The “daughter-in-law” test. Before I even bother explaining, note that I fail on roti out of choice-ish.
The the old wives tale is that if you roll your rotis perfectly round that you’ll make an excellent daughter-in-law. Needless to say, I was a difficult Punjabi teenager that preferred to spend her time riding tractors, horses, drinking whiskey, and not bothering to learn anything that my future mother-in-law would like because as far as I was concerned, she could go………eat her roti off a cliff.
Now on to why rotis are amazing. They’re known as rotis, phulkas, or chappatis depending on where you are in the country. They’re warm, fluffy, chewy, and add a lot of flavor and texture to sabjis (vegetables) and daals (lentils). Rotis are the staple grain served with each meal – we even do the desi scramble wrapped in a roti (omg so tasty!). An amazing combo is yellow moong daal, methi aloo, and roti.
Roti is shockingly easy to make. The big secret is to cook them on a good tava and when they’re 1/2 cooked move them over to an open flame and do a couple quick flips. This will make them puff up and get those nice crispy spots.