PLAIN PARATHA

Ingredients

1. Atta Whole-grain wheat flour (1 Pound): 3½ Cups

2. Salt: 1 teaspoon

3. Ghee: 2 Tablespoon

Substitute: Vegetable shortening

4. Water: 1¼ Cup

Melted Ghee for brushing layers, and frying

Atta for dusting to roll out dough

Method

Step 1 Making Dough

1. Sift Atta and Salt

2. Cut-in Ghee. Mix well till it all resembles like crumbles.

3. Add water little bit at a time and knead to make dough.

4. Gather dough into a ball. Cover it with damp kitchen towel or a plastic film wrap. Let it rest about one hour at room temperature.

6. Divide dough into 8 parts. Roll each part into a ball. Each dough ball will make one Paratha.

Step 2 Rolling Paratha

Roll out dough ball into a 6" round disc about the thickness of two Nickels (5ç coins).

• If you want to make layered triangular paratha :

We will assume that you have one ball of dough to roll out one triangular Paratha.

1. Roll dough ball to a circular disc about 6" diameter about the thickness of two to three Nickels (5Ç pieces) as shown in Figure 1.

2. Lightly brush one half of the dough disc with Ghee as shown in yellow color in Figure 2.

3. Fold the dough disc without Ghee over the part with Ghee. Lightly press it with hand to let air out if any. Now the shape resembles half moon as shown in Figure 3.

4. Lightly brush one half of the moon with Ghee as shown in yellow color in Figure 4.

5. Fold the dough moon without Ghee over the part with Ghee. Lightly press it with hand to let air out if any. Now the shape resembles a triangle as shown in Figure 5.

6. Reposition the triangular patty in the center of rolling surface as shown in Figure 6.

7. Roll out horizontally and vertically till the thickness is reduced to about the thickness of two to three Nickels (5Ç pieces).

• If you want to make layered square paratha :

1. Roll dough ball to a circular disc about 6" diameter as shown in Figure 1A.

2. Lightly brush the dough disc with Ghee as shown in blue color in Figure 2A.

3. Fold the dough disc towards the center. Lightly press it with hand to let air out if any as shown in Figure 3A.

4. Pick the opposite side and fold over towards the middle to meet the previous flap as shown in in Figure 4A.

5. Apply Ghee to newly folded flaps. The surfaces with Ghee are shown in blue. See Figure 5A.

6. Fold the dough from one of the long sides to the middle as shown in Figure 6A.

7. Fold the the dough over from the opposite side towards the middle as shown in Figure 7A.

Now, you have a square shape.

8 Roll out horizontally and vertically till the thickness is reduced to about the thickness of two to three Nickels (5Ç pieces). The size should be near 6"x6"

• If you want to make layered spiral paratha :

1. Roll dough out to form a 6" diameter disc about the thickness of two Nickels (5Ç coins). Figure 1B

2. Brush the surface with melted Ghee shown in pink Figure 2B

3. Cut the disc in half. Figure 3B. We will fold each half separately.

4. Fold about 1" wide strip over as shown in Figure 4B. Folded strip is shown in yellow. Press the strip by hand.

5. Fold the folded strip over as shown in Figure 5B. Folded strip is shown in yellow. Press the strip by hand.

6. Fold the folded strip over as shown in Figure 6B. Folded strip is shown in yellow. Press the strip by hand.

7. Brush the strip with Ghee as shown in Figure 7B. Brushed part is shown in pink.

8. Fold the strip over in half as shown in Figure 8B.

7. Brush the strip with Ghee as shown in Figure 9B. Brushed part is shown in pink.

8. Fold the strip over in half as shown in Figure 10B. Now you have a square patty little over 1" x 1.5". Set aside the square patty.

9. Lift the second half. Repeat steps 4 through 8 to form another square patty.

10. Brush one of the patties with ghee and put it with the other patty. Now, you have made a layered square patty of the whole dough ball as shown in 11B.

12. Now you have two choices

Choice 1: Roll the patty out horizontally and vertically to 6" in each direction and you have a square layered Paratha(Figure 12B)

Choice 2: Form the patty to round and roll out to 6" diameter Paratha as shown in Figure 13B.

Step 3 Frying Paratha

Heat the griddle (Tawa). Put a test bread about the thickness of a Dime (10¢ coin) on the Tawa. If the bread sticks to griddle, you need to increase heat. If the bread gets brown spots too quick, it is too hot. It should develop brown spots on the underside in about 30 seconds. Now the Tawa is ready. The Paratha is cooked in four steps

1. Cook the rolled out Paratha over griddle for about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Lift the corner of the Pratha with Turner. The underside should have a few brown spots.

2. Turn it over and cook another 45 seconds to 1 minute. Baste the top (cooked surface) with Ghee.

3. Turn it over, cook the basted surface another 45 seconds to 1 minute. Baste the top (cooked surface) with Ghee.

4. Turn it over, cook the newly basted surface another 45 seconds to 1 minute.