Thick hand-patted pearl millet flatbread cooked on a dry tawa and finished over an open flame — the foundational daily bread of Haryana eaten with ghee, jaggery or mustard saag.
Ingredients
2 cups bajra flour (pearl millet flour)
1/2 tsp salt
Hot water — approximately 3/4 cup
Ghee — generous amount for serving
Method
Place bajra flour and salt in a bowl. Add hot water gradually, mixing first with a spoon and then kneading with damp hands as soon as it is cool enough to handle.
Knead for 3 to 4 minutes with continuously wet hands — bajra dough has no gluten so it must be kept moist.
It will feel coarser and less elastic than wheat dough. Test: the dough should hold together without crumbling when pressed.
Divide into 4 balls. Keep unused portions covered with a damp cloth as bajra dough dries quickly.
Wet both palms thoroughly. Place one ball on a wet surface or wet cloth.
Pat outward with wet palms into a round 14 to 15 cm wide and 7 to 8 mm thick — bajra roti is always thicker than chapati. Wet your palms repeatedly as you pat.
Heat a dry iron tawa on medium. Invert the shaped roti onto the tawa.
Cook 3 to 4 minutes until the top surface shows cracks and the underside is golden.
Flip. Cook second side 3 minutes. Then hold the roti directly over an open gas flame with tongs for 30 seconds per side until slightly charred spots appear and the roti sounds hollow when tapped.
Apply a generous knob of ghee immediately on the hot roti.
Serve hot — bajra roti hardens within 15 minutes of coming off the heat.