Why some people brush their rotis with water before eating?

In many homes, chapati is the main part of every meal, whether it's served with a hearty sabzi, dal, or even a simple pickle. Atta, or whole wheat flour, is what chapati is usually made with. Whole wheat is a healthy grain because it has important nutrients like fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Whole wheat flour keeps the bran and germ of the grain, which are good for digestion and help keep your energy levels steady all day long. Because of this, people often think that chapati is a better choice than many other types of bread.

Making chapati is easy, but you need to practice it a few times. You mix whole wheat flour with water and knead it until it becomes a soft dough. Then after giving it erst for a while, small balls are cut from the dough which are rolled into flat discs. These are then cooked on both sides on an iron girdle.

One problem with chapati, though, is that it doesn't stay soft forever. Chapati doesn't last very long because it is made with fresh dough and doesn't have any preservatives. If you keep chapati at room temperature, it will stay fresh for about 24 hours in most cases. If the weather is dry or the chapati has been left uncovered, it can start to dry out and become stiff or chewy.

This is where a simple but helpful kitchen tip comes in: adding a little water to chapati before you heat it up again. Before warming up a chapati again, a lot of people lightly sprinkle or brush water on both sides. At first, this might seem strange, but there is a good reason for it. Chapati gets dry when it sits out for a few hours. Heating a chapati is quite useless because it become firm and brittle and tastes like hard paper. So some people brush a little water on both sides of the chapati before heating it. This is a way of putting the moisture back.

After putting water on chapati, there are a few ways to heat it up again. First is the tawa method. Warm a taw or iron girdle and place the chapati on it and heat on both sides. But the water may make the chapati stick to the tawa and hence it should not be very hot or may be greased with a little oil or ghee. The heat helps the steam build up inside the bread, which makes it soft again. You can also put the chapati in the microwave for about a minute. The moisture stops it from getting too dry or rubbery.

Some people also like to put water on the chapati and then heat it directly over a flame. This method works well because the direct heat quickly warms the chapati and makes steam inside, which makes it puff up a little and softens it again, like a freshly made roti. This easy trick works really well when you want to heat up chapatis that you made earlier in the day or even the night before. A little moisture and heat can bring chapati back to life instead of eating it dry or hard. Many home cooks use it every day because it works.

This way of doing things is not only convenient, but it also shows how Indians traditionally think about food: they try to use as little as possible and make the most of what they have. People don't throw away chapatis that have gotten a little dry; instead, they use simple methods to make them fresh again and enjoy them again.The goal is simple: to enjoy chapati the way it was meant to be enjoyed: soft, warm, and delicious, just like when it comes off the tawa. If you add a few drops of water and some heat, an old chapati can taste almost as good as a new one.

Brush the chapati with a little water on both sides and miocrowave for 1 minute. Note that you do not have to add too much water to the chapati or it will become soggy.

All images from Canva