Koki

Before you start

• Chop the onion as finely as you can and toss it with the salt 10 minutes ahead, then squeeze out the water. Wet onion tears the dough.
• The dough must be stiffer than roti dough — closer to shortcrust. Add the water a tablespoon at a time.
• Rest the kneaded dough 15 minutes, covered, before rolling.

Method

1. Rub 4 tbsp ghee into the atta with your fingertips until the flour clumps when squeezed. This moyan is what makes koki crumbly rather than chewy.Under-rubbed flour gives a bready koki. You want it to feel like damp sand.
2. Mix in the squeezed onion, green chilli, coriander, anardana, ajwain, cumin, chilli powder and salt.
3. Add water a spoonful at a time and knead to a stiff, tight dough. Cover and rest 15 minutes.
4. Divide into 4 balls. Roll each one about 1cm thick and 12cm across — much thicker than a roti.
5. Cook the first side on a medium-hot tawa, dry, for about 1 minute, until it turns opaque and speckles lightly. Flip and give the other side 1 minute.
6. Lift the half-cooked disc off, let it cool a minute, then roll it again to about 7mm thick. Prick all over with a fork.This double-rolling is the whole technique — it breaks the gluten and gives koki its short, crumbly crumb.
7. Return it to the tawa on low-medium heat, spoon a tablespoon of ghee around the edge and cook 3-4 minutes a side, pressing with a cloth, until deep gold with brown blisters.Low and slow. A koki browned fast is raw and doughy in the middle.
8. Repeat with the remaining dough and serve hot with plain yogurt, mango pickle or sweet tea.

Storage

Koki keeps 2 days at room temperature in a cloth-lined box and travels well — it is the traditional train-journey bread. Refresh on a dry tawa for a minute a side; do not microwave, it goes leathery.