After a delightful dinner at a local Malaysian restaurant last week, I was determined to make roti chanai, the incredible bread served with delicious homemade curry as an appetizer. Below is the recipe I used, along with tips I used from this article on how to get it just right!
Roti Chanai
3 cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/5 cup extra water
Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
Add the liquids (milk and initial portion of water) gradually to flour, working mixture with your hands. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic – kind of like play-dough. You will probably have to add some of the extra water while you are kneading to get the dough to the play-dough like consistency. Flours differ so you won’t know exactly how much water you need until you start kneading and can feel the dough.
Form the dough into a roll then pinch the the roll into six pieces.
Oil your hands with peanut oil then form each piece of dough into a ball, ensuring the surface is lightly oiled all around. Put the oiled balls back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap then place in a warm place and leave for 5 hours.
After dough has rested, oil your counter top or a marble slab. Oil your hands again. Place a dough ball on the surface and flatten as much as possible (should be roughly dinner plate sized).
Add a little oil and oil a rolling pin. Roll out pastry until very thin (1/8″). It might break but that is ok.
When thin enough fold the sides in to form a rectangle. Fry each side on in a well buttered pan until pastry puffs up and becomes golden – about 1-2 minutes. Repeat with other dough balls. Serve while warm.
Enjoy!
12 Comments
May 7, 2008 at 4:55 am
Gosh, it sounds simple. I’ll give it a try sometime soon!
May 7, 2008 at 5:07 am
Oh, yummy! That looks gorgeous!
Cheers,
Rosa
May 7, 2008 at 5:32 am
[...] The District Domestic has posted a recipe for roti canai at her blog. And it looks like it’s the goods. [...]
May 7, 2008 at 9:33 am
Wow, you make it sound so easy! But I love love love Roti Canai, so I think I may have to give it a try!
Thanks!
May 7, 2008 at 11:44 am
Ohhh, this is one of the best snacks in the entire world. My brother and I now dream about this stuff after being intro’d to it by my Malaysian best friend. We usually gobble it down at Penang (the chain), but their portions are small and we always want more. Your recipe looks fantastic – just like Penang’s roti! – and I can’t wait to try it. I’m just wondering, however, how you made the chicken curry dip? Might you please post a recipe for that, please? Thanks so much!
May 7, 2008 at 11:21 pm
any malaysian overseas student with a wordpress account would view to click this featured article just to get a view of that photo.
it sounds so easy to make for such a heavenly delight!
May 8, 2008 at 1:15 am
That looks quite appetizing. Maybe I’ll try it.
May 8, 2008 at 4:44 am
Wow yum! Could you please post the recipe for that curry?
August 26, 2008 at 4:49 am
MMG SEDAP
September 6, 2008 at 6:59 am
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January 9, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Nice site. Thank you.
January 27, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I love roti canai dip in curry sauce.
Can you share the recipe for the curry dipping/suace for the roti canai?
I would appreaciate if you can email it to me. Thanks.