Thursday 30 May 2013

Wheat and Barley Roti


Wheat and Barley Roti
I often wonder if I am over indulging in wheat, considering I eat wheat flakes for breakfast and then rotis for dinner, lunch is strictly rice though. Somehow, maybe because of my south Indian origin, it is not easy without rice for atleast one meal. Anyway, point is make conscious effort to diversify ingredients. One of those that I try to include is barley and as I am not a soup or broth person, I need to find other ways of including this grain. Barley is said to provide our gut with fibres that encourage good bacteria to thrive and thus crowd out bad bacteria. The fibre also helps keep blood sugar on check, especially for diabetics. Drinking barley water every day is said to help detox the urinary system. My grandmother would also say that barley water helps lower fever as well. It is also good for lactating mothers as it helps improve milk production. With so much goodness, how would you add this to your diet? Well, for me rotis is a viable option. I must admit that I have tried barley roti in the past but miserably failed as the flour was not the best, atleast in hindsight. It looked too fibrous and coarse. Years later, I tried to grind my own barley flour in the mixie and tried the roti and it came out well. You cannot say it has barley in it unless I tell you. Here is the recipe…

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup barley flour
Salt to taste
Oil/ghee/butter

Mix the flours together and add required salt. Add hot water (you may need about a cup) and mix to make a soft dough. Knead as much as you can and add little oil. Rest the dough for atleast an hour and divide into smaller balls

Roll each ball into chapattis and cook both sides on hot tava. Bubbles will begin to appear on bottom side, flip. Again bubbles will begin to appear, let them get bigger, keep pressing down. Then flip again aand press down, roti will puff up. Smear some ghee/butter on top





Serve warm

4 comments:

  1. Hi Veena.
    You mentioned in the recipe that you ground barley flour in the mixie. I have a question regarding that..
    Did you wash and dry the store bought barley before grinding it or handle it in any other way before grinding it?
    I tried using barley.. pearl millet but it has a bitter aftertaste..and hence am not using it any longer. But I suspect I may not have used it correctly.
    Happy cooking

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  2. Hello, thanks for leaving a comment. I did not wash and dry the barley just used it straight from packet. First time I bought barley flour it was unpalatable cos it was so fibrous. I finally found organic barley flour and am using that now. I am not into everything organic but this works well for me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello, thanks for leaving a comment. I did not wash and dry the barley just used it straight from packet. First time I bought barley flour it was unpalatable cos it was so fibrous. I finally found organic barley flour and am using that now. I am not into everything organic but this works well for me.

    ReplyDelete