Recipe - Aloo Paratha (Stuffed Indian Flatbread)

Ok, It's been more than a week since I posted anything. Was tied up with work. I did manage to have a few good dinners during the week though! Anyway, so today, I wanna post a simple recipe of Aloo Paratha. There are many variations to this; I will post the one that we tried and usually make.

Ingredients:

1. Whole wheat flour (Atta) - 150 gms
2. Potatoes - 2 medium
3. Onions - 1 medium
4. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
5. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Green chillies - 2 finely chopped (if you like them)
9. Ginger Garlic paste - 1 or 1+1/2 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil

Method:

1. The most important aspect of this is a well kneaded dough. Take the wheat flour in a bowl or a big flat pan with high edge. Put a pinch of salt in it and also 1 tsp of peanut/sunflower (or your favorite, but thin) oil. Now add a little water and start mixing and kneading. Keep adding water intermittently till you make it into a dough. The dough should be very soft (even a little sticky). The harder the dough, the more difficult it is to make good paratha

One suggestion is to take water in a small bowl from which you can pour in just a little bit at a time. It's very easy to over do the water. Be very careful. Make equal sized balls of it (about 1+1/2 inch diameter roughly). Let the dough rest for 15 min (or more if you are not too hungry

2. Boil the potatoes (I put them in a bowl of water and microwave for 7-8 minutes). Meanwhile, chop the onions and green chillies very fine.

3. Peel off the skin from the boiled potatoes and mash them up. Saute the onions in a little oil and also the green chillies. Mix them up with the mashed potatoes and put the chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Make a homogeneous mix.

4. Dust the rolling board with flour and flatten the doughball into a circle of about 5 inch diameter using a rolling pin. Apply a little oil at the center.

5. Make a small ball of the potato mix and put it at the center

6. Pull up the ends of the flattened dough and stick them to enclose the potatoes inside. Use a little oil to smooth-en out any cracks

7. Use the rolling pin lightly to flatten out the ball again into a circle of about 8 inch diameter (or as thin as you can without breaking it). Keep using flour to keep it from sticking to the rolling board or the rolling pin. This is why you need soft kneaded dough.

8. Heat a tawa or a flat thick bottomed pan and put a tsp of oil on it. Put the the paratha on it for cooking.

9. When the paratha is cooked a little on the underside, flip it around. Pour a little (1 tsp) oil around the paratha edges so it cooks better.

10. When properly cooked on both sides, serve with curd or spicy pickle :)

---

This dish was made a  week ago (maybe more) but I do remember that I had a great time eating it! It's easy to make, fills the tummy and tastes amazing.

The filling can be changed to anything you want (including minced meat) and it will still taste good! The name would then change from Aloo paratha to minced meat paratha of course!