Plain Paratha
Servings: 4
Equipment
- large bowl
- chopping board or rolling mat
- Rolling Pin
- hot plate or a flat pan
- flipper or spatula
Ingredients
- 1 cup wheat flour
- wheat flour for dusting
- water almost 3/4 cup, add a little at a time
- oil
- salt
Instructions
Preparation
- Place the flour in a large bowl and add water a little at a time.
- Mix them in the bowl until you form a dough. Keep adding water until you have a nice soft dough ball. If you put in too much water just add more flour.
- Dust the dough ball with flour (so that it isn't sticky) and let it sit in the bowl for at least 10 to 15 minutes. I like to prepare the dough several hours before like after breakfast for lunch.
- Cut the dough ball into 4 equal parts. If you want smaller parathas you can divide them into more parts.
- Take 1 part and dust it and roll into a ball ... flatten into a disk on the chopping board with your palm and dust again.
- Take the rolling pin and flatten the disk into a bigger, even circle (around 4 inches in diameter) and sprinkle with salt.
- Roll the disk into a log (with the salted side inside) and then bring the ends of the log together to form a donut shape. This technique, I've found, is the best as it is what you want to do when you make flavored paratha by putting in filling like cheese, pesto, veggies, etc.
- Dust the donut shape and (with your fingers) "massage" the donut shape until the edges and the center blend into a disk.
- Dust the disk and take your rolling pin again and roll out the disk into an even circle. Don't be afraid to dust again if the disk starts to stick to the rolling pin. Be careful not to roll it too thin or the paratha will come out tough and not very edible.
Cooking
- Place your hot plate or flat pan on the stove and heat it up until it is smoky. Drizzle with oil. If you are using a non-stick pan, no need to drizzle and the pan just needs to be hot enough, not necessarily smoking.
- Place the rolled out dough in the hot plate/pan and drizzle some oil.
- It will start to inflate and bubble out. Give it a few seconds and then take your flipper/spatula and turn it. Give that side about 20 seconds then flip it again. you want each side to be a little brown. With the air bubbles, it will make the surface uneven so the bubble pockets should be darker than the rest. This causes the "spotting".
- Your paratha is done! You can transfer it to a plate. One serving is 2 pieces.
Notes
You can either make the paratha disks ahead of time and just make sure they are well dusted so that they don't stick to each other or you could make each one in between cooking.
It is THAT easy to make!
You can eat this with just butter or with curry or, really, with anything! Yesterday I ate it with longganiza hamonado. :D