My parathoids

Parathas are a flaky Indian bread. Often they're stuffed with potatoes or onions or other things (you may have encountered them in this form in Indian restaurants). These are unstuffed, and also not quite really parathas because they're made with olive oil rather than ghee. The proportions and technique are partially from Indian Home Cooking and partially from my observations of my friend A.'s mother Tara.

The flour we use for almost everything is half King Arthur all-purpose flour (which has more protein than most all-purpose flours) and half King Arthur "white wheat" flour, a mild-tasting whole wheat. The large flour jar on our counter is just always filled with a 50/50 blend of these, so I scoop out 1 1/2 cups of that. In this case, the mixture is quite authentic. If you have to pick one or the other -- white vs. whole wheat -- I'd choose whole wheat. You're going for both flakiness and heartiness, and the gluten in pure white flour makes that tricky to achieve.

The dough is 1 1/2 cups flour, half whole wheat and half white, plus a teaspoon of salt. Add warm water little by little with one hand as you mix it in with the other, until it comes together as a slightly damp dough. That will probably be about 3/4 cup of water, though it depends on the weather and how old your flour is and other things.

Knead it and let it rest, covered with a damp towel for at least half an hour.

Divide into nine equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, and set them under the damp towel to rest again for at least 15 minutes. 

Set out a bowl of flour for dusting, a small bowl of olive oil with a soup spoon, and a small knife.

For each piece, use your thumbs to flatten it into a disk, then roll out to about a 5" round.

Use the back of the spoon to coat the disk lightly with oil, then dust with flour.

Make a cut with the knife from the center out to the edge, then roll it up into a cone.

Pinch the top and then flatten into a ball.

Do this for each piece, putting them back under the cloth as you go. Once you've rolled out and rolled up each one, then start at the beginning and roll each one out into a 5" round. Stack them on a small plate and cover with a dry towel or, better yet, put the whole thing into a plastic bag or under plastic wrap.

Clean up and set out a bowl or plate where you can put the parathas (or parathoids, since they're inauthentic) when they're cooked, so you can keep them covered with a clean dry cloth. Have butter nearby.

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat. Put your bowl of oil + spoon nearby. The cooking process goes like this:

Put a piece of dough on the griddle and let it cook until little bubbles appear, about 30 seconds to a minute. Then flip it.

Use the back of your spoon to coat the disk very lightly with oil, making circular movements all the time as you go.

Flip the dough again.

Do the same for the other side and then keep on moving the spoon, spiraling in and out, as the dough puffs up.

Cook about 1 minute to 90 seconds. Flip the bread and cook the other side the same way, moving the spoon over the surface all the time.

When both sides are cooked (crisp on the outside, no damp looking bits, and well spotted with golden brown), transfer to your covered container. Put a little dab of butter on top. Repeat and stack up all nine parathas in the same way.

Comments

[ginger]

a question, really, and not about parathas. I had a spectacular failure trying to make chocolate sables last night, and then found your page when googling the subject this morning. I was inspired to try again, but am troubled by not knowing what these should look like. My impression was crumbly shortbread, but I'm getting something between a standard cookie and a lace-type wafer. I've been very careful with ingredients: dutch-process cocoa, fleur de sel, etc. Last night no egg, today the egg yolk you suggested. Can you help?

[Misa]

They look tasty! If you were to fill them, would you do it right before the pinching and flattening?

[redfox]

Shortbread is definitely how I would describe the texture of the sables I've made and seen. Your results sound like the result of too high a butter-to-solids ratio, but that seems strange to me. Does anyone else know what the story might be?

Are you in the US? Maybe there's some kind of conflict going on with standard measurements. I know US and UK teaspoons and tablespoons aren't quite the same, for example.

[redfox]

As for the filled parathas, I haven't made them myself yet, but I think the usual way is to skip the step of oiling and rolling, and replace that with putting the filling in the center and pulling the dough up around it. Then you roll that out as flat as you can (gently!) and cook it on a griddle in the same way, with the oil on the back of the spoon and so on.

[ginger]

back to the sables: I am in the US! I used Organic Valley unsalted butter, Droste cocoa, Pillsbury bleached flour, Scharffen Burger chocolate... I am just confounded. The first time I doubled the recipe. I used a silpat on a big rolled steel baking sheet, and ended of with a lake of bubbling caramelized cookie. I assumed either the recipe was wrong or I had made some kind of mathmatical mistake, but when I saw your piece I decided to try again, and just to make sure I used a commercial aluminum baking sheet with parchment paper. I did use two egg yolks because both went in when I tried to pour one from a bowl... this time the result was like a standard chocolate chip cookie, round and flat and lumpy ( and good, but...) And other ideas?

[teep]

The parathoids look like a lot of fun -- I'll have to try them instead of vaguely-correct chapatis next time I do flatbread for indian food.

I wouldn't worry overly about authentic. A lot of the stuff I make is only close-enough because offical authentic is more complicated or impossible under the circumstances.

[redfox]

Re: sables. I am confounded also! (Though 2 egg yolks does genuinely seem like it could throw things off.) How long did you refrigerate the dough?

A small follow-up: here is a permanent link to a full version of the chocolate sable recipe, as written by Dorie Greenspan.