Tandoori Roti

According to Ramcharitamanas in 1600 century AD written by Tulsidas, roti existed back then as it literally resembled the katori. Moreover, the word roti is similar to a Sanskrit word, rotika mentioned in a medical text Bhavaprakasa, written by Bharata-mishra in the sixteenth-century, which means flat bread to eat curries with. In fact, Vaishnav old text speaks about the Jagannath or Krishna human avatar Madhavendra Puri, who by offering chapatis to Lord Gopala in the 15th century, made it a kitchen essential – more than the kheer and sweet rice.

Roti, which was made from wheat is also mentioned in Kannada literature between the 10th and 18th centuries. It talks of an unusual method of roasting the flattened dough. Like baking between plates with glowing embers both below and above which is the process of mucchala-roti. The kivichu-roti was roasted on a thava (tawa), which is termed as kavali in Kannada with a little ghee, and eaten with sugar and edible camphor. Chucchu-roti was prepared from palmyra (thale) flowers. There was also the savudu-roti that was baked under cover of a cup and the Uduru-roti, which was made over the cup. These are methods that are still used in making the rotis today.

Despite the long history of tandoor, tandoori cooking was not common in Delhi till 1947. It was then that the Punjabi refugees brought tandoor to Delhi. Finally tandoori cuisine took its root in India and now there will be hardly anyone who would not salivate on hearing about tandoori chicken, tandoori roti, naan and other delicacies.

Earlier tandoors were set into earth and were fired by wood. You can still find such tandoors in India, Pakistan, and in Afghanistan. In Punjab you can still find communal tandoors. Other type of tandoors are above the ground and are cylindrical clay or metal ovens.