Kenyan chapati

Ingredients

• Flour600 g
• Warm water350 ml
• Vegetable oil150 ml
• Sugar1 tbsp
• Salt1 ½ tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the flour with the salt and sugar, add the warm water and two spoons of oil.

   8 min

2. 2

   Knead the dough fifteen minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.

   18 min

3. 3

   Cover it with a damp cloth and rest it an hour at room temperature.

   62 min

4. 4

   Divide it into eight balls, roll each into a thin round and brush it generously with oil.

   15 min

5. 5

   Roll the round into a rope, coil it like a snail and press it flat with your palm.

   12 min

6. 6

   Rest the coils fifteen minutes and roll each one out into a round again.

   20 min

7. 7

   Cook them in a dry pan a minute and a half a side, brushing with oil, to browned spots.

   25 min

About the dish

Kenyan chapati is softer and richer than the Indian kind: oil goes into the dough and the round is coiled into a spiral to build layers. Indian roti is plain and single-layered.

The dough is kneaded long and rested at least an hour. Under-rested, it springs back as you roll and will not give a thin sheet.

The finished chapatis are stacked and covered with a cloth. Steam from the lower ones softens those above, and they all stay soft until serving.

Worth knowing

• — Do not stint on the brushing oil. Whether the layers separate depends on it — a dry spiral fuses into a single sheet.
• — The pan should be at a medium heat. Over a high flame a chapati spots within twenty seconds and stays raw inside.
• — Put each chapati straight into the stack under a cloth. In the open air it stiffens within five minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

340 kcal

Protein

7 g

Fat

16 g

Carbs

44 g

More from Kenya

• Nyama choma — Goat meat grilled slowly over coals in large pieces, with kachumbari and ugali.
• Sukuma wiki — Collard greens stewed with onion and tomato. The everyday accompaniment to ugali across East Africa.
• Mandazi — Triangular doughnuts on coconut milk with cardamom, lightly sweet, for tea.