We all love to have healthy options sometimes. For us Bangladeshis, the healthy option is hand made flat bread or as we call it – Ruti (রুটি). Even though we love rice but sometimes we skip it in order to stay healthy or loose some weight. So ruti can be a good alternative if you are not crazy for rice like us and the best thing is ruti can be eaten with any kind of Bangladeshi curry!
It is usually made from whole wheat flour or atta (আটা)। There’s another kind of flat bread called Porota which is made from more refined wheat flour and usually shallow fried in oil. But today I will only write about how to make Bangladeshi flat bread or Ruti.
To make ruti, we need only a few ingredients, whole wheat flour, some drops of oil, salt and water.
At first, I boiled around 100ml of water in a pot. When water started to boil, I added oil and salt to water. Actually these two are optional but helps to increase the taste of ruti.
While water was still boiling, I added the flour directly to the pot. Then I turned off the stove immediately. Now it’s time to mix these two ingredients.
I have used my wooden spoon to mix the flour and water, as it is very very hot now.
Our target is to make somewhat a sticky consistency of the dough. It is tough to measure the exact amount of water and flour so we have to eyeball it until it looks sticky.
If you are unsure the consistency, then take a small portion of the dough and try to make a ball. If it does not stick then the dough is somewhat ready.
Now I will let the dough cool down for 10 minutes before I start kneading. It is better to take out the dough from pot as the pot is too hot. But if you think it will make your dough dry then you can cover it with kitchen towel.
Now the question is if you can make ruti with cold water. You can, but it will be very chewy and very hard once you cook it. I guess the warm water helps to form the gluten and makes it soft. as there’s no yeast added.
After 10 minutes of cooling down, I started to knead the dough with hand. If you still think your dough don’t have perfect consistency, you can always add more water or flour to it. You can also knead with little oil if that helps but the dough should come off clear. After kneading I used a knife to cut it in small equal pieces.
After dividing the dough in small pieces, I took one piece and rolled it one palms and pressed to make somewhat flat round piece.
Now its time to roll the dough but before I coated the piece with flour on both side and also sprinkled a good amount of flour on the surface where I would roll.
Once you start rolling the dough piece, it will absorb all the flours and will start sticking to surface or the rolling pin. So always remember to sprinkle a good amount of flour on the surface in between rolling.
I have rolled the bread as thin as normal tortilla bread would be. But it always depends upon you, how thin you like your flat bread. I personally do not like very thick ones, as it tends to get uncooked inside when frying.
Now its time to “fry” them. I heated a pan very very high and put the bread on the pan. If you add flat bread on cold pan, it will be cooked slowly and will get very chewy or hard. So always heat the pan first and then add your ruti. Remember you don’t need to add any oil to pan, unless you want it!
However, please don’t leave your Ruti on pan and forget like me. You have turn it over after 10 seconds as it tends to burn very quickly.
Turn it over again after 10 seconds. Now you have already turned the ruti twice and both side seem to get half cooked. Now take a clean wooden spoon and press gently on the ruti. It will ensure thorough passing of the heat and proper cooking of the ruti.
Turn it over for final time and again press gently with wooden spoon. As you can see the ruti started to inflate. It means the heat has passed through nicely and there’s no wet side left on the other side. Remember, the more you can inflate it the more tasty it will be!
If you still see some spots are still uncooked or wet, simply turn it over and gently press on the opposite side with wooden spoon.
Now enjoy your ruti with bhaji or any curry you like! You can of course make a burrito with stuffing inside. But to eat it like a proper Bangladeshi way, you might need a friend to show it to you!
You may wonder what have I done with rest of the dough. Well I made batch of frozen ruti for rest of the week. I used thin plastic sheets in between to prevent sticking with each other. When I need, I just heat up the pan and add the frozen ruti directly to pan, not wait until it get soft. If you leave the frozen ruti too outside for more than few minutes, it will be stuck to whatever surface you keep it. So better directly add to pan and follow the rest of the instruction as mentioned above.
| Recipe: Flat Bread, Prep time: 15 minutes, Cooking time: 5-6 minutes |
| Ingredients: 100ml water 200-250g Whole Wheat Flour 1tsp Salt 1tsp Oil |
| Instruction: 1. Boil water in a deep pot over high heat. Add salt and oil to water when it starts boiling. 2. Add flour to boiling water and turn off the heat. Mix well the flour and water until it has sticky but dry consistency. 3. Take out the dough mix from pot and leave it covered for 10 minutes to cool it down. 4. Knead very well when dough is cool enough. Add more water / flour if needed. Divide the dough and make small equal portions. 5. Take a small portion and make round flat piece. Dust both side with flour. Also dust well with flour the surface you will roll. 6. Roll the dough piece as thin as you like. Flip and dust with flour both side and roll again. 7. To cook the bread, heat a frying pan with high heat. Put rolled bread, without adding any oil. Flip after 10 seconds both sides. Gently press with wooden spoon to cook thoroughly. If any spot is uncooked, flip over and gently press with wooden spoon. Serve with bhaji or curry you like! |
Vegan Bangla 