Paratha

Parathas are cooked on the ‘tawa‘ or hotplate and are often filled with spiced vegetables or a meat filling. Potato and vegetable is my personal favourite. They make a delicious snack on their own or a tasty accompaniment to curries.

For the paratha you need:

1.5 cups (240ml cup) of white flour

1.5 cups of wholewheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

approx 1.5 cups of warm water, maybe a little more

Sift the flours and salt into a bowl and add the water. Start by adding adding 1 cup of the water, mix well and judge how much more you will need to make a sticky, soft dough; knead well. I usually need between 1.5 and 1.75 cups of water and I leave the bread machine to do the kneading for me. After kneading leave the dough to rest for a while – 30-60 mins.

For the filling:

Sauté the onion until soft and then add the garlic and ginger. If using minced meat, add now and stir fry until browned. Next, add mustard seeds and spices. Add the boiled potatoes and cooked veg. Mash roughly and then mix well  until everything is well combined. Leave to cool.

Turn the dough out onto a floured worktop, roll the dough into a sausage and then divide in half. Divide each portion in half again and then divide those 4 portions into 3 equal balls so that you have 12 roughly equal sized pieces.

Roll each piece out into a circle of roughly 15cm diameter.

Place approx 2 tbsp of the filling on top of 6 of the circles and spread over the disc, leaving about 2cm from the outer edge.

Place another disc on top of each filled paratha.

Gradually flatten with a rolling pin and start rolling the paratha flatter until it is about 30cm in diameter – or so that it fits within the boundary of your hotplate/tawa.

Brush or rub vegetable oil over the surface of the paratha, place oiled side down on a heated hotplate.

Rub a little oil over the upper side and cook until the paratha starts to bubble up. Flip and then cook the other side.

Eat alone or with curry. Store the paratha by rolling and wrapping in foil and keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Easy to reheat on the tawa for about 1 minute.

tawa

Filed under: Breads, Indo-Pak, Sides and Snacks Tagged: bread, Indian, Pakistani, Recipes