T&T is a poly­cul­tur­al par­adise, filled with vi­brant peo­ple of fete and faith, the home of the steel­pan. The ex­quis­ite lan­guage of this space is adorned with loan words in­di­cat­ing a so­ci­ety born from ar­du­ous jour­neys of its an­ces­tors. Our unique­ness is unique! De­spite the count­less av­enues tra­versed, a won­der­ful ar­ray of dish­es con­sti­tutes the de­lec­table cui­sine of this land from roti to dou­bles to fried bake. But have you ever won­dered about the cook­ing tools be­hind these scrump­tious every­day del­i­ca­cies? What­ev­er the bak­ing goal, the bil­na and chow­ki will pro­vide the so­lu­tion.

In­di­an in­den­ture­ship to Trinidad from 1845 to 1917, her­ald­ed the trans­plant­i­ng of cus­toms and tra­di­tions to a new ter­ri­to­ry 900 times small­er than In­dia. Re­li­gion, mu­sic, lan­guage and food trav­elled across the tu­mul­tuous Kali Paani. So, too, did a range of cook­ing uten­sils. Some are used pri­mar­i­ly for spe­cial oc­ca­sions, yet none has had supreme pur­pose as that of the bil­na and chow­ki! With­out this dy­nam­ic duo, the end­less pur­suit of hap­pi­ness to get the sa­da roti loya (dough) to swell per­fect­ly on the tawa is un­at­tain­able. As tra­di­tion­al uten­sil us­age falls in favour of the per­pet­u­al su­pe­ri­or­i­ty of mod­ern, time-sav­ing cook­ing ap­pa­ra­tus, this cou­ple stands the test of time.

The bil­na or rolling pin, cylin­dri­cal uten­sil, rough­ly 10-15 inch­es in length and three-inch­es in di­am­e­ter with han­dles on both ends for an easy grip. Hand­craft­ed for the pur­pose to press out dough even­ly, it is of­ten em­ployed in the cook­ing tech­nique re­ferred to in the In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty as bay­lay­ing. The art of bay­lay­ing in­volves the move­ment of both hands from the mid­dle of the bil­na to the ends and back to the cen­tre is re­quired. Rolling up­wards and turn­ing the dough in the clock­wise ro­ta­tion is key to get the dough flat and even.

The chow­ki pro­vides a steady plat­form that guar­an­tees your de­sired dough shape. Wood­en and cir­cu­lar with legs rough­ly 3-4 inch­es, this paste­board com­ple­ments its slen­der part­ner. Sprin­kling bits of flour to the chow­ki, al­so known as parthan, pre­vents the dough from stick­ing.

Trinida­di­an lore for­bids the wash­ing of a wood­en bil­na and chow­ki. Sim­ply pass­ing a damp cloth and scrap­ing the hard rem­nants of dough with a knife would suf­fice. This mul­ti-pur­pose tool can help ac­com­plish many tasks, use it to pound your gar­lic in­to a fine paste for any savoury dish! The com­bi­na­tion of a large knife s tip and the bil­na as its pow­er source punch­es an even greater hole than a can open­er when done skil­ful­ly.

So whether you re hav­ing that ear­ly morn­ing sa­da roti or aloo roti din­ner, the bil­na and chow­ki saves the day. Bon­nie and Clyde. Romeo and Juli­et. Com­pul­sive fix­a­tion or not, there is none so com­pat­i­ble as the bil­na and chow­ki.

Aloo Roti

Serves 6

IN­GRE­DI­ENTS

For dough

3 cups flour

3 tsp bak­ing pow­der

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup wa­ter (add more if re­quired)

For aloo fill­ing

8 pota­toes

1/4 cup onion, fine­ly chopped

1 clove gar­lic, chopped

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground hot pep­per

2 tsp geera

1/4 cup oil or melt­ed mar­garine for coat­ing

DI­REC­TIONS

1 Com­bine flour, bak­ing pow­der and salt in large bowl.

2 Add cup of wa­ter then mix and knead un­til dough is soft. Cov­er with a damp cloth and let it rest for 1/2 hour.

3 For the fill­ing, cut pota­toes in half then boil them with skins on un­til it be­comes ten­der. Then, peel and mash well with the back of a fork.

4 Add gar­lic, onion, salt, pep­per and geera. Stir well and set aside.

5 Di­vide the dough in­to six por­tions. Roll each por­tion in­to a ball (loya) then flat­ten with palm of hand.

6 Put 2 tb­sp of pota­to mix­ture in the cen­tre of the dough. Pull the edges to­geth­er at the cen­tre to cov­er the fill­ing and re­shape in­to a ball. Re­peat for each por­tion.

7 Leave it to set on a light­ly floured chow­ki, cov­ered with a damp cloth for rough­ly 10 - 15 min­utes.

8 Roll out each ball on the chow­ki us­ing a bil­na. Aim to get dough as thin as pos­si­ble with­out burst­ing it.

9 Place on a hot oiled tawa. Let it cook on the first side for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1 minute. Keep small bowl with oil near­by in or­der to oil the tawa and spread on roti.

10 Then turn over roti and brush with oil; cook for rough­ly 30 - 45 sec­onds.

11 Turn over again. Brush with oil and cook this side for 30 sec­onds. Re­move from heat and serve with a cur­ry dish.