Waiter, there's something in my ... bread

Tues 24 April 2007

I am a carbohydrate junkie, so while my Easter biscuits just missed the Easter Basket extravaganza, I was determined to hit the bread (dead) line. Andrew, over at Spittoon Extra is hosting (in between wine tasting in Spain and prosecco dinners at L'Ortolan).

Now, because of various hosting commitments, this has been a pretty busy month and I didn't really have time for a baking extravaganza - which was a shame. But I did decide to have a go at making one of my favourite breads: paratha. I judge curry houses by their paratha and as far as I'm concerned, a good dahl and a good paratha makes one of the ultimate comfort meals.

As it was a mid-week cooking session, I consulted Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India. This is a fantastic, practical book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Paratha are sinfully simple to make: 1 cup of wholemeal flour is mixed with 165mL of warm water. When partially combined add 2 teaspoons of oil (ideally, this would be melted ghee, but I only had oil to hand). If you wish, add some finely chopped mint or coriander leaves, maybe a bit of chilli - whatever is to hand. Or, as I did, you can leave the mix plain. Knead the dough for about 8 minutes: until it is nice and elastic. Panjabi recommends leaving the dough to rest for an hour.

Paratha in Indian restaurants are always multi-layered and I was wondering how they achieved this. After dividing the dough in six, Panjabi says to roll out each portion into a 20 cm long oval (I couldn't quite roll out the dough that thinly) and then pinch the oval in the middle to form a figure-eight. You then fold the dough back on itself to make a multilayered pancake. I have to confess I didn't quite master this.

To cook the paratha heat some oil (ghee) in a pan, and cook the paratha on one side. Before turning, brush the uncooked side with melted ghee. They're done in a jiffy and ready to be eaten with a bowl of dahl (in this case, yellow split peas cooked and finished off with turmeric, garam masala and some of the hot oil from the paratha pan). The paratha weren't really like those found in curry houses: they tend to be thicker, a lot larger and I suspect they're made from a mixture of white and wholemeal flour. And while the greasiness of a restaurant paratha is part of its appeal, it's not something that's entirely easy to reproduce at home! But, as a quick, simple adjunct to any curry, making my own paratha is definitely an option I'll be pursuing in future. It will also be a good way to help use up any mint or coriander you have left over!

So actually - waiter - there's nothing in my bread, not even yeast and what are these hippy bean-lentil things doing on the side?!

tagged with: wtsim, waiter there's something in my, baking, bread, paratha

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