, where mixtures of ground greens are common, such as mustard and lambsquarters in the famous sarson ka saag, paneer is common along withthe rest of the northern plain, butter and cream beloved, so creamed greens/spinach and paneer combination is a natural outcome.

Please do ahead and ask any and all questions. Just do not get overwhelmed by India and its rich details. The cuisines easily can be subdivided, for practical purposes in North, South, East and West. Most people have gotten their taste for "Indian" food from restaurant favorites, that generally hail from the northern part of the country: Chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, palak/spinach paneer, cauliflower/potatoes/peas, lamb "vindaloo", etc, naan, samosa. They would like to recreate some of these tastes in their homes with minimum fuss. That is a worthy goal and very feasible. There are some excellent videos, nowadays, some of which I have mentioned upthread. Hope this long, wordy, tedious post was of some use.

Edited January 26, 2008 by v. gautam (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Wonderful!

Helpful and good reading too! I suspect I'll read it several times as its packed with info.

Thanks for showing the larger divisions that sort of bracket the many fine variations in a highly resolved understanding of the cuisines.

Time to visit TimeLife and put your words together with theirs!

[v. gautam]

Dear KA,

In addition to your reading, you may find some recipes and videos cited below useful:

1. http://www.kurma.net/ingredients/i3.html

http://www.iskcon.net.au/kurma/2007/06/13

check out some of the teaching videos as well

2. http://vahrehvah.com/popvideo.php?recipe_id=3258

other videos in same series

3.

You will note contrasting styles, 1&3 coming from vegetarian backgrounds that disallow the use of onions and garlic. This is fairly common for vegetarian cookery of certain groups all over India, especially Northern and Western India.

You will find, for example, until the mid century, and even today, Kashmiri and Bengal Brahmans who might consume fish and meat [mainly the latter] but still cooked without the alliums.

So. in Kashmir, you might have lamb cookery in parallel, one Muslim, the other Pandit [Kashmiri Brahman], one lacking in alliums, and characterized by dried, powdered ginger and fennel as its characteristic signature.

However, not all vegetarian food is bereft of onions, as you will see in [2]. A huge segment of vegetarians in all parts of the country employ onions, shallots and garlic very creatively indeed.

Watching the food being cooked allows you another perspective, in addition to reading the recipes. Handling Indian spicing etc. is judging timing, aroma and such, difficult to absorb solely from reading material.

Also, use chard leaf if you have it, beet greens like Lutz Green, Sugarbeet leaves, cheaper and less astringent/oxalic mouth puckering. Indian spinach is beet-spinach.

Try to use real cow ghee, called pure desi ghee, NOT butter oil. Brands from India in bulk kilogram tins are fine and cheaper that way than boutique stuff peddled at extortionate prices. Reliable brands are Amul and Vijaya. There are also others produced in the USA and Canada. Cooking with pure ghee is not worse than cooking with refined vegetable oil, and the flavors will sparkle. Similarly, get good dairy cream, if available without too much fuss in your area, for the palak paneer.

Ghee is not a priori bad for health, as you will agree. Any food consumed in excess of the body's needs is inappropriate, or consumed when contra-indicated by health conditions.

Edited January 28, 2008 by v. gautam (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Also, use chard leaf if you have it,  beet greens like Lutz Green, Sugarbeet leaves, cheaper and less astringent/oxalic mouth puckering. Indian spinach is beet-spinach.

Try to use real cow ghee, called pure desi ghee, NOT butter oil. Brands from India in bulk kilogram tins are fine and cheaper that way than boutique stuff peddled at extortionate prices. Reliable brands are Amul and Vijaya.  There are also others produced in the USA and Canada. Cooking with pure ghee is not worse than cooking with refined vegetable oil, and the flavors will sparkle. Similarly, get good dairy cream, if available without too much fuss in your area, for the palak paneer.

Ghee is not a priori bad for health, as you will agree. Any food consumed in excess of the body's needs is inappropriate, or consumed when contra-indicated by health conditions.

←

Thanks very much for the links and suggestions!

Cream and butter are good food and are not to be feared.

How is the desi ghee different from the browned butter oil? Just curious. Buying it is certainly a timesaver! I made ghee once, from the recipe in TimeLife Food of the World India volume- the process was to clarify butter then brown the remains very slowly. Good stuff. Took more time and attention than I can rely on having tho.

Thanks for the heads up re greens too. I've been thinking of planting chard, and now you've given me added incentive. Fingers crossed that I actually follow thru.... (and that I get more of the harvest than the snails do).

[v. gautam]

For a discussion of ghee see : http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=94112

Find a large Indian grocery, such as those in Sunnyvale or LA. You are in San Diego? Local Indians will have advice. Then there is always the old online standby, Patel Bros. But try the neighborhood first, to save on shipping costs that add up, unless you are purchasing above a certain total amount.

One variety of chard that yields very well, and is mostly foliage, minus the thick ribs seen on US varieties, is Bieta d'taglia or a similar name, sold by Franchi Semenchi of Italy; several distributors in the USA, including Harvest Moon Farms, even some Agway franchises.

[eipi10]

I'm no Indian food expert, but classic combinations I have seen are as follows:

Bhatura with channa/chole (chickpeas). One of my favorite Indian dishes. It's perfect.

Pooris with shrikhand (Gujarati). Ridiculously decadent, but good.

Also keep in mind that Indians (at least in Singapore and Malaysia--the places I've traveled) use parathas and rotis to scoop up their curries like Ethiopians use injera and Arabs use pita to scoop up their dishes. I don't think there's just one dish or set of dishes that is meant to accompany parathas and rotis.