Mama Mrema and Chipati Cooking Lessons!

So last night I was taught how to make Chipaties (which I don’t even know if I am spelling the name right, Haha) from my host Mama, Mama Mrema! Chipaties are a flat bread similar to Naan but with more layers in the middle and cooked in a frying pan not in a special wood oven. Although this post is mostly designed to act as a reminder to me as to how to cook chipaties when I return to Canada (in case I somehow forget), feel free to give my vague directions a try and let me know how they turned out! Because no one seems to measure things here, forgive me for the proportions, I tried my best to figure out what they would be if we had used a measuring cup!

~3.5 cups flour (just regular baking flour)

~1 tsp salt

2 eggs

~3 tbs cooking oil (canola would probably work best if in Canada)

and water until the consistency is right!

(also, extra flour and oil will be needed for the preparation process)

Start off by mixing the flour and salt together thoroughly. Then add both of the eggs  and mix it all together by hand in a large mixing bowl. Knead the dough in a similar manner to kneading bread dough until the eggs have been mixed in as thoroughly as possible. Then add the oil to the mixture and continue mixing. Slowly add water to the mixture until the dough is thick and relatively dry, with a consistency similar to pizza dough. If you have added too much water just add more flour to make the dough easier to manage. Now the dough can sit until you are ready to cook with it.

To cook the Chipaties, cut the dough into even fist sized portions. Roll each portion out with a rolling pin (or any equivalent) until it is ½ an inch or less in thickness. Spread a bit of oil on the top surface of the dough and then cut a slice in the dough and roll the dough up again so that the oil is on the inside of the little dough ball. Do this for each portion of dough. Finally, when you are ready to cook the dough heat up a large frying pan on around medium heat and add some oil on the bottom (so far it seems like everyone loves oil here, they would say the more the better, I would say the least the better, its a matter of preference here). Roll out a dough ball until it is around ½ an inch or so thick and then fry it in the pan. Make sure the pan is not too hot or the inside won’t cook. Slowly cook the chipati, flipping it over several times, being sure to add a bit of oil if the chipati looks dry. You know the chipati is finished when you see a change in color and texture throughout the dough. The chipati should look soft and flaky (a bit like a pastry) in a appearance which means it should be done!

Enjoy!