Chipati

I love Indian food.  Usually the restaurants we go to serve delicious naan bread, which I do adore.  However, back several years we used to live near a restaurant that served the softest, most delicious chipati and I fell in love.  

So when I had a hankerin' I thought I'd try my hand at it.  I found the recipe here.  It looked simple enough, and it said you could use oil or melted butter instead of ghee (I've never tried to make ghee and it seemed a lot of extra trouble).  

First  you mix the flour, water, and salt (I added a bit of melted butter at this stage), and it makes a pliable dough.  Then you rest the dough for 30 min.  

Next, cut the dough into 12 pieces, and roll them into little balls. 

The you roll them flat and brush them with butter, fold and brush again, fold again so you have a little origami dough triangle. 

Then heat the griddle, and roll the chipatis as flat and thin as you can.  Once one is rolled out, flap it onto the griddle and brush the top with butter.  Flip it onto the buttered side and brush the other side with butter.  Once the first side starts to bubble, flip it over and it will immediately start to puff up with air.  Neat! 

When it's done set it aside and do the rest of the chipatis.  They will deflate as they cool, but will be soft and chewy and good.  Serve them warm and use torn pieces of chipati to scoop up and eat saucy dishes, like Butter Chicken.  So yum!

Low-carb buns

Soon I am planning to do some strengthening work on my body.  Weightlifting, bodyweight resistance, with some running for cardio.  My nutrition guru has said that while I work on muscle building, I must carefully construct a meal plan that is a) mostly watery vegetables, b) is high in lean proteins, c) includes "good" fats, and d) is very low in carbs.  This means no pasta, rice, sugar, alcohol, or *sniff* bread!  

The bad news is that bread is something I will really miss.  In fact, I might still make bread and have a moderate (1 slice) amount to taste and make myself feel like I'm not being deprived.  

The good news is that I found this recipe for carb-free-sort-of-bread.  I call it Low-Carb Buns.  I can't remember where I found it so no tutorial link, but I will post the recipe.  There are two versions of this recipe, depending on what type of flour you choose to use.  Almond flour is my favourite because it uses a reasonable amount of other ingredients.  The coconut is good too, but it uses so many egg whites that either a lot of yolks would go to waste, or you'd have to buy that whites-only liquid egg in the carton.  

So here goes: 

Low-Carb Buns (Almond version)
1 1/4 cup almond flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 egg whites
1 cup boiling water

Mix the dry ingredients, and then beat in the egg whites.  It will be thick and pasty.  Then boil the water and measure 1 cup.  Pour the water over the mixture, stirring as you go.  It will look like this:

You may think it's too runny, but after a minute or so it congeals to a kind of gelatin consistency.  Once it's firm enough to make a ball with it, you can form balls and place them on a cookie sheet.  Make sure you line the sheet or they will stick. 

Flatten the balls so they are sort of pucks.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, and then flip them all and bake another 25 minutes. 

They will come out crusty on the outside and kind of spongy in the middle.  The eggs make them tender, so they are perfect for toasting or tiny sandwiches.  I use them in place of sliced bread for almost everything. 

These buns are very moist, and must be kept in the fridge and eaten within a week or less.  I haven't tried freezing them, but that is an experiment worth doing! 

Here is the Low-Carb Buns (coconut version) - same method.
1/2 cup coconut flour
5 tbsp psyllium husk powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
8 egg whites
1 cup boiling water

bake at 350 for 50 min, flipping halfway.