How To Make Dough For Chapati, Paratha, Puri And Katlima

This is  the basic dough for most Pakistani and Indian breads are made. The types are chapati which is made on a dry tawa  meaning griddle, paratha which is rolled out on a flour dusted surface like chapati then you use oil and you roll it up to seal the oil in so it does not leak all over the place. It also makes a very flaky paratha and very delicious. Puri is like a little short fat paratha but you pour oil enough to shallow fry, I mever do the unhealthy deep frying and shallow frying conserves oil and therefore there is no waste and I get very good results. Lastly there is katlima which is a lot bigger version of puri  and it all depends on the region of Pakistan you live in. In Lahore they put some kind of  masla  on it that is made up of basen and mash ki dal.  Basen is chickpea flour. Mash ki dal are the white lentils minus their black coats.  The ones with the black coats is called urad ki dal and masla means spice. of course there is red chili and mybe other stuff on it too. Peshawar is just plain like puri. It’s nothing fancy.

There  are Indian and Pakistani blogs I follow too.

Those are Tamalpaku, Veg recipes  of India, Show me the curry, Chili and mint, and many others. If you follow me on Pinterest then you can see more of my pins on who i follow. Of  the Pakistani sites I like a lot are Cuisine of Karachi, Fauzia’s kitchen fun, Khanapakana, Hamari web, Pak ladies, etc.

I am going to pretty much all condense it here in my blog so you just get the basics on how to make the dough.

I am going to walk you through it now. It is about how many people that you need to feed and weather you have a large or small family or just you and your spouse like it is with me. Since it is just my husband and myself I make enough for both of us. I used to cook enough to feed a small army in the beginning  when my two daughters were small. Even if you live by yourself you can make this dough  so you can make  chapati, paratha, puri or katlima. It comes from the same dough.  This is not for nan. Nan is a different type of dough all together that is made of yeast and this is not a post for nan and we are going to get down to business. Now lets get  back on track. Pardon me about my rambling lol.

I take a large mixing bowl with a lid and add 6 cups of chicki atta.  Chiki atta is wheat flour that you can find in any Indian and Pakistani grocery store. The brands are golden temple, royal, sawad, etc. to name a few. Now I love chiki atta because it is more nutritious then white flour. I won’t have white bread here in my house. I never had and never will. That stuff is poison.  To this atta there are options. It can be plain or you can use a masala in there to give it more taste. This can be used to make also stuffed paratha too.

Again lets talk about the dough. After adding the flour I add 1 pinch of salt which is optional. Usually there is salt in the food and I skip adding salt to the flour. I add 1 cup of water a little bit at a time until a stiff dough is made. You do not want a dough that is too soft or sticky to work with. Just use a little bit of water at a time and keep kneading until you have a nice dough. I take it a step further. I add  2 tbs of oil to the dough and knead again. The oil used can be vegetable oil, olive oil,  coconut oil or even desi ghee Desi means native in Urdu. The oil or the ghee used on the dough and mixed in helps keep the dough in good condition. It will not dry out and form crusts and I advise you keep the dough covered tightly and store it in the refrigerator.

The sites I did mention is where I go to if I want to make masala roti. Roti means bread. Some even stuff their parathas with  veggies.

There are so many recipes of Indian and Pakistani breads that I just hope that you enjoy this basic recipe on how just to make the dough which is the starting base for what I have mentioned.

Happy cooking.