Roti Canai with Dhal

Name: Roti Canai with Dhal
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Malaysian (Indian-Muslim / mamak)
Ingredients: 500 g Plain flour; 270 ml Warm water; 3 tbsp Sweetened condensed milk; 1.5 tsp Salt; 60 g Ghee, melted; 100 ml Neutral oil, for coating; 200 g Yellow split lentils (toor or chana dal); 1 tsp Turmeric powder; 1 sprig Curry leaves; 1 tsp Mustard seeds; 1 Onion, diced; 3 cloves Garlic, sliced; 2 Green chilli, split; 1 Tomato, chopped; 100 ml Coconut milk

The mamak stall's flying flatbread: a slack, oil-slicked dough flung paper-thin, coiled into a spiral and griddled so it shatters into buttery layers. Served with a soft lentil dhal for dipping.

Fuente

Receta de Malaysian mamak stalls · 🏺 Tradicional · Indian-Muslim (mamak) stall cooking — Malaysia's 24-hour street kitchen

Malaysian mamak (Indian-Muslim) street food — A traditional dish carried by Malaysia's South Indian diaspora since roughly the 19th century — no individual creator exists to credit. The reference confirms the dough of fat, flour and water (sometimes condensed milk), the stretch-and-coil method, and dhal as its traditional accompaniment. Timings and quantities here are this book's own home-kitchen version.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made

Mum, Dad & Baby Kingston

⏱ 300 min🍽 6 porciones🔥 430 kcal🇲🇾 Malasia🌶️

HalalVegetariano

Pasos

Whisk the condensed milk and salt into the warm water, then pour it into the flour with half the melted ghee. Knead 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, soft and a little tacky — much wetter than bread dough.
💡 Resist adding flour when it sticks. A stiff dough will tear the moment you try to stretch it — the slackness is the whole point.
Divide into 6 balls. Roll each in oil until completely slicked, set them in a container with room between them, cover, and leave at room temperature for at least 4 hours — overnight is better.
💡 This rest is not optional. The gluten has to relax before the dough will stretch thin without springing back or tearing.
Make the dhal. Simmer the lentils with the turmeric and plenty of water for about 30 minutes, until they collapse into a loose porridge. Top up with water if it dries out.
In a separate pan, warm 2 tbsp oil and pop the mustard seeds — a few seconds, until they crackle. Add the curry leaves, onion, garlic and green chilli, and fry until the onion is soft and golden. Stir in the tomato, then tip the lot into the lentils with the coconut milk. Simmer 10 minutes and salt it.
Oil your work surface generously. Flatten a dough ball with your palm, then push it outward from the centre with oiled fingers until it is a thin, translucent sheet you can almost read through. Small holes are normal.
💡 The stall cooks' overhead flinging is showmanship built on the same physics. On a home counter, pushing outward from the middle gets you the same thinness with far less mess.
Brush the sheet with ghee. Gather it loosely into a long rope, then wind that rope into a flat spiral like a snail shell and tuck the end underneath. Let it rest 10 minutes.
💡 Every fold in that rope becomes a layer. Wind it loosely — press it tight and the layers fuse into one dense disc.
Press the spiral out to about 15 cm and griddle it on a hot pan with a little ghee, 2 minutes a side, until blistered and deep gold. Slide it onto a board and clap it between both hands to loosen the layers, then serve with the dhal.
💡 That clap is not theatre — it cracks the fused layers apart so the bread goes flaky instead of chewy.

💡 Consejos

First attempts tear. Second attempts tear less. The dough is forgiving — a torn sheet still coils and still tastes right.
Coiled, unfried spirals freeze well between sheets of baking paper. Griddle them straight from frozen over lower heat.
Mamak stalls will fold an egg in (roti telur) or a spoon of sugar (roti planta). Both use the same sheet.