Paratha (Hindi: पराठा) is an Indian flat-bread that originated in the Indian subcontinent, specifically in the Punjab. Paratha is an amalgamation of the words parat (Hindi: परत) and atta (Hindi: आटा) which literally means layers of cooked flour. It is one of the most popular unleavened flat-breads in Indian cuisine, Pakistani cuisine and Bengali cuisine and is made by pan frying whole-wheat flour on a tava.(griddle)
The paratha dough usually contains ghee or cooking oil it is also shallow fried on griddle with brushing ghee /oil on rolled bread.
Paratha can be plain or stuffed with vegetables.
Mooli paratha or stuffed Radish bread is a popular Punjabi cuisine especially in winter.
Served as a breakfast, served with plain yogurt or Raita.
Ingredients For Dough:
* 2 1/2cups Chapati/ Duram Wheat Flour (available at local Indian Grocer)
* 1/4 cup vegetable shortening/oil or Ghee
* 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
* 1/4 cup plain yogurt
* 1.5 cup Water to kneed the dough
* 1/2 cup of Ghee or oil for frying
*~ 2 cups of Wheat flour + rice flour mixed together for dusting and to roll out dough
• Mix flour, oil and salt well unit it resembles like crumbs.
• Add water little bit at a time and knead to make dough.
• Add yogurt.
• Knead the dough for about 5 min with hands.
• Brush some oil on the ball of dough and let it sit for 30 min at room temp, you may cover it with damp cloth or saran wrap to avoid drying.
• Divide dough into 10 parts (about a golf size ball)
• Roll each part into a a round ball.
* 1 one foot long Daikon radish
* 1 bunch of cilantro leaves
* 2 finely chopped green onions (with greens part included)
* 1- 2 Serrano peppers (or to taste)
* 1" piece of ginger
* 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt
* 1/2 teaspoon Ground black pepper to taste
* 2 teaspoon of Mango powder
* 1 teaspoon of ground cumin powder
* 1/2 teaspoon or Cayenne pepper or to taste
Method to make the filling:
* Peel the diakon radish with peeler.
* Cut in to workable 4"-6" pieces to insert in food processor grater.
* Grate the diakon in food processor.
* You will see the radish will become watery in salt.
* Squeeze all the water out of radish with palms of you hand and set aside.
* Discard the salt water.
*Fold in the shredded Daikon radish.
*Add all the spices
*Mix well until everything in nicely incorporated.
*Make golf ball or ping pong size of balls and set aside. 
* Divide the dough in same size balls as that of filling.
* Take some flour and rice flour (one cup each) and mix well this is to flour the surface and the balls so they can be rolled easily.
* Roll each ball in to 5" circle and place the filling in the center.
* Fold the rolled circle on to filling, seal it and roll the stuffed ball in flour again.
* Roll it very gently to desired shape (I keep it simple and just roll them in round shape) and size. (Be careful while rolling so the filling does not come out)
• Heat the griddle (Tawa) on medium heat.
• When the griddle is hot, place the rolled out Paratha on it.
• Cook the Paratha on the griddle for about 30-40 seconds on medium low heat, when you see the top surface bubbling, flip it over.
• The flipped up side should have a few brown spots.
• Brush the cooked surface with 1 teaspoon of vegetable shortening or ghee.
• Turn it over; cook it another 45 seconds until light brown.
• Spread 1 teaspoon of Ghee or vegetable shortening on other side.
• Turn it over; cook the other side for another 30-40 seconds.
• Press the spatula on Paratha while cooking it, the Paratha might blow up, if you see the air escaping press spatula to trap the air for Paratha to blow up.
• When both sides are cooked to desired crispiness, place the paratha on paper towel to soak extra ghee or oil then then stack them in insulated container to keep warm and layered with paper towels.
*Keep repeating the process...roll one while cooking one on griddle and so and and so forth, until all the dough and fillings is gone.
You will get in to rhythm of this.
Hints:
* Serve hot with desired vegetable side dish, plain yogurt , Raita, Chutney and or Pickle.
* You can adjust amount of spices according to your taste.
* You may use 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric in filling along with other spices to give the paratha yellow color.
Description of Paratha Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratha
/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License
Recipe by Surekha
Photographs by Surekha.
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