Roti Rolls

Roti is an Indian bread eaten with curry. It is usually made on an iron griddle. The main ingredient of Roti is wheat flour called atta. Rotis are easy to make with a little practice. It is similar to a tortilla. I remember my first days, when I used to struggle making rotis, sometimes they came out in the shape of Africa and sometimes that of India, sometimes they were hard and sometimes it used to stick to the tawa. I used to take these rotis to my office and my colleagues used to laugh seeing the shape of these rotis. I was staying in the land of rotis and parathas, Punjab so I could understand why they laughed at me. Most of them made beautiful, soft rotis and looking at my blackened rotis can make anyone laugh. I have come a long way from then.


Here in Cape Town, we get rotis in supermarkets, but most of them are made the Malay way. It is usually made with lots of oil or ghee. The Indian rotis do not use much oil and this helps us to keep cholesterol to some extent at bay.


I make rotis everyday in the morning to pack a healthy lunch for my husband to take to work. Recently, my eight year old son came and told me "Mamma, I do not want sandwiches for lunch, I would also like to take rotis to school". I started thinking of different ways to send rotis to school. I did not want to send curries to school as he would make a mess of his uniform and come home. I thought of the wraps available at fast food restaurants and came up with this recipe. I am putting up the photo of roti and shall put the photo of roti roll when I take one.

Ingredients for Plain Rotis:

1. 2 cups atta (or 1 1/2 cup white bread flour and 1/2 cup brown bread flour)
2. Sufficient water and salt
3. 1 tsp. oil

Method:

• Mix atta and salt with warm water.
• Knead till soft and then put the oil on to this dough and knead it once more, keep it aside for an hour or two.
• The dough should be kept covered with a damp cloth or with cling film.
• Divide into balls.
• Roll out each ball by dusting it with some flour into a circle of the required size.
• Cook these rotis one side after the other on a flat or slightly concave iron griddle.
• You may apply ghee on these rotis but not necessary.

Filling for the Rotis:

1. 500 gms chicken breasts cut into long strips
2. 8 to 10 lettuce leaves
3. 1 green pepper sliced
4. 1 onion sliced
5. 100 gms of creamy salad dressing or mayonnaise(I use spur's creamy salad dressing used for french fries)
6. A few coctail tomatoes cut in half
7. 1 tsp. chicken masala or garam masala
8. 2 tsp.oil
9. salt to taste

Method:

• Saute the chicken breasts in 2 tsp. oil until cooked and water has evaporated.
• Put in the garam masala, cocktail tomatoes and salt and mix for two minutes.
• Remove it from fire. Keep it aside.
• Take one roti, first place one lettuce leaf in it and then some cooked chicken breast, one or two pieces of green pepper, onions and finally a little sauce on the filling.
• Roll the roti in such a way that the bottom is folded first and then the sides.
• Finally roll a serviette on each roti so as not to get the filling out.
• A nice delicious roti roll is ready to eat.