Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #10: Buss Up Shut Roti (A Flaky Roti from Tobago and Trinidad)
I made something very interesting today that is a twist on the usual Indian Roti. The recipes have very similar bases with both using water, flour, and salt, however, this Roti with a Caribbean twist uses baking powder and an oil (and sometimes a bit of sugar) to create a flaky interior. Buss Up Shut begin as a simple roti with the initial rest and roll out, but it uses an additional step of rolling and oil plus several hours of resting to create a really fun, interesting texture. It is not difficult, but it does require some advance planning to accommodate the needed rest time. The final finishing touch requires one to smash it with wooden spoons or your hands to create a “busted up” look to reveal all the wonderful flakes on the inside.
The recipe is from The Caribbean Pot, though I did add some sugar to my dough as called for in some other recipes; I also didn’t use margarine having opted for butter (or ghee) instead. Other recipes I looked at also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I’ve never made this before and I halved the recipe just in case it didn’t turn out as planned.
My first picture gallery below of the process.
The first one I rolled out before it was fully rested because I was impatient (not shown in he photos). It was interesting to me how difficult it was to roll out and it ended up too thick. While it was good it didn’t flake the way it was supposed to. That resting period to allow the dough to relax is an important part of the process to form those thin layers. If you have a smaller pan like I do, it is perfectly okay to make the ball smaller. I can also assure you that imperfect circles that are nearly square in shape taste just as lovely as the perfect ones!
A simple video of my first attempt at making Buss Up Shut. It’s watchable, but my first editing attempts with the Youtube video editor is quite amateurish! This is as real as it gets, right?
4 comments on “Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #10: Buss Up Shut Roti (A Flaky Roti from Tobago and Trinidad)”
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Aspiring writer, wife, mother of two, owner two cats. Teacher, lover of science, books, science fiction, fantasy, and video games.
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Pingback: Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #43: Chinese Scallion Pancake (Congyoubing) #homecooking | Laissez Faire
Hi makeshift was wondering if you ever going to make updated buss up shut video where you have perfected you buss up shut so we can see what it looks like.a
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Hi I mean amileegirl sorry my predictive text in my keyboard put makeshift instead of your name in my last comment .
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Haha. I haven’t yet perfected my technique 🙂
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