Suresh Chandra Gupta, submitted by his son Alok Gupta

This recipe was the invention of my late father. My memory was that while mother was making chapatti dough one day, she added too much water by accident. She was going to add more flour, to make it right again, but will cook it in the pressure cooker, to see what happened! However, when I ‘reminded’ my mum this recently, she said that my memory was inaccurate. This is the correct version of the start of this family favourite; In old days, people in Punjab used to make a special roti for newly delivered mum, called ‘Kachchi-Pukki’ Roti, meaning half cooked, half uncooked roti. They used to half cook a thick roti on the tawa, then mash it up into a dough and then make roti from it again. This was said to be easier to digest for the new mums. My mum making this roti one day in 1959. The half cooked roti had to be mashed while still hot and my mum kept burning her hand doing it. Our father, the ever inventive scientist who loved to be around in our mum’s kitchen, was watching. He said, “wouldn’t it be easier to cook the dough in a pressure cooker first and then make roties from it?” So they tried. It took them 3 attempts to get the water content of the batter right and the dough cooked properly, but the result was worth the attempts. The dough came out firm and steaming hot. When cooled and kneaded, it was perfect for ‘Kachchi Pukki Roties and Parathas’. The parathas turned out to be so delicious that they became one of our family favourites for Sunday brunch. Now that microwave is here, the dough can also be cooked in it, but cook in a wide bowl, so the cntre doesn’t remain uncooked. Makes 15

Note from Mamta: My father bought my mum her first ‘Prestige’ pressure cooker in 1958, when it first came out in India and was the new ‘kitchen toy’ of housewives. She was using pressure cooker for making dals/beans/chickpeas/pilaf/‘kheer’ long before it became an indispensable gadget in every Indian household.

Ingredients

Instructions