Ghadichi Poli

Poli/ chapati (Maharashtrian thin layered flat bread made with durhum wheat flour)

I made these in my new apartment last week. A rather ambitious plan to make poli and bhaji (a vegetable side) on a weekday after work, but so rewarding! The best house-warming ritual I say. There was a phase when fulka rotis seemed a better option (my mom’s fulkas still top any other variant of roti, in my eyes), and we as a family ate it everyday. But nothing pulls your heart’s strings and makes you feel home like the food that is true to your roots.

Ghadichi poli a typical marathi version of the chapati/ roti. The golden smell that making chapatis fills your home is unparalleled. The thin translucent layers, the softness with a little crisp in every bite, the warm blanket it becomes for decadent curries. tell me if you are not already craving some!

You will need:

2 cups of plain durhum wheat flour (atta – I have used sujata and aashirwad brands here in the US, they are both good. I recently tried the aashirwad multigrain, not bad I must say, its pretty clean tasting, makes slightly dark colored Polis, which is fine. In India, mom buys wheat from a specific farm, we get it ground from a local mill and make fresh dough everyday – FANCY)

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt or more (hey, I like my bread salty!)

3/4-1 cup of warm-hot water (This depends on the particular flour you are using and the humidity of the air)

flour for dusting and oil

Rolling pin and board

• Take the flour in a mixing bowl.
• Add Oil and salt and dry mix it until the flour is coated evenly with the oil.
• Slowly add the water mixing with another hand
• Knead to form a soft dough, add water as needed
• Knead for about 3 minutes
• Make a ball, coat with oil (this prevents it from drying) and cover it tightly with a bowl (so that its covered from all sides, as opposed to covering it with a lid

• Let the dough stand for at least 20 minutes, longer is better. You can even make in excess and store in the fridge in a ziploc and use it for a couple of days.
• Warm a skillet on low-medium heat
• Take a small ball of dough at a time. make a nice flat round with you palms and place on a dusted rolling board or surface, dust with more flour on top and roll flat into a small round

• put a little oil on the surface and fold in half
• apply more oil on this  semi-circular face and fold in a trifold to make a folded triangle
• dust with flour and start rolling into a flat round (as round as you can)

• turn, flip and dust as needed and roll out as thin as possible
• Once evenly thin, gently lift off the board and place on a warm skillet
• Flip it in a few seconds (light white spots would have formed on the surface touching the skillet at this point)
• apply oil on the top, increase heat
• the poli will start puffing up
• once you see golden brown patches on the side in contact with the skillet, flip it (now the surface with the oil is touching the hot skillet)
• apply oil to the other cooked surface now facing up

• Once cooked from the other side as well (you’ll know if the poli is cooked throughout from the change in color as it cooks), remove it on a flat surface and tap it with your palms, to burst the puffed up portions. This is to ensure the steam trapped inside the layers is released. This way the layers will separate and not stick together.