Aloo Paratha

Description:

Parathas are whole-wheat Indian flatbread.  It can be made plain or stuffed with many different fillings.   Traditional  Aloo parathas don’t include any onion, garlic, green chili or spice mixture, but recipe shared here include most of them and can also be altered to suit your preference.

Stuffed Indian Flat Bread / Potato Paratha / Stuffed Paratha / Aloo / Urulaikizhangu Paratha

Instructions:

Prepare the dough and let it sit while we make the stuffing.  To make the dough – Combine flour, salt and oil in a wide bowl and start adding water slowly and mix. Knead well to make the dough to make it smooth and pliable. Add extra water if necessary to bring it soft but firm stage.  Set the dough aside, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for atleast 20 minutes.

Now assemble the ingredients for the stuffing part- Boil the potatoes with some water. Let them cook till tender. Once done, drain the water and cool the potatoes. Mash them gently and keep aside.

Heat oil in a frying pan, add cumin, asafoetida, minced garlic, green chili and onion.  Saute for a couple of minutes then add the mashed potato along with turmeric powder, salt and coriander leaves.

Mix well to combine and saute on low flame till the mixture slightly thickens. Switch off and allow the mixture to cool completely. Once completely cool divide into 6 equal potions and keep side.

Lets get the dough and knead some more, then divide into 6 equal portions.  Roll out one portion of the dough into a circle, place one portion of the filling in the center.

Make little pleats around the corner to form a flower like dumpling. Twist the top and press with your palm to seal tightly.  Roll out again to form a thick circular shape roti, liberally dusting with maida/ wheat flour. Sometimes the stuffing might squeeze out a bit, that’s fine, dust with more Maida/wheat flour and roll. Heat a hot griddle pan and place the paratha on it, let cook for a minute on one side, flip to the other side adding a tsp of oil or ghee, when you see little brown spots on both sides, just place them on a wax paper or plate and cool.

Heat a hot griddle pan and place the paratha on it, let cook for a minute on one side, flip to the other side adding a tsp of oil or ghee. When they turn golden with few brown spots, remove from tava and place them on a wax paper or plate and cool. Repeat process for the remaining dough and filling to make more parathas.

Serve hot with choice of side usually goes well with Mattar Paneer/Butter Masala / Any spicy Pickle / Yogurt /  Tomato Thokku

Notes:

Yield – 5 – 6  medium size parathas

Why Maida for dusting?    wheat flour tends to burn while cooking and leave the paratha with ugly black spots, if that’s not an issue then use wheat flour for dusting.

In case if too much stuffing squeezes out while rolling, just knead that with dough with little flour and roll again. Knead well to combine or else the paratha will turn out little hard.

These parathas  are freezer friendly, place them between wax paper and store them in a air tight box or zip lock bags and freeze  upto a month. Before serving, thaw them and reheat in microwave for 10 to 20 seconds.