When someone asks me about my favourite breakfast, the answer is obviously "aloo paratha" with some plain yogurt. This is a common street food in Delhi and other northern parts of India, and believe me , it is the street food at its best. And, unless, you are on anti-carb diet you are bound to love it.Try it ans you are bound to get hooked forever!!
What is Aloo Paratha? Before that what is Paratha?
"Paratha" is Hindi for Pan fried India bread.
"Aloo Paratha" is spicy, potatoey flat-bread things that you can make loads of, freeze, then whack one in the microwave and eat with mixed pickle and plain yogurt ("raita" in Hindi) when you can’t be bothered to cook properly. For stuffing a paratha, other vegetables or dals can also be used, but aloo(potatoes) are the most popular.
Yes, like everything, they’re better fresh, but they get away with the microwave treatment quite well. Freshly cooked crisp aloo parathas are usually eaten for breakfast, crispy hot, as the cook takes them off the griddle.
Here is how I have been making this:-
What will you need for Dough:
4 cups of organic Durum whole wheat flour
Enough water to make a dough
a pinch of Ajwain or Carom seeds
a little vegetable oil for frying, you can also use Ghee(clarified butter)
Take the Wheat flour in a mixing bowl and add Ajwain seeds to it. Take cold water and mix it with hand into the dough, in small amounts. Continue doing it until the dough is wet enough to form a soft dough. Take little oil in your hand and apply it all around the dough.This will prevent it from forming hard crust. Cover with moist cloth and keep aside until use.Let it sit for a while before you knead it again with little more oil. Kneading it with an oily hand prevents the dough from sticking to your hands. Its all ready for the work now.
For the Filling:
4 medium sized russet potatoes
4 green chillies, finely chopped
finely chopped cilantro,
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon garam masala (Indian allspice)
Cut potatoes into halves (with skin on) and boil it in double the water until tender.Insert fork to check.Let them cool just a bit and then peel off the skin. Use hand or potato masher to mash it to the powdery texture. Add all the other spices and ingredients for the filling to the mashed potato mix. Mix should be dry.
Potato FillingSave 2 tablespoons of dry flour on a plate, for dusting while rolling out parathas.
Rolling out parathas:
Take roughly a tablespoon of the filling and spread out in the centre of one circle, and gently press the edges to seal.
Break dough into approximately little bigger than golf size balls.Then roll out, 4 inches size. Now you have a stuffed circle, with the filling. Heat the griddle or tawa on medium heat. Dip the stuffed circle in dusting flour on both sides and roll out gently, to approximately 20 cm. in size. Roll from centre outwards, so that the edges are thinner than the centre. You will need to dust it with dry flour a couple of times during the rolling out process.
Fry it on both sides until crisp. Cut them into wedges and serve with raita or pickle.
No comments:
Post a Comment