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A lot of you may have heard about the old tradition of making tandoori rotis which is popular in the rural areas of Punjab; the women from the village community gather around a tandoor that belongs to everyone, to make the rotis, all the while discussing the day-to-day life. Several such culinary traditions around the country are slowly disappearing. Some of them are so rare that very few people have striven to preserve them. If you endeavoured to explore the diaspora of culinary traditions that the country has, you’ll be baffled by the aloofness of everything that’s worth celebrating. They are not seeking out the spotlight because the purpose of traditions isn’t to coerce people into practicing them, but rather to make people understand them.
Although it takes a lot of passion and dedication to pursue any art, hard work is so much more important if you want the texture, flavour and method to come out right. There’s one culinary art form that exemplifies this. Let's talk about the practice of making matka roti, otherwise known as rannya rotya in Nagpur, which is considered to be a highly skilled process, and mainly carried out by expert women and men. It is also known as lambi roti. Read on to know why.
In this culinary art form, the way of bread-making is unlike anything else ever seen. Essentially, matka means pot. Made of semolina and wheat, the rotis are draped on an inverted pot, and while they take as little as a minute to cook, the process of making matka rotis is far more intricate than it sounds. If you see the dough, you’ll see just how slippery and wet it is, which is a result of kneading and slamming the dough till it becomes stretchy and runny. You wouldn’t expect to see the dough being handled with so much skill, but what comes next is even better. The women make a dough ball, and as they smear some oil and water on the surface of the dough, it begins to extend out slowly and almost magically. The tradition of making matka roti is continuously being explored by locals in the Dalit community who are credited with the invention of the matka roti. In some places where matka roti is made, the art of slamming the dough to develop the gluten will leave you in awe. After beating the dough, it looks so jiggly and perfect!
This art of bread-making makes matka roti one of the most unique offerings in the city of Nagpur. Unfortunately, with so many western breads that are taking over our Indian pantries, the matka roti is losing fans. As people complain about the hygiene levels of preparing food in a roadside restaurant, a lot of the times, this craft of making matka rotis may lose out to the bigger restaurants and what they can offer.
If you want to watch the process of how matka roti is made, you should head to Nagpur. Few things can draw a crowd quite like the art of making matka roti. When the roti is cooked, it is super thin, almost like rumali roti. It is usually savoured with mutton curry or even aamras for a sweet finish.
