Roti, from French Guiana

 

Foods are different in the different parts of Guiana. There is in all of them a great influence of French cuisine but also an influence of regional origins. The natives in each region added their own recipes and thus the differences found. And even Roti could be made in other countries of the region, none of their recipes are like the French Guiana’s recipes.

Roti is a kind of flat bread that can be filled in or rolled with meat inside, potatoes, cheeses and even sugar! According to the different uses, is what you can fill it with, if you plan a dinner with roti, you can fill it with chicken and use many spices, or duck, or regular beef. You can have it for breakfast, and simple fill it with cream cheese, once it’s done and still very hot.

If you choose, you can fill it with different vegetables. And according to what you fill it with, there’s a new name for the roti. It can be aloo roti, sugar roti, dosti roti, etc.

Recipe:

2 cups of flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon dry yeast
¼ cup of warm water

Preparation:

This is the basic recipe, you can double it or more, always in this proportion.
Mix it well and knead this dough very well as it likes to be kneaded! Once it is soft (you can add some more drops of water if needed), let it rest for one hour at least. Cover it so it keeps some warmth inside. Then make little balls, flatten them with your hands, and put vegetable oil and a little flour on the sides of each flattened ball. Put it in a skillet with a little bit of oil, and move it from one side to the other so that it gets cooked evenly.

Once it is cooked you can hold it directly over the flame, and it will grow like a little ball. Don’t let it burn.

Another Roti, Dosti Roti:

Also you can put two of the flattened balls together, both sides with butter and flour together. Press them a little, sides together and then roll them out. Once they are cooked, you can separate them in two parts. There you fill them with whatever you prefer!

Aloo roti; fill them in with mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, maybe a little portion of ham cut very thinly, or bacon cut into small strips.
Sugar Roti: Before cooking, fill it with sugar. Be careful so that it won’t get out of the roti, until it is well done, then the sugar ends up being a caramel inside.
Coconut roti. Before cooking, fill it with shredded coconut and a couple tablespoons of sugar, delicious
Meat Roti: once it’s done and you can open it in half, fill it with grounded meat cooked with olives and spices.
Chicken Roti: fill it with small pieces of already cooked chicken and spices.

Variations are enormous, all delicious, for all kinds of meals.
And also you can use you imagination and put any kinds of fillings you prefer!