MASTERCHEF Australia. Nowadays whenever I switch on TV, I find this show on telecast, be it 2 pm after my lunch, 6 pm while I have my evening snack or 9:30 pm after my dinner. And considering that there is not much on TV worth-watching, I settled to give an episode of this ornamented show a try, though I myself am not very interested in cooking.
But what I did get to watch was somehow hilarious. Two good people, (namely George and Gary I gathered) were dressed in white coats and presumably chefs, were preparing Indian flatbread with at-aa (means ‘atta’ – wheat flour), I thought this must be our dear Indian Roti.
Now for people reading this who are not aware how roti is made in Indian households, the following is a summary of the process.
Add water to the atta.
Knead the dough.
Make small balls from the dough.
Roll out each small ball into a circular disc.
Compress them on a hot pan.
Now I am coming to the funny part how the chefs on the show prepared them.
They used egg-milk mix instead of water to make the dough. Poor Indian vegetarians would get a heart-attack at that! Then, they used a knife to cut the balls from the dough! Now comes the part where they were most unsuccessful. Rolling out the balls were not made into circular discs but oval, oblong etc. shaped. Basically the shape tremendously looked like Ma Kali’s tongue… Now sesame seeds were sprinkled on them. And they were kind of tandoored on oiled pans. The flatbread actually went beyond the boundaries of the pan! Then I started thinking may be they actually were making Naan, but that is more of an Afghan dish than Indian. Moreover, naan is made from white flour not atta. So whatever it was they made was enjoyed by them. But I was rolling on the floor laughing. If Gary or George had been preparing these in front of a bunch of Indians (not NRIs) they would have got at least some FEEDBACK. A daughter in an Indian household would get her ear pinched very properly if she made roti/naan this way. But they are chefs, far away in Australia, so they are safe. :D
