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Making Roti

Dhalpuri Roti from Amin'sWhen I get some time (maybe next millenium) I have planned in my head a roti post. Not recipes, but just a discussion. This was prompted by my time in Guyana and more recently by the interesting video Trini Gourmet discovered at YouTube on Guyanese roti. This generated much discussion about the differences between Trini and Guyanese roti, which I think is interesting and ripe for exposition (in some life, clearly I wanted to be an English teacher).

Trini Food has posted on her Flickr a wonderful set of dhalpuri-making photos from Roti Joupa in London. Since I haven’t seen many (or any) pictures of Trini dhalpuri-making (roti skins) this was a great browse for me. (This is my picture though on the right, just to clarify).

I hope everyone enjoys!

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This entry was written by Chennette and posted on January 18, 2007 at 1:04 pm and filed under Trinidad and Tobago, food, photos. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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27 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. I wonder why you need to clarify? Do you commonly steal other people’s pictures?

    1. Lilandra on January 18th, 2007 at 7:02 pm

  2. No, but some of my readers are a smidgen accusatory when it comes to these things…

    2. chennette on January 18th, 2007 at 7:45 pm

  3. Ok as soon as you come home next time we would make some dhalpuri roti. And not to find any excuse, this weekend God Willing I would boil and grind the split peas and keep in the freezer so it would be made any time day or night.
    So keep writing but I am thinking though…………………………..

    3. trinimom on January 18th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

  4. But she have to make it from the beginning. She have to grind the dhaal!

    4. Lilandra on January 18th, 2007 at 8:33 pm

  5. No…you can grind the dhal for Mom and take cellphone pics…I’ll take over whenever I get back home.

    5. chennette on January 18th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

  6. PLAN! :D

    6. The TriniGourmet on January 18th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

  7. Mind you - we have to set groundrules from beforehand - Mom, do we get to put any brown spots on the dhalpuri? or is it to be a lily-white affair?

    7. chennette on January 18th, 2007 at 11:15 pm

  8. i never said i was making roti

    8. Lilandra on January 18th, 2007 at 11:39 pm

  9. lily-white!

    brown spots!

    9. Lilandra on January 19th, 2007 at 1:00 am

  10. I found your site through the TriniGourmet, Sarina’s website. Nice blog!

    10. veron on January 19th, 2007 at 8:59 am

  11. Well when next you buy a Amin’s Roti check and see if there are any brown spots , hmmm.
    It is not lily white but the proof of a good dhalpuri well done is not in the number of brown/burnt spots but the absence of it . Same goes for aloopur, paratha and dosti .
    But you can make yours how you want God Willing.
    Love you

    11. trinimom on January 19th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

  12. y’all just got PWND :D

    12. The TriniGourmet on January 19th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

  13. @ Veron - Welcome and Thanks!

    13. chennette on January 19th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

  14. my indian friend led me astray, i see [see the comments section of my post for it] ….. who knew dahl puri was so complicated. at least, i can blame my friend for the public culinary gaffe. can’t seem to get one straight story/opinion about this snack! lol — trinidadians saying one thing, guyanese saying another!! big, small, spots, no spots.

    14. burekaboy on January 21st, 2007 at 5:02 pm

  15. In respect of dhalpuri, Guyanese and Trinis make the same roti - Guyanese call it “puri” and eat it with sour (sour mango chutney) slapped on and folded; Trinis eat it (when bought at a roti shop, usually) wrapped around any number of fillings, or (when home or in weddings) like any other roti, on the side with curry. And it’s thinner, like you discovered :-D
    But in India, they have a phenomenal variety to their rotis and flat breads - so there must be other authentic versions! I can only speak to the ones I know.

    But puri/poori is anything stuffed and fried right? We make these fried potato pies (potato mashed and seasoned with cumin etc inside a dough and deepfried) called “aloo pies” and my Mom made them once for a picnic in PA (Dad was doing research on campus). The Indian ladies were like “oooh, aloo puri!”. That was the first time I realised what “puri” meant. Somehow we translated that into very flat thin soft roti, stuffed with dhal :-)

    15. chennette on January 21st, 2007 at 5:17 pm

  16. i never thought of it as stuffed with dhaal
    i’d've not seen the connection because the dhaal seems part of it
    whereas pies…have stuffing…

    16. Lilandra on January 21st, 2007 at 11:47 pm

  17. well, I always knew it was “stuffed” because I remember Mom and everyone else doing the filling after the fun and tasty milling of the dhal. And after you put the “filling” in the loy, you let it sit for a while as round balls before you roll it out.

    17. chennette on January 21st, 2007 at 11:49 pm

  18. RELAX DE GLUTEN :D

    18. The TriniGourmet on January 22nd, 2007 at 12:07 am

  19. wait like i’m the heckler on the scene here? how everyone else’s comments so prose-y?:D

    19. The TriniGourmet on January 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 am

  20. hehe - Niki the heckler…:D

    20. chennette on January 22nd, 2007 at 1:56 am

  21. im not saying i didnt think it was stuffed
    but i didnt think of it as stuffed as i thought of say pies

    prosey?
    i not prosey

    21. Lilandra on January 22nd, 2007 at 2:36 am

  22. Is the dough for the dhal puri roti the same as the paratha roit?

    22. Cynthia on January 29th, 2007 at 8:43 pm

  23. paratha roti (sorry)

    23. Cynthia on January 29th, 2007 at 8:44 pm

  24. Hi Cynthia
    When I make dhalpuri and paratha roti my ingredients vary a bit as the latter is more a flaky type pastry.

    24. trinimom on January 29th, 2007 at 9:34 pm

  25. maybe now would be a good time to remind us of the differences - I only make paratha so I really don’t remember what you do differently for dhalpuri

    25. chennette on January 29th, 2007 at 10:00 pm

  26. @trinimom, yes, please remind us

    26. Cynthia on January 30th, 2007 at 2:22 pm

  27. Hi Trinimom,
    Still looking forward to hearing about the differences in terms of ingredients when making dhalpuri and paratha.

    27. Cynthia on February 18th, 2007 at 9:48 pm

One Trackback

  1. By Lifespan of a Chennette Musings on Roti « on April 8, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    [...] A few months ago, on my Making Roti post (where I promised a longer and as yet unrealised musing about roti) Cynthia had asked about the differences if any, in making the dough for the different types of roti. [...]

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