Aloo Paratha

In school, I had a couple of North Indian friends. Lunch sharing was quite common and we quite enjoyed that. My favorite was the stuffed parathas my north Indian friends use to bring. I use to love it so much that I spent some time learning from one of the mothers who made it. It is a shame I never practised it and forgot. Everytime I use to make official trips to Delhi, I would make sure I get a lot of parathas there. Once I remember I went to the extent of going to someone’s house only to have parathas for breakfast. I packed one paratha that was leftover and shamelessly had it for lunch while the rest of my team was munching on the canteen food. Ah, who cares, parathas are worth it. My better half is quite the opposite. He does not like parathas and quite obviously I do not make it very frequently as I am not prepared to make different items for each one. Recently my husband fancied Chinese food and as he was missing Wang’s kitchen (which is actually in Chennai and not China), he asked me to make vegetable claypot. I was not keen on rice for meal so decided to make paratha for me. I had boiled potatoes in my fridge and soon parathas took shape! Here is how I did

2 medium sized boiled potatoes

2 small green chillies (finely chopped)

½ teaspoon dhania powder

½ teaspoon jeera powder

2-3 tablespoon freshly and finely chopped coriander leaves

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Regular chapatti dough to make the parathas

Optional ingredients – ginger garlic paste/ginger paste, Amchur powder, bread crumbs

Grate the potatoes. Try to use refrigerated boiled potatoes as they have lesser moisture than freshly boiled ones.

Mix all ingredients except the dough. If the mixture is a bit sticky or very moist, add some breadcrumbs. Otherwise, the parathas will be hard to make.

Take a lemon sized piece of dough. Round it in your hands and make a chapatti out of it.

Make a ball of the potato mixture and place in the centre of the chapatti and wrap it by folding the dough over it.

Try to press this with your hand as much as possible. To help with rest, use the rolling pin. Be careful not to let the stuffing come out.

Put it on a hot pan and wait until bubbles begin to appear. Then turn the paratha and wait for it to just start to rise. Turn again and now gently press the paratha to encourage it to rise. Add a wee bit of ghee once taken off the flame.

Here are few tips and options –

You could put all ingredients in a food processor rather than grate and chop. If using the optional ingredients, just mix it with potatoes and other ingredients.

For chapatti dough, take a cup of wheat flour, pinch of salt, half cup hot water. Mix to form smooth dough and knead well. When possible, allow the dough to rest for couple of hours.

Try not to cook them on low flame as they will turn hard. For nice soft parathas, cook on medium to high flame.