Sluttishly Savoury: Bacon Chapatis and a Masala Chai

My favourite breakfast of all time has to be a salty bacon sandwich, brimming with ketchup on soft white bread and a sweet cup of tea. Or at least it used to be, until I discovered Dishoom.

Dishoom is an Indian restaurant in London. You may not associate Indian restaurants with breakfast but don't be too hasty as their bacon naan is like the best bacon sandwich you ever had (naanwich?), but with home-made naan bread, sweet chilli jam, creamy yoghurt and coriander. Genius.

Oh and that steaming mug of sweet tea to go with? That'll be a Chai Masala. It's sweet tea made with equal amounts of black pepper, cardamom and cinnamon. It's dreamy.

Any day that starts like this is a good day.

My D.I.Y. version uses homemade chapatis, rather than naan (I don't have the time or or patience to start making my own naan bread, oh no). Chapatis on the other hand, well, they only use two ingredients and one of them is water - hurrah!

Bacon Chapatis with Chai Masala (serves 2)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes

You'll need:

• 4 rashers of good quality bacon 
• 225g wholemeal flour
• 125ml cold water
• 2 tbsp crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp of tomato chutney or chilli jam 
• a few sprigs of coriander

For the Chai Masala:

• 550ml of milk
• 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp whole cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick 
• 1 standard teabag
• 1 heaped tbsp sugar

Make it!

• Start by grilling your bacon until crispy and set aside in a warm place.
• Next the chapatis. Get two bowls and fill one with the water and the other with 3/4 of the flour (reserve the rest). 
• Add the flour to the water, stir it together and bring it together with your hands.
• Pour the rest of the flour onto a clean surface, kneed the dough by stretching it out and pushing it back into a ball. Don't be timid here, just go for it, the dough should be pushed and pulled and stretched and worked, as this makes the chapatis nice and soft. Kneed for about 10 - 15 mins, then divide the dough into 4 pieces.

• Shape the balls into rounds, flatten them a bit and then roll each out with a rolling pin until they're about 7 inches in diameter.

• To cook them, heat a dry frying pan and lay in the chapati. Cook for 30 seconds on one side before flipping and cooking for a further 20 seconds on the other. You should get dark brown spots on each side – that shows it's done.
• Repeat with the rest of the dough until you have cooked them all.
• Spoon the crème fraîche onto one of the chapatis, top with the chilli jam, crispy bacon and finally a generous handful of coriander, topping with another chapati.

To make the Chai Masala:

• Either using a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar, blitz the black pepper and cardamom pods.

• Warm the milk, adding the ground spices and cinnamon stick, teabags and sugar.
• Bring to a simmer then strain.