Aloo Paratha

I have cilantro!!

This is only significant because every single recipe I have found for any paratha whatsoever seems to require cilantro.  Unfortunately, it is one herb I do not have growing on my windowsill.  (I'm not sure it could be grown on a windowsill, as it tends to get very large.)  And as our nearest decent grocery store is about 70 miles away, I can't just drive around the corner and pick it up anytime I want it.

But after last week's excursion to . . . well, I'm not going to say where I went, but it was on business . . . I was able to stop by a store on the way home and pick some up.

The first time I heard of paratha was through the showmethecurry.com ladies, while browsing potential Indian bread recipes.  But I ran into a problem when I started seriously thinking about making paratha:  they wanted chaat masala in their fillings.  I don't have chaat masala, and while I recognize I could order it on the Internet, and probably will, eventually, I wanted to stick with ingredients I could easily pick up locally.  (Yes, around here, 70 miles is considered local shopping.)  I finally stumbled on vahrehvah.com, after discovering this video on YouTube.  In this chef's recipe, garam masala is used instead of chaat masala. And garam masala was in my cupboard, purchased some time ago as a "just in case" spice.

But Vahrehvah.com's recipe is a little ambiguous on the quantity of ingredients for the dough or how it is to be made.  (I think he depends on his videos.)  So I turned back to showmethecurry.com for the dough.  In their aloo paratha recipe, they refer readers to their chapatti recipe for the dough.  (Wow, the effort it takes, sometimes, to get a recipe put together . . .)

After a little juggling, I finally had my working recipe, consisting of the dough from showmethecurry.com and the filling from Vahrehvah.com.  I ended up reducing some of the spices because my kids aren't used to something quite that full-flavored.  (And, sadly enough, my tongue won't handle extra-spicy things anymore.)

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (good thing I just ground some)
3 teaspoons oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons warm water (In case anyone is interested, this makes 5/8 cup of water.)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour in which to dip the dough while rolling
Oil for pan frying

Filling:
3 Tablespoons fresh coriander leaves (This is cilantro.)
3/4 teaspoon garam masala (I used 1/2 teaspoon.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoon cumin/coriander powder (This can be either/or or blended to taste. I ended up with a touch over a 1/2 Tablespoon cumin.)
Hot red pepper powder to taste (I put about 1/16 teaspoon.)
3 cups large potatoes, boiled and grated or mashed (Grated is recommended.  I wonder if riced would be even better.)
3/4 cup onion

First, the dough!

In a large bowl, mix the flour and the salt.  Add the oil and mix again.  Slowly add warm water and knead to form a dough.  (You might not need all the water.)

Shape the dough into a ball and rub a little oil on it to coat the outside.  Then cover it and let it stand for at least 15 minutes.

While the dough rests, it is time for the filling.

I learned something about grating potatoes right after cooking them . . . After boiling the potatoes, I put them into some cold water to cool them to the point where I could handle them.  This happened surprisingly quickly, or so I thought.  As I grated the potatoes, I realized that while the exterior was cool enough to touch, the interior was still very hot.  It was kind of amusing to see the grated potato steaming beneath my grater, but it was not so amusing when the potato became small enough I kept accidentally touching the hot part.  Note to self:  next time, prepare the potatoes a little earlier.
 

The recipes I had read emphasized that everything in the filling needed to be chopped very fine, or minced.  If you have a chopper similar to this, finely chopping onions becomes a snap.

In his video, the chef at Vahrehvah.com states the ingredients can be either mixed uncooked or cooked.  But, he said, the cooked version "always turns out tastier."  So I decided mine would be cooked.

As the potatoes were already cooked, the only things which really needed to be cooked were the onions and spices.  First, I added just enough oil to the pan to prevent sticking, then added the onions.  I cooked for a minute or two over medium heat, then added the spices, stirring to make sure they were evenly cooked.

Once everything was nicely cooked, it was time to add the potatoes, just to mix them in.  Since they did not need to be cooked, I took an alterate tack, adding the cooked ingredients to the bowl where I had the potatoes waiting, then mixing.

The filling definitely does not look like it is rocket science.  The chef even said you could add pretty much whatever spices--or even green chilis--you want to the filling.  This is reassuring, as it seems it will be difficult to completely mess it up by any method except, perhaps, over-spicing it.

Divide the filling into 8 equal size parts.  You will be rolling/smushing these parts into balls.

Now that the filling is ready, back to the dough!

Knead the dough and divide it into 8 parts, rolling each part into a ball.  Keep a bowl with some whole wheat flour handy for dipping the dough if it should start to stick.  Slightly flatten the dough a little and dip it briefly in the flour.

 

Using a rolling pin, roll out the ball to about 4 inches diameter.  Take one of the balls of filling and place it on the dough.

Gather the dough around the ball to cover it, pinching at the top to hold the dough closed.

Slightly flatten the stuffed ball and dip it into the whole wheat flour on both sides.

 

 Using a rolling pin, roll out the stuffed ball into a disk.  Don't make it too thin.  (You still want your potato filling to be surrounded by bread dough.)

See?  You can see the cilantro through the dough.  (Isn't that cool?)  The hope is to be able to roll this out without any potato sticking out.  I did not completely succeed in this:  every one of the 8 parathas I rolled ended up with a tiny bit of potato sticking out somewhere, usually along the edge or at the pinched seam.  I may be able to prevent this by putting in less filling, but I'd rather not do that.  I suspect that a little practice will go a long way.

I found this rolling out process worked better if I did not attack the paratha as I would have attacked a tortilla or a pie crust.  (Seriously, I get violent with tortillas.)  Rolling by gently rocking back and forth, changing directions as I went, seemed to be more effective than trying to pick up my rolling pin, place it in the center, and roll out each time.  (I think people who are really good at tortillas actually roll back and forth, too . . .)

Place the paratha on a skillet preheated to medium or medium high.  When bubbles start to appear, it is time to turn it over.

Hard to see, but it is puffing up in some places around the edges.

I actually didn't follow the directions here, because I forgot to reread them as I was working.  Instead of spraying it lightly with cooking oil after turning it over, then turning and spraying with oil again every 30 seconds, I just turned it over and let it cook.  It would probably have had more crispy results if it had been sprayed with oil, but as it was, it still cooked and browned nicely.  (See the little golden/brown spots?)

Nicely puffed!

I did remember to roll out the next paratha as the previous one was cooking, just to save time.

And here they are!

I had some daughters who were very dubious about this whole "potato-filled unleavened bread" thing.  At least, they were dubious until I started tearing one into pieces for tasting . . .

In the end, all four of the daughters at home ended up loving it.  The reduction in the spices seemed to be about the perfect blend for us, although the heat built up over time to the point where the two youngest weren't sure they wanted to finish their halves of aloo paratha.  (Now we know why the Indians would most likely eat this with chutney or yogurt . . . I gave the girls pineapple rings, as I was out of yogurt.)  I've been told these freeze well, when separated by waxed paper, so the three I had left over after dinner will find their way there until the Senior Master Kitchen Helper is ready to have some in her lunchbox, as she requested.

I'm looking forward to trying paratha stuffed with other fillings.