Homemade Roomali Roti

Roomali Rotis always remind me of that guy standing in one corner of the open kitchen in Indian weddings and quietly swirling paper thin rotis in the air for the entire evening. Looking at him it seemed so effortless and like he has been doing since ages. It was one of my favorites in all the weddings and is even today. Staying out of India, its availability in the Indian restaurants almost became null until I came across this post by my fellow blogger and good friend Priyanka Sushant Varma (yeah, we share the same name and passion) where she shows an easy fool proof method of making the softest Roomali Rotis ever! I did two variations of the recipe on two different days, once with 100% plain flour and once with 50-50 plain flour and wholewheat. Both the versions were delicious. The 100% plain flour remained soft even the next day and was more appreciated. You can try both variations and see for yourself which one you like best!

                                   

Ingredients

1/2 cup wholewheat flour (for the variation, use plain flour instead of wholewheat)

1/2 cup plain flour 

1 tbsp ghee/oil (I used for guests, you can skip on regular days)

Warm water for kneading a soft dough (for variation use warm milk; I also tried using whey water instead of water; whey water is the left over water after churning paneer at home)

A pinch of salt

1 tbsp rice flour

Ghee/oil to be used while rolling

Direction

Take all the dry ingredients in a bowl and start kneading a soft dough using water or milk. The dough should be softer than a chapati dough but non sticky and smooth. Cover and keep aside for 20 minutes. 

Heat the griddle/tawa and pull out two plum sized balls. Start rolling the two side by side. Once it reaches the size of a chapati, lightly grease one rolled out chapati and sprinkle a little rice flour. Now place the other rolled out chapati and start rolling together as thin as possible. Now put it on the hot tawa and as soon as bubbles appear on one side, quickly flip and toast on the other side. It takes just a few seconds to make this. Overcooking may result in hard and dry chapati. Remove it from the flame and quickly separate both the rotis, fold and keep wrapped in a kitchen paper towel. Repeat for the rest of the dough and keep wrapped in paper towels in casseroles until serving time.