Tup Sakhar Chapati


If you grew up in Pune you’d remember of a mildly annoying siren that would go off at 10:00 a.m. every day and last for a good 10 minutes. I never figured out what it was for, where it came from or if anyone was supposed to do anything about it. We just knew that it was there and we ignored it, much like the coloured ‘Terror Alert System" compliments of the Department of Homeland Security.

The one thing I can always remember about it though was that when the ‘bhonga’ (as it was called) would go off aayi would be making her dabba of chapatis for the day. And during the holidays my brother and I would sit cross-legged on the cold floor of our humble dining-table-less kitchen and wait for aayi to give us a hot chapati slathered with some ghee and sugar and rolled up on dented steel plates. After a generous helping of chapati rolls, all young members of the galli would then emerge from their respective homes. for a good day of galli cricket.

I have tried recreate that taste at home many, many times for myself, but somehow it just doesn’t taste that good in my quiet kitchen, on Pfaltzgraff china and a Heywood-Wakefield dining table.

Ingredients
2 cups Chapati Ata (Durum Wheat flour)
1 tsp Oil
¼ cup Milk
Tepid Water to knead the dough
3 tsp Ghee
1/2 cup Granulate Pure Cane Sugar

Method
Knead into dough all the ingredients except Ghee and Sugar
Cover it with a wet cloth and place aside for an hour
Take a golf ball sized portion of the dough and roll it into a thin flat chapati
Dip a finger in oil and rub it over the top surface
Fold the chapati into half and then a quarter again.
Roll this quarter into a round chapati
Cook on a hot skillet

Place the hot, cooked chapati on a place
Rub ½ tsp of ghee and drizzle some sugar on it
Roll the chapati and serve hot.

Comments

evolvingtastes said…
That is one nice looking poLI! As for your wistfulness, as they say, you can eat the same food, but you can never have the same meal. :sigh:
Unknown said…
I love the part of drizzling sugar over them..mouthwatering..
Finla said…
Wow that chapati is balooning up so beautifully.
When i make it never comes like this. I have bookmarked your recipe to try them
TheCooker said…
Don't know the purpose of the bhonga, but it did come from a pump opp. what used to be 'Deepa'.
Good looking poli, rivaling aai-ke-haath-ki-banayi-hui.
Meera said…
That poli looks so beautiful. I too used to gobble my aaji's poli with toop-sakhar - polichi surali or suralichi poli :-) ...
That bhonga went on, in Mumbai too, I think at 9 AM.
A Cook @ Heart said…
Oooh! tup-sakhar-poli and gul -tup -poli! who can forget those!!!
I used to carry them in my snack box too!
That 'bhonga' was annoying , I always thought it was for mill workers to start working, coz they did not have wrist watches or something like that!
Anonymous said…
i dont know what the boonga was for but most of the people would set their watches according to it... those days we loved having chapati with sugar on it....been a long time since i have done that.
Thistlemoon said…
There is just something special about childhood - everything is so much bigger, better, brighter. That chapati looks beautiful!

Welcome to The Foodie Blogroll! :)
Sunshinemom said…
Yummmm.....I remember taking it with me whenever we got late for the school bus....it was easy to gobble and not mess your fingers much........and my children do the same!! :)
Anonymous said…
Hi,
I am from Mumbai and as Meera said it used to go on at 9 am in Mumbai. I think the purpose was to check that the siren system (to be used during air raid alerts) was working fine. In Mumbai it used to sound for 2 minutes.

My evening snack was chappati in tea. Tear chappati into small pieces and dunk them in a cup of te and eat the soggy mass!! Would satiate the appetite of a young school going boy then!
Anonymous said…
ahaan.. Tup sakhar poLi.. brought back some memories.. Yummy with lots of sajuk tup!
Adhi potoba mag vithoba :) my aai says that about me

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