ALOO/POTATO PARATHA

Course: Roti/Chapatis,Breakfast/Brunch

Aloo paratha is one of the popular Punjabi/North Indian breakfasts. These flatbreads are stuffed with spicy potato filling and are served with butter alongside with plain yogurt and pickle.

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Total time :  50 minutes

Makes:  8  pranthas

Ingredients:

For potato stuffing:

• 3 or 4 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 1 medium onion, cut into small pieces
• 1” ginger grated
• 2 green chillies, cut into small pieces ( optional)
• ¼ tsp flaked red chillies (optional)
• Few stigs of coriander, courcely cut
• 1 tsp amchoor (dry mango powder)
• 1 tbsp dry methi (fenugreek)
• ½ tsp ajwain (carom seeds)
• 1 tsp rock salt or as per taste
• Ghee or oil as required for roasting parathas

For paratha dough:

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• ½ tsp rock salt
• 1 tbsp of ghee or oil
• Water as required for kneading
• Some extra flour for dusting/rolling

For serving:

• White or any butter
• Plain yogurt
• Pickle mango or lemon as required

Method:

For Making potato filling:

1. To make the potato filling, add mashed potatoes, onion, ginger, green chillies, red chillies, coriander, amchoor, methi, ajwain and salt to it. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. There should be no small pieces of potato left in it.
2. Check the taste if salt is enough as per your liking. If required, more can be added. Keep this aside.

Kneading dough:

1. In another bowl, take flour, add salt and ghee and knead it with water to make into a smooth soft dough.
2. Cover and keep the dough for 20 to 30 minutes.

Stuffing and rolling:

1. Take a small piece of dough and make a ball in your palm. Roll and flatten it with the use of dry flour. Flatter it to the size of 5 to 5.5 inches in diameter.
2. Brush the flatten dough with little ghee or oil and place the potato stuffing in the centre.
3. Take the edges and start pleating as well as bringing the pleats in the centre.
4. Join the pleats together. The pleats have to be joined well, otherwise there will be gaps and filling can come out.
5. In case any gaps are visible, take a little piece of dough and cover the gap.
6. Press the pleats from the centre with the rolling pin, sprinkle some flour and flatten this aloo paratha about the same size as that of a chapati.
7. These should be flattened softly, so that potatoes do not come out.

Roasting:

1. Keep the tava (skillet or griddle) on the fire. When it gets hot, place the paratha on it. The temperature should be kept on medium to high as parathas can be hardened if the heat is reduced.
2. When the side which is on the tava is partly cooked, flip it to the other side.
3. Spread some ghee on the partly cooked side.
4. Flip again, and you will see brown spots on the paratha. Spread some ghee on this side also. A well made and well roasted aloo ka paratha will puff up.
5. Flip again once or twice till both the sides are cooked properly. Brown sides should be seen on both sides.
6. Paratha edges can be pressed with a spatula so that they are fried well. Sometimes, the edges are not cooked well.
7. Make all the parathas like this and stack them up in a roti basket or casserole.
8. The parathas are best enjoyed if these go directly from the tava to the serving plate, as by doing this the crispness remains intact and it is loved by most.
9. Serve these with extra butter, yogurt and pickles of your liking.

Special note:

• Ghee should be replaced by any oil to make it vegan.