Makkai di roti

[Pallee]

We've been asked to do a theme dinner for some students and one of the suggested recipes is for "Makkai di roti". It calls for maize flour as well as wheat flour. I think of maize as corn but that doesn't seem right. There is also no leavening in the recipe.

So - what is maize flour and should we add a leavening agent?

[liv4fud]

maize is corn but I wouldn't know exactly which kind of corn flour (or meal ) that you would need

[Milagai]

maize is corn but I wouldn't know exactly which kind of corn flour (or meal ) that you would need

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get yrself to indian store and get "makke ka atta"

which is indeed flour made of corn, but not so

refined as "cornflour".

i don't know how it compares to mexican masa...

milagai

[anvi]

You could try using Cornmeal,which is a coarse kind of corn flour.I guess it will be difficult to roll out a roti with this dough,but if you roll it in between plastic sheets than it might be easy.

[M65]

You can also use Masa Harina which you can get from any grocery or Mexican storeincase if you cant get to an Indian grocery store. Make a tight dough and roll tthe bread out with your hands griddle them on medium heat skillet, maybe trying out nonstick kind might help even better.

[liv4fud]

so is it like *rotla*?

which are also made out of bajri(a) (greyish flour) and jowar (millet)??

[SDSeth]

The dough cannot be made much in advance. I remember my mother would knead the dough for just a couple of rotis and spread the dough with her palms and fingers. Yes it is a similar technique if one has made Bajra rotis. We used to eat with Sarson ka Saag(mustard greens ), jaggery and lot of Desi ghee(clarified butter)

[muichoi]

It shouldn't have wheat flour in it. Fine cornmeal is the right flour to use-not so difficult if you make the dough with boiling water. Needs to be fried with lots of ghee!

[anzu]

Makki di atta is finely ground yellow cornmeal. If you can't find it in an Indian grocery (the ingredient is used predominately by Punjabis and there may not be enough demand to make it worthwhile keeping in stock), I would suggest substituting the finest ground yellow cornmeal you can find from a regular supermarket.

Please don't substitute masa harina, as someone suggested. They are very different. This would rather be like substituting masa harina for polenta - you might get something edible from it, but it would be far removed from polenta.

My Punjabi mother-in-law makes these quite frequently, but I have never heard of having wheat flour mixed in with it. It is usually made entirely from cornmeal.

No leavening. Just flour and enough water to make a firm dough. Knead for around 5 minutes. When entirely from cornmeal, this dough cannot be rolled out in the same way as one rolls out chappattis - the dough will stick and tear and will have jagged edges.

Instead, one breaks of pieces of dough and flattens them out to chappati shapes using the fingers and between the palms of the hands. Alternatively, roll out between two pieces of plastic wrap or wax paper to prevent the problem of sticking. You might need to trim the edges off with a knife to get perfect rounds. Roll to the shape and thickness of a chappati.

A non-stick tava or skillet is not necessary, any normal (unoiled) one will do. Unlike chappatis, makki di roti do not puff up as they cook, so check that the underside is done on the basis of smelling 'cooked' and on the basis of color (intense golden color, possibly with a few darker spots), then flip and cook the other side.

If mixed with wheat flour, the dough will probably be somewhat more workable, and therefore it might be possible to roll these out with a rolling pin. They also might actually puff up like regular wheat chappatis do (or should ) when cooking. Don't worry if it doesn't roll out easily or puff up, though - neither normally occur with makki di roti.

Just read Muichoi's post. Frying with ghee is another alternative, and possibly easier for novices to cook. However, most people I know make it without the ghee in a dry skillet/tava, and then serve with huge amounts of ghee.

Edited October 20, 2005 by anzu (log)

[liv4fud]

anzu,

in the true eg tradition - how about a visual guide (here's hoping you have a digi cam and some time this weekend to make makai di roti)

thanx in advance

[anzu]

anzu,

in the true eg tradition - how about a visual guide (here's hoping you have a digi cam and some time this weekend to make makai di roti)

thanx in advance

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Ha. Have you noticed that I've never posted even a single photo yet?!

[Pallee]

Very helpful info, thanks everyone! The dinner is next week, I'll let you know how it turns out.