Roti and Bakarkhani, the typical bread in Dhaka

Roti in general, is defined as an unleavened flatbread made from atta flour in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Assamese, Indonesian, Malay, Bengali, Thai, Marathi and Somali languages.
Roti and its thinner variant, known as chapati, are an integral part of the Indian cuisine and Pakistani cuisine. It is particularly popular in northern India, Central India and Western India..In the Indian state of Maharashtra and some parts of Gujarat, poli and bhakri are used to denote unleavened Indian breads.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)




Roti, chapatti or nan made of wheat flour is popular among the masses and parata, also made of wheat flour but fried in oil or butter oil, is popular in the homes of the rich.
Roti is usually taken with vegetables or simply with sugar or gud or just a cup of tea.

Roti, nan and parata are acceptable for all meals. Not surprisingly, wheat has become an important second crop during the dry season, especially in the western region of the country.

(From http://www.bangladeshinc.com/w2bd/liv_food.asp )

Roti/Chapati: unleavened, unsalted simple breads . This is simple, unpretentious home cooking but very satisfying, healthy and easy on the pocket book. There are also excellent for those with a yeast allergy. Rotis are made from small balls of dough that are rolled out and then partially cooked on a hot griddle and then finished directly over high heat. The high heat makes the rotis puff up into a ball. They are then lightly coated with ghee to keep them pliable until serving time. Line a tortilla basket with a napkin and keep the rotis in it. Allow 2-3 chapatis or rotis per person. This is everyday Indian bread made in most Indian homes daily.

Ingredients to make about 6:

• 2.5 cups chappati flour with 1 cup water at room temperature made into a dough
• 1 cup chappati flour in a large plate for dusting the dough while rolling it outghee for brushing the bread

Method to roll out the dough:

Prepare the desired amount of dough from the Basic Dough recipe. After resting for 2-2 1/2 hours, knead well. Divide the dough into peach-size balls. On a lightly floured surface, flatten one ball of dough with your hand. Using a rolling-pin, roll out the dough into a thin,round patty, about 5 inches in diameter. Roll from the center, turning patty several times to prevent sticking. Try to make the edges slightly thinner than the center. As you cook the chappati/roti, one could be rolling out the next, rather than shaping all of the chapatis at one time.

Method of cooking the chappati or roti: preheat a cast-iron tawa over medium heat.

Place the rolled dough on the palm of one hand and flip it over on to the tawa.

When the color changes on the top and bubbles appear, turn it over.

When both sides are done, use kitchen tongs (chimta) to remove the chapati from the skillet.

Gas Stove: if you have a gas stove, hold the cooked chapati over a medium flame and it will puff up immediately. Turn quickly to flame-bake the other side. Do this several times, taking care that the edges are well cooked.

Electric Stove: if you have an electric stove, chapatis can be encouraged to puff by pressing them with a clean kitchen towel after the first turn on each side. Repeat the shaping and cooking process until all chapatis are cooked.

To keep the chapatis warm as they are cooked, place them in a towel-lined bowl and fold over the sides of the towel.

Serve hot, either completely dry or topped with a small amount of ghee or butter.

(From http://www.indianfoodsco.com/Recipes/breads.htm )

Roti recipe in video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1S1SJoahw&feature=related

Bakarkhan - History, the typical bread in Dhaka

Sagar Singh Rawat liked the bread and decided to change the recipe based on his own tastes. Eventually, it grew to become very popular, and was known as "Sagar's Bread"

Baking Methods

In the past, the Bakarkhaniwalas (bread-makers) used to light their Tandoor ovens around midnight in order ot have their product available by morning. Bakarkhani dough of white flour and mawa thoroughly mixed and kneaded for hours before stretching thin by hand over the entire span of wooden board. Then after spreading ghee over it, flour is strewn on. It was folded and process repeated several times. After sizeable numbers of such small dough are ready, they are made into roti on the board and sesame (teel) seeds are spread on it. The rotis are then put inside the tandoor. During the process of baking, pure milk is sprinkled on them twice.

This is the story of making pure bakarkhanis. But now in place of ghee and milk, molasses solution is added so that the bread turns reddish.

Dhakai style
Hakim Habibur Rahman in his book Dhaka pachash barash pahley published in the 1940’s gives a detail account of the variety of original food items of Dhaka and its preparation. He said, the unique feature of Dhaka was that though rice is the staple food, the varieties of roti (bread) available were simply amazing and every roti has a history and ancestry of its own. Shirmal has basic ingredients of flour and semolina (suji), Persian background, it was soft and thick, whereas, Bakarkhani made of white flour and mawa is thin, crisp and melts down in mouth, it is known as sukha ruti.

