How To Make Triangular Parathas

The word "paratha" comes from the words parat (layer) and atta (flour). So, parathas are literally layers of cooked flour.

Making parathas is similar to making chapatis in many ways. With the paratha, rolling is trickier but cooking is easier. The triangular shape is not too tough to get when you make layers.

You Need:

Flour ? 1 cup
Water ? 1/2 cup or so, to knead
Wide container ? for kneading the dough
Salt ? to taste
Rolling surface and rolling pin
Non-stick skillet/tava ? for cooking
Ghee ? for applying to the paratha layers
Oil ? for cooking the parathas

I add kasoori methi (dry fenugreek leaves) and ajwain (carom seeds) to the parathas, you can leave these out and make them plain if you like. Or try out other additions, I?ll post about other paratha mix ideas soon.

You also need some expertise in kneading and rolling the flour. Don’t have that yet? Let this chapati-making guide give you a quickstart.

Mix flour, salt, kasoori methi and ajwain well when dry. Then add water little by little, kneading as you would need the dough for chapatis.

Let the kneaded dough stand for 20minutes.

Roll out the paratha in a circle as you would roll a chapati. Then apply a little ghee to one side and fold it over in half. Apply ghee again to the semi-circle, fold it over again into a triangle shape.

Dab dry flour on to the triangle and roll it to expand retaining the same shape. This is how the shapes would look:

Don’t worry if there is a little distortion, even if they don’t turn out to be purrrfect triangles they’ll get better with time. It’s more important to have them even in thickness so that there are no raw spots at the end.

Put the non-stick skillet on the fire. Place the raw paratha in the center, making sure there are no folds. Let?s call the side being heated first side1. When little brown spots begin to form, turn it around. Smear a little oil on side1, press and rotate gently with a spatula. Repeat the same with side2.

When both sides are cooked evenly, you’re done! Serve hot with curry, raita and pickle.