Chapati... in The Bahamas?

I was first introduced to Chapati in Africa. I was out with some friends in Kigali, Rwanda when I tasted this simple yet delicious, flour tortilla like food. I asked what is was and a friend of mine said, "You don't know Chapati?" Chapati, I'd never heard of it. It looked similar to a flour tortilla, but it was more delicious. You could eat it alone if you wanted to. I did some research and found out that it is an Indian dish. It was so popular in Rwanda though, I think they've adopted it to be one of their own.

While in Rwanda I would walk quite a distance to the market to buy Chapati, which was sold 6 for about $1. It was great alone, but I decided I wanted to "take it up a notch". So I got together with two friends and we made a curry cabbage filling for the Chapati and called it a wrap. It was great.

I've been back in The Bahamas for a while now, but the taste of the Chapati is on my taste buds. I didn't have to make the Chapati in Rwanda because it was readily available already prepared everywhere. I decided I would take a stab at it and make Chapati at home and instead of a cabbage curry I made a chicken curry for the filling.

So here it goes:

Chapati Recipe

2 cups        All purpose flour
3/4 cup      Hot water
1 tsp          Salt
3 tsp          Olive Oil
8 tsp          Butter

In a bowl combine the flour, salt, hot water and olive oil with a wooden spoon. As it comes together begin kneading the dough with hands until smooth. Set aside. Flour a clean surface and divide dough in 8-10 pieces on the floured surface. Allow dough pieces to rest briefly. Set medium skillet on high heat. Allow pan to get extremely hot, almost to smoking point. While pan is heating, flour rolling pin and begin to roll out pieces very thinly. (See photo below.) Spoon 1 teaspoon of butter into hot skillet. Once butter has melted add 1 rolled dough to heat. Cook for 30 seconds on each side. Remove from heat and set aside. Repeat with 1 teaspoon of butter and then 1 rolled dough. Continue to repeat until 8-10 chapatis are completed. Set aside.

Curry Chicken Recipe

2 lg        Cooked Chicken Breast (shredded)
2 tbs       Curry Powder
1 tsp       Chili Powder
1/2 stick  Butter
2 cups     Shredded Cabbage
1 sm       Onion (chopped)
2 clove   Garlic (minced)
3 tbs       Flour
2 cups    Water
              Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large skillet melt butter. Once butter is melted reduce heat to medium and add chopped onions. Sweat onions for one minute and then add curry powder, chili powder and garlic. Mix ingredients together and then add water to mixture along with the cabbage. Cover and allow mixture to come to a boil. Season to taste. In a small bowl add 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of cold water. Mix with fork into a paste. Spoon 6 tablespoons of hot curry mixture (no cabbage) into paste. Make sure no lumps are in the mixture. (Spooning the hot curry liquid brings the paste to the temperature of the curry mixture before adding it the sauce to thicken it). Stir mixture into curry sauce to thicken it. Reduce heat and add cooked chicken. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve hot with Chapati.

Chapati Rolled Thin

Cooking Chapati in Hot Skillet

Completed Chapati

Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken and Chapati

Potato Salad?

I spent a lovely afternoon on the beach today with two of my best friends. Salt water, in my opinion, makes you hungry, so I couldn't wait to get home to get dinner started. Keeping with the sea theme, whole fried fish was on the menu. I accompanied that with potato salad and mixed green salad. For dessert, banana donuts dusted with powdered sugar.

After dinner we always get together to watch our daily fix of local and international news. Then it's time for the food network. As I was watching "Sweet Genius" I started thinking about one of my visits to Africa, Rwanda to be exact, where I introduced potato salad to some of my friends. I couldn't believe that they had never heard of it. My friends would prepare French fries and boiled potatoes, but that's as far as their cooking with potatoes went. The thought of mayonnaise with boiled potatoes was foreign to them, but they would only eat fried potatoes with mayonnaise, no ketchup. So I proudly taught them Bahamian potato salad which has finely diced onions and bell peppers, chopped hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper, and of course boiled potatoes. For them I even added a diced cucumber. That gave it an additional cool crunch. It became a new phenomenon, but then they wanted me to cook it all the time. LOL!


Recipe:

4 medium    Potatoes
2                  Eggs
1/4 cup        Onion (finely diced)
1/4 cup        Red, Green, Yellow or Orange Bell Pepper (finely diced)
4 tbs            Mayonnaise
1 tsp            Mustard
                    Salt and Pepper to taste
                    Paprika

Wash, peel and dice potatoes. Add to pot along with eggs and fill with water until it covers potatoes and eggs. Set range on high under potatoes and allow potatoes to come to a boil. While potatoes and eggs are cooking dice onions and bell peppers. Set aside. Cook potatoes until tender. Check by cutting into potato with a fork. This takes about 10-15. Eggs usually boil in about 12 minutes. Immediately remove from heat, drain water and add potatoes into a bowl and place in freezer for approximately ten minutes allowing potatoes to cool. Put eggs in small bowl of cold water and put in freezer for ten minutes allowing eggs to cool and stop the cooking process. Once potatoes and eggs have cooled remove from freezer. Peel and slice eggs. Set aside. In a mixing bowl combine potatoes, onions, peppers, mayonnaise and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Adjust to taste. Remove from mixing bowl and add to serving bowl. Decorate the top with sliced boiled eggs. Dust with paprika.