All day I was planning on having leftovers from last night for dinner. Jason never eats the leftovers during the day…in fact I have no idea what he eats when I’m not around, although I can imagine. Things like cereal, sugary sweet cereal and pastries he buys at the store and these Chinese peanut type snacks we call Crack! Because they are highly addictive. But as we were walking the dogs before dinner and I mentioned that we were having leftovers he got this little smile on his face and I realized he had eaten it….all. Now what? The contents of my refrigerator raced through my head. In a flash a page of the book I had recently borrowed from the library light up in my head.
Aloo Paratha! YES.
The book was Bread, A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes. What is Aloo Paratha you might ask. It’s an Indian stuffed flatbread, similar to naan. I kept the bread part of his recipe but expanded on the filling (of course). I knew it needed more if it was going to be dinner.
Dough
- 300 g whole wheat flour (I used two thirds whole wheat, one third all purpose)
- 3 g salt
- 225 g water
Mix the ingredients together and either knead by hand for 10-15 mins or in the mixer ofr 5 on med. Put in a bowl and cover with plastic for 30 mins. Or put in the refrigerator and use the next day.
Dough just sitting around
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2 potatoes
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1/4 c peas
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1/4 c baby lima beans
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1/2 c chopped spinach
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1/2 grated zuchinni
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1/2 onion
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2 tsp grated ginger
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1 tsp cumin seeds
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1 tsp coriander seeds (I only had ground so used 1 1/2 tsp)
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1/2 tsp turmeric
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2 T mustard oil *
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salt
To make the mustard oil toast black mustard seeds in a skillet and then crush in a mortar, place in a dish with 2 Tb veg oil and let sit for awhile. Meanwhile boil the potatoes whole in their skins. When they were almost done I added the peas & lima beans since I used frozen, to take the freeze off. I then put the chopped spinach (I used fresh) in a colander and poured the boiling water over it to soften. Then I peeled and grated the potato In a skillet I toasted the cumin seeds, added the mustard oil, onion, grated zuchinni, ginger & ground coriander and cooked over med until the onions were soft. I then added the potatoes, peas, lima beans and spinach and mixed it all together and let it cook. I then salted it and let it cool down.
Now take the dough and put it on a floured surface, cut it into 6-8 equal portions. It will be a bit sticky so flour your hands, flatten it and shape it into a little cup in your hand.
Put filling in the dough.
Then pinch the dough together and seal in the filling. Make sure it’s really well sealed so the filling doesn’t come out.
Now the fun part! Heat up a big skillet or if you have a super well stocked kitchen, a flat Indian tava, on med heat. Roll the dough pocket on a well floured surface until it’s rather thin. Try to make sure the filling is well spread out and don’t roll so hard that the filling bursts through. You want an almost pita bread thiness.
You can see if your skillet is hot enough by sprinkling water on it. If it sizzles away it’s ready. Place a paratha on the skillet and cook for about 2 minutes each side. You will see nice brown spots on each side. Brush with oil or ghee after it gets the brown spots and flip onto each oiled side for about 30 seconds or so.
Oh so yummy!
These can be eaten right away or if there are any left (yeah right) you can reheat wrapped in aluminum foil and put in a 300 oven.
If you want to make these the traditional way the ingredients for the filling are potato, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ginger, chopped green chilies, cliantro and mustard oil. I didn’t have the chilis or cilantro (next time) and just wanted to make them more filling. These are so good and really so easy. The filling I made was actually enough for a double batch so I made more for lunch tomorrow!
I’m submitting this recipe on Lisa’s Kitchen, she is having a contest and giveaway, vegetarian, Indian food submissions here.
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