Cooking chapatti without gas

[Peripatetic Phil]

As long-time members of this forum will know, we have no gas and cook on halogen and induction, with conventional, convection and microwave ovens as backup.  Whilst this poses no problems for cooking curries, it has (until today) proved quite an obstacle to the successful cooking of chapatti.  But today, an inspired breakthrough

I lightly dampened both sides of the chapatti (a technique passed on by a former colleage of Indian ethnicity), and smeared on a little ghee.  Then I wrapped the chapatti in an envelope of cooking foil, and turned over all four edges to seal the resulting parcel.  I turned an 8" halogen ring up to max., waited for the heat to maximise, then dropped on the foil/chapatti sandwich and pressed it down with a non-stick (teflon) spatula.  I waited for the parcel to puff up, turned it over with the spatula, pressed it down again, waited for it to rise on the other side, then removed from the heat and put it on a pre-warmed serving plate.  It took maybe another 3--4 minutes to serve the other items (pulao rice, chicken Madras, chopped red onion, Burmese lime pickle, and a low-alcohol beer) but on opening the parcel the chapatti was still in perfect condition : beautifully soft, nicely burned, and definitely cooked to perfection.  This technique I shall use again !

** Phil.

[curryhell]

just goes to prove Phil, where there's a will, there's a way  ;D.  Happy chappati cooking.  A definite keeper for those in the same situation as yourself 

[Stephen Lindsay]

Burn baby burn - chapatti inferno!

[colin grigson]

I'm pleased for you Phil ... you can't beat chapattis with a curry ... I too cook chapattis nearly every day and can't get enough of them ... much healthier than the bread and butter I used to eat !