The Resurgence of the Roti

The Resurgence of the Roti

By: Modern Bhen

July 27, 2014

Many of you may have noticed the recent community-wide focus on the conservative values in which our traditions are entrenched. “Home Sciences” is receiving more attention as of late, and at the forefront of this is the Resurgence of The Roti.

This inspired me to take a closer look at this age old staple in our successively creative Bhori cuisine, ponder its seeming agelessness, simplicity, and… Okay fine, my Mom angrily waved a chakri at me and made me make Roti for our upcoming family dinner.

I’ve watched the women in my family make rotis for years. It seems simple enough. #ChallengeAccepted

10:00am - After a quick google search, I dig around for the basic ingredients required to make roti: durum wheat atta, salt, warm water.

10:07am - Water, check. Salt, check. Turns out, I do not own any variety of flour.

10:24am - Have located durum wheat atta at local urban grocery store.

They only carry a 5.5lb bag --  for $17.20

10:53am - Finally, with all ingredients on hand, I pour some atta into a bowl, add salt and water and begin kneading. Am treated to a an oddly satisfying squelching sensation, and realize kneading dough is hard work. Definitely don’t need to work out today.

DISASTER! Have inadvertently added too much water; dough has turned into a sopping mess.

11:40am - Alternating rigorously between adding more wet and dry ingredients, have finally created a somewhat accurate looking dough. Let sit for an hour, as per recipe, but the confidence gained by resolving the sopping mess is somewhat broken when I return to find it looking exactly the same. Should I wait longer? The clock is ticking though, so I trudge on.

                                                                                                                                                                   

1:47pm - Ready to roll out dough but realize I don’t own a rolling pin as it’s never been necessary to date. Hunt for other cylindrical objects, and find the following items:

3:09pm - Rolling out round, even rotis is harder than one might think. (Possibly exacerbated by makeshift use of soda can as a rolling pin). I consider coming clean and admitting that despite my post-graduate education and various other qualifications... roti just isn't my forte.

4:07pm - Rotis are fried and buttered. The final product of my labor are hard frisbee-like disks with jagged, uneven edges. I am considering admitting defeat when the phone rings.

4:11pm: FaceTime call from Mom.

“Beta, Don't be late today, ok? Matchmaker Mehmoona Aunty is coming tonight too, she'll be watching.”

“....Er... Okay." -- (#@%#)

“Did you make the rotis? How did they turn out?”

“Oh.....yeah--”

“This isn’t going to be like the chai incident again, is it beta?”

“Umm… it… er…” I make a game-time decision. “They turned out great, Mom. I'll see you in a bit!”

4:20pm - I get my mother off the phone and run outside and hail a cab.

4:37pm - I ask the cabbie to wait while I run into my local Indo-Pak grocery store and head straight for the freezer.

5:02pm - I return to my apartment and frantically rip open the packages while simultaneously firing up my frying pan for the second time today. They must look just perfectly imperfect.

5:23pm - Twenty minutes later, I have stunning “homemade” rotis, packed and ready for dinner.

5.5 lbs of Golden Temple’s Durum atta $17.20

Cab fare to and from Indo-Pak store $21.00

Two packets of ready-made roti $5.98

Opportunity costs $201.92

(calculated based on current earning potential and wasted precious weekend hours)

Pulling a fast one on my Mom and Matchmaker Mehmoona Aunty…

...PRICELESS

“Beta, these are excellent! Can you make them for dinner next week as well? Let me go show Matchmaker Mehmoona Aunty.....”

I make a mental note to buy my Mom a Rotimatic for Eid and smile beatifically.

“Sure,”

*Note: No rotis were harmed in the making of this blog, and for more information regarding the Rotimatic, please visit https://rotimatic.com/