ALOO PARATHA

  

Paratha actually mean layers of cooked flour. Paratha is the most popular Indian cuisine made with wheat flour or some times all purpose flour(maida). Although there are a different stuffed parathas such as aloo, gobi, muli, dal, channa, paneer, mattar , methi ,palak, etc ,aloo paratha stands on the top. There is no Punjabi restaurant that doesn't have aloo paratha in the menu. The road side dabhas serves the best parathas with large varieties of sabzis. For now I present my version of aloo paratha.

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE DOUGH

• Wheat flour             3 cups
• Salt                          to taste
• Oil                            2 Tsp
• Ajwain                     1 tsp
• Water                      to knead the dough

FOR THE STUFFING
METHOD 1

• Boiled potatoes             3 large
• Jeera                              1tsp 
• Onions                            1 large
• Cilantro chopped            1Tsp
• Salt                                 to taste
• Green chillies                  1Tsp  finely chopped            
• Amchur powder              1/2 tsp
• Garam masala powder     1/2 tsp
• Ginger                             1/2 inch finely chopped
• Oil                                   1 Tsp

METHOD 2

• Boiled and mashed potatoes         3 large
• Onions                                            1large
• Cilantro                                          1Tsp
• Salt                                                 to taste
• Red chilly powder                           1 tsp
• Jeera powder                                  1 tsp
• Amchur powder                              1/2 tsp
• Garam masala                                  1/2 tsp

PROCEDURE
Mix all the dry ingredients of the dough. Slowly add water and make firm yet softer dough. Knead the dough for 5 min by adding oil little by little. The more you knead the dough the more softer the parathas will be.Cover the dough and set aside for 20 min.

For the stuffing mash the boiled potatoes. Heat oil in a pan add the jeera. When jeera changes color, add finely chopped onions, green chilies, ginger, salt. When onions turns soft add the mashed potatoes. Now add all the remaining  ingredients, amchur, garam masala, chopped cilantro and mix well .The mixture should be dry and free of water otherwise it would be difficult to roll.

In the second method of preparing the stuffing is made by adding the mashed potatoes, chopped onions, cilantro, amchur, redchilly  powder, jeera powder , salt , garam masala. The onions should be cut very fine in this method otherwise the paratha could tear while rolling.

Take a portion of the dough and roll it by dusting in the dry wheat flour. Make a circle of approximately 4". While rolling see that the edges are thin and the centre is thick.Keep a portion of the stuffing in the centre and pull the edges to the centre and press in the centre to make a ball. Again slowly roll the paratha by dusting with the dry flour and make a 8" round. Place the paratha on a hot tava(not smoking hot) , cook for 2min and turn around and again cook for another 2 mins. Liberally spread oil on both the sides of the paratha . Slowly press the paratha with a wooden spoon or ladle to fluff it up and also to make it crisp. Cook until nicely browned on both sides and serve the paratha with butter , fresh curd, pickles of choice and onions smeared with lemon juice and salt.