Bajra no Rotlo

Before you start

• Bajra has no gluten, so the dough is held together by heat and water alone. Use water as hot as your hands can bear and knead while it is warm.
• Mix only as much dough as you will cook in the next twenty minutes. Bajra dough cracks and dries fast, and cold dough will not pat out at all.
• Have the tawa heating before you shape the first rotlo. A patted rotlo cannot be moved twice.

Method

1. Warm the flour in a bowl with the salt, then add the hot water in stages, mixing with a spoon at first, then your hand.
2. Knead 3-4 minutes into a smooth, warm, slightly tacky dough. It should hold a ball without cracking at the edges.If the edges crack, it is too dry. Wet your palm and knead again rather than pouring more water in.
3. Heat a heavy tawa over medium heat until a drop of water skitters across it.
4. Take a lemon-sized ball, wet your palms, and pat it flat on a clean board or a sheet of plastic, rotating a quarter turn between pats, into a disc about 12cm across and 8mm thick.Pat with the flat of the fingers in one direction and rotate. Slapping it randomly makes it tear.
5. Lift it on your palm and lay it flat on the hot tawa in one movement.
6. Cook 90 seconds until the underside is speckled, then flip and cook the second side 2 minutes, pressing the edges with a cloth so it puffs.
7. Lift the rotlo with tongs and hold it 20-30 seconds directly over the flame, first side down, until it balloons.It puffs only if both sides are properly cooked first. A rotlo that stays flat is still good. Do not chase it over the flame until it burns.
8. Repeat with the rest, stacking them under a cloth.
9. Serve hot with a knob of butter pressed into the centre and a lump of jaggery, or alongside ringan no olo.

Storage

Rotla are only good hot. Eat within an hour; leftovers can be crumbled the next morning into hot milk with jaggery, which is how Kathiawadi households use them up.