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It has been more than 10 years since the first King Roti opened its doors in a basement in Euston and that the restaurant still attracts large queues. People come to the original branch or the other three who appeared at Battersea, Waterloo and Spitalfields for Malaysian staples such as Nasi Goreng, Beef Rendang and Kari Laksa. But it would also be necessary not to order your namesake of Roti Canai signature.
These puff pastry, soft and buttered flat breads are the final offering of street food in Malaysia, where they are consumed throughout the day but especially for breakfast. Similar to the Indian Paratha and to derive from Kerala or Chennai in southern India, Roti Canai (pronounced cha-NIGH) was recently elected fourth best bread by food and Drink Tasteatlas website. Their increase in popularity in the United Kingdom, however, is largely due to Roti King and its owner Sugeng Gopal, a Master Roti Maker.
Before opening King Roti As a restaurant in 2014, the Malaysian chief of origin developed a faithful audience among the Malaysian diaspora. These days, it is rare to find it to make rotis except during special events. But its version of the dish is available in Roti King and its Sister Gopal's Corner channel, where on nine sites at least 6,500 rotis are served every day. “A good Roti chief can be about a hundred an hour,” he said.
For a long time, Malaysian cooks were reluctant to share their recipes. “The dish is considered” sacred “,” wrote Norman Musa in his 2016 kitchen book Malaysian incredible (Peg sque, £ 28). “I asked it several times, but no one would tell me.” This is a big problem, then that Gopal publishes his recipe for the first time with a step -by -step guide in his new kitchen book Roti King: Classic and modern Malaysian street food (Quadrille, £ 18.99).
Sambal Shiok: the Malaysian cookbook by Mandy Yin (quadrille, £ 26)
Roti King: Classic and modern Malaysian street food By Sugen Gopal (quadrille, £ 18.99)
Like many recipes for Roti Canai, it is simple in its list of ingredients and a little less simple in its methodology. To make 10 roti, you need 500 g of ordinary flour, a tablespoon of condensed milk, two teaspoons of salt, two teaspoons of sugar in laces and a tablespoon of softened butter or margarine (with additional butter and vegetable oil to coat the dough balls as they rest). Other recipes include coconut water and eggs. Mandy Yin recipe from her book 2021 Sambal Shiok (Quadrille) only uses flour, water, salt, sugar, oil and baking powder.
The ingredients are transformed into dough, rested, divided into bullets and rested again. Then comes the delicate part: transforming the balls into fine and flat rotis. Yin suggests using a rolling pin, which is the simplest option. I savor the challenge of the Gopal method, which involves slapming the dough. As Gopal explains in his book, he mastered this more traditional technique when he was 14 working after school at the restaurant of his parents in Ipoh, Malaysia. It is not easy. I met Gopal at the Waterloo branch of Roti King for a tutorial, and even standing next to him, I needed him to repeat the process several times.
We started with rested dough balls. On an oiled surface, we gently extend the dough with the heels of our palms. Then we slapped it. Gopal made me train (in the same way as him with 14 years) with a wet towel. I hung my left thumb under one side and I slipped my fingers from my right hand under the other, then lifted, whirlwind and slaps the towel.
When it came to reproducing this with fatty dough, I mainly ended up with a torn and sticky disorder. Gopal slapped the dough with the finesse of a pizzaiolo throwing a crust or a bull swirling a cape. It was fluid and effortlessly. What is the result was a large thin and translucent leaf which he folded in a square, raised from the center and fell into a crumpled circle. A moment later, he went to the heating plate. There, he crackled and was returned before detaching himself from gold and brown in spots, for the last step: a sharp blow on the side (like a plump pillow) which sent a puff of steam like a smoke signal and transformed the flat bread into a fluffy roti in the shape of a dome.
Julie Lin is the Malaysian co-founder of Gaga Restaurant in Glasgow and considers Roti Canai its “number one dish of all time”. But when I asked why she hadn't included the dish in her next cooking book You are welcome (Ebury), she told me that she wanted the recipes to be accessible and Roti Canai was simply too hard. After following the Gopal method, I know what it means. Even the version of Yin – the simplest I have been able to find – was by his own admission “a faff” for the time and the preparation required. “It's not something you are trying every day,” she told me.
In his book, Gopal offers this discourse of encouragement: “Please do not be put off by the long instructions … It is a question of kissing the effort and embracing the results. My Roti Canai was nothing compared to that of Gopal. But even my failures were recoverable and had a good taste with curry.
