Cooking with Tallyrand

essentially there are 5 main types of bread in indian cuisine; poori, chapati, naan and parantha, all may be classed under the generic term of roti. Although there is a specific bread called roti also 

usually or traditionally these breads are unleavened (contain no yeast) but they can also be made with a yeast dough, but not parantha.  For other bread recipes unleavened (non yeast) and leavened, see recipe links below

clarified butter is known as ghee in Indian cuisine, it is simply butter until it bubbles, removed from heat and allowed to settle and skimmed and strained to remove the impurities (the scum on top and the white milk solids that settle on the bottom). Once removed, this allows the butter to be heated without burning, but still retaining the butter flavour

http://www.dawlish.com/article/details/82

http://www.dawlish.com/article/details/83

chef notes

to this basic mixture many other flavouring ingredients can be added, e.g. 

1. place the flours, and a pinch of salt into bowl
2. add sufficient warm water to form a loose slightly sticky dough
3. turn out onto a lightly floured work bench and knead for approx. 5 minutes until a nice soft, elastic dough is obtained, dusting a with a little more flour if required (continually folding it in half while kneading will laminate the dough, incorporating air and making for a lighter bread)
4. roll out dough to form a large square or rectangle approx 1mm thick
5. brush with melted butter, fold in half and in half again to form a square, allow to rest for 5 minutes
6. re-roll, brush with butter again and fold again as above, rest again
7. repeat the the rolling, brushing, folding and resting another 2 -3 times, each time this is completed, layers of dough and butter are created, similar to puff pastry 
8. rub a little oil over dough, wrap in clingfilm and set aside for at least 15 minutes
9. roll out until almost see through
10. cut into required shapes with a sharp knife 
11. shallow fry until golden brown on one side, turn over and cook until golden brown. The dough should puff or bubble up, and become crisp and light 
12. remove and drain 
13. eat immediately
    • crushed garlic
    • toasted sesame seeds
    • nigella seeds 
    • crushed mustard seeds
    • cracked peppercorns 
    • finely chopped onions or spring onions 
    • etc