chapati

A few weeks ago, Mrs. DavesBeer made a queso blanco, which was pretty darn close to paneer (indistinguishable to me). From this lovely cheese, she made a perfect saag paneer. Tonight we had the best leftovers ever from this dish. But we were missing something. A good accompanying bread.

I have a problem with most whole wheat flour. The tanins in them give them a strong flavor that some characterize as bitter. Recent food processing methods disclosed in the food processing literature have focused on achieving lighter colored, milder tasting whole wheat flour to obtain a flour with better nutritional value and better flavor. Current processes use hydrogen peroxide for the bleaching. Past processes have used bromates which have been phased out over the past decade or so.

I don't usually like King Arthur Brand flours, but I think I've found an exception with their White Whole Wheat. It's not quite white, but off white in color and, in this recipe performed nicely. I'm looking forward to future applications with this flour since it's available all over the country.

I made a basic chapati dough from 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 t salt. The dough was kneaded briefly and cut into 6 pieces. These pieces were rounded and allowed to rest about 10 minutes. Each piece was dusted liberally with flour and rolled to about 8" in diameter. The thin discs rested a few minutes and were cooked in a barely oiled really frigging hot cast iron pan for about a minute on each side.

The star of the meal was the saag paneer, but the chapati were quite nice too. And, good kid food too (Frankie didn't like the spinach so much). Give 'em a try, great starch choice for a busy weeknight.