Other Types of Bakarkhani
Cheese bakarkhani was another delicacy. In every fold, instead of ghee and flour ‘mohanbhog’ mishti or semolina (suji) halwa was used. These breads known as ‘bhigaroti or bhijaroti’ are sent on ‘dalas’ (high rim trays) dipped in creamy milk with almond and raisins from the house of the bride to the groom as part of a traditional matrimonial ritual. Soon other men joined in this trade, bidding goodbye to quality and hygiene of the food and this business came to an end.

The Legend of Bakarkhani
Nazir Hossain, a local of Dhaka gives an interesting story about naming of Bakarkhani in his book Kingbadantir Dhaka.

The story goes in 1700 A.D. when Murshid Quli Khan came to eastern Bengal after obtaining the title ‘Dewan’ (chief officer), he brought along with him Aga Bakar Khan as a small boy. Aga Bakar grew up as a great warrior and during the reign of Nawab Shiraj-ud-Doula held a crucial role in the then Bengal politics. Aga Bakar was appointed the commander of military forces in the Chittagong district and his amour was a 'nartaki' (dancer) of Arambag called ‘Khani Begum’. However, Ujir-e-ala (minister) Jahandar Khan’s wicked son Kotwal Jainul Khan also had an eye for Khani Begum. One day jainul Khan attempted to take away Khani Begum by force. Learning this Aga Bakar went hastily for her rescue. There was a fight and Jainul Khan fled. A rumour spread that after assassinating Jainul, Aga Bakar had hidden his dead body. Both Khani Begum and Aga Bakar were arrested and taken to Murshid Quli’s court. As neutral judge Murshid Quli Khan gave the death sentence to Aga Bakar and put in the cage of a tiger. He fought valiantly with the animal for his life and eventually succeeded in killing it and escape. On the other hand, Jainul abducted Khani and fled to the forests of South-East Bengal. In search of Khani Begum, Aga Bakar Khan headed towards ‘Chandradip’ accompanied by his commander Kala Gazi. When Jainul saw that he had no hope for survival he plunged his sword into Khani Begum's chest and Aga Bakar reached the spot only to find his beloved dying. After the death of Khani Begum, Aga Bakar almost lost his mind. He stayed in Chandradip which he eventually took under his possession besides Selimabad and Buzurg Umidpur (Bakarganj named after Baker presently in Barisal). On Murshid Quli Khan’s order, Aga Bakar had to wed to a respectable Shia family who gave birth to two sons Aga Sadek and Mirza Mehdi. Aga Baker was subsequently killed in a battle by his conspirators; his mutilated body was buried in old Dhaka in the field Aga Sadeq Maidan. Though Aga Bakar got married, he never forgot Khani Begum, and this he proved by naming the specially prepared bread 'bakar-khani' roti thus making his love a part of legend.

Tandoor
A tandoor (Hindi: तन्दूर, Urdu: تندور) is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. The tandoor is used for cooking in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Transcaucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia as well as India and Bangladesh.

The heat for a tandoor was traditionally generated by a charcoal fire or wood fire, burning within the tandoor itself, thus exposing the food to both live-fire, radiant heat cooking, and hot-air, convection cooking.
Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480°C (900°F), and it is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods of time to maintain the high cooking temperature. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven,
The tandoor is used for cooking certain types of Afghan, Pakistani and Indian, foods such as tandoori chicken, chicken tikka and bread varieties like tandoori roti and naan.

The word tandoori is the adjective meaning "pertaining to the tandoor" and is used to describe a dish cooked in a tandoor.

The tandoor is basically used to cook meat while Hindus and Sikhs of India are mostly vegeatarian so it was popularised during Muslim reign in South Asia. It is thought to have travelled to Central Asia and the Middle East along with the Roma people, who originated amongst the Thar Desert tribes. In India, the tandoor is also known by the name of bhatti. The Bhatti tribe of the Thar Desert of northwestern India and eastern Pakistan developed the Bhatti in their desert abode, and thus it gained the name.

The tandoor is currently a very important fixture in many Indian restaurants around the world. Some modern day tandoors use electricity or gas instead of charcoal. In Armenia, It is known as a tonir which is a widely used method of cooking barbecue and lavash bread. In Georgia it is called a tone and is used for bread and kebab.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)