Coming in at #48 for the MellowBakers.com group, Aloo Paratha is a savoury filled Indian flatbread.
Like all Mellow Baker breads, it was sourced from Hamelman’s book [easyazon-link asin=”0471168572″ locale=”us”] Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes (First Edition) [/easyazon-link] and can be found in the Miscellaneous section on page 282.
Note that the [easyazon-link asin=”1118132718″ locale=”us”] NEW edition of BREAD [/easyazon-link] has dropped this recipe, so I’ll give the details here.
DOUGH:
- 2 3/8 cup (10.6 oz / 300 g) whole wheat flour*
- Heaping ½ Tsp / 3 g salt
- ~ 1 cup (7.9 oz / 225 g) water
FILLING:
- 1 lb / 453 g potatoes, boiled in their jacket; once cooled, peeled and grated
- 1 tsp cumin seed, toasted
- 1 tsp coriander seed, toasted & ground
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp finely chopped green chilies
- .5 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Salt to taste
- 2 Tbsp mustard oil**
.25 cup Ghee for brushing
* Indian whole wheat is typically chapati flour, a finely ground & sifter whole wheat flour. You can approximate this by sifting the coarser North American whole wheat flour through a fine sieve or combining whole wheat and unbleached bread flour in a 2:1 ratio (i.e. 200 g whole wheat + 100 g bread).
** You can make mustard oil by toasting 1 Tbsp black mustard seed in a dry skillet until they pop. Grind in a mortar, put in a small bowl and pour over with 2 Tbsp veg oil.
The ingredient list is rather straight forward, if you have a decently stocked spice shelf. One thing you may not have, however, is ghee which is a clarified butter. It is a wonderfully aromatic fat made by melting butter and removing the milk solids and letting the remaining fat cook slowly for a fairly long time to get a slightly nutty taste. Cool thing: it doesn’t need refrigeration although it has a fairly decent shelf life. And it’s actually pretty simple to make at home if you don’t find it in the local grocer’s. Many grocery stores in America now have a pretty respectable International Foods section so look there for a small jar. A perfectly acceptable substitute in this recipe, if you prefer or want to stay vegan, is your favourite vegetable oil.
Let’s have a look at what goes into these tasty pockets…
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