Roti Canai (Puffed Bread Served Hot with Curry or Dhal)

Ingredients

• •3 cups plain flour
• •1 teaspoon sugar
• •1 egg
• •3/4 cup warm water
• •100 grams ghee, melted

Directions

1. 1Sift flour and sugar into bowl, stir in egg and enough water to mix to a soft dough. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Cover dough with plastic wrap and leave to stand for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. 2Divide dough into about 10 to12 equal portions and shape into balls. Roll out one portion into a roughly circular shape. Keep the other portions covered with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out. The aim is to end up with a disk-shaped bread consisting of a number of paper-thin layers. If you have watched the Roti Man and are clever and had a lot of practice, you will be able to stretch and spin it by hand, brush ghee onto the surface and fold it into many layers and finally pressing or rolling it out into about a 6 to 7 inch diameter disk.
3. 3However, if you are an amateur, you will want to stretch it as thin as possible without breaking it, lay it on a lightly floured surface while lightly brushing it with melted ghee, roll it up in one direction like a swiss roll, roll that out flattish with a rolling pin, again brush with ghee and roll it up again. Basically, you will end up with a ball of dough, ready for use, which consists of many thin layers folded over. Prepare all your portions this way and cover each with a little ghee and plastic wrap. At this point you could freeze them if you wanted to.
4. 4Have a flat steel (preferably heavy) cooking surface and heat it (preferably by gas) to a high temperature and coat some ghee over it. Quickly roll and or stretch a pre-folded ball of dough out into a roughly 17 cm diameter disk and throw it on the hot plate. Cook the roti over high heat on both sides until puffed and lightly brown.