Making Paratha for the first time
This is the second episode of me preparing a dish that I didn’t know before, from a country I haven’t been. Last week, the random country selector on random.country assigned Bahrain to me. And I chose to try to make Khabees, a dessert made in Bahrain (and other countries, in a similar form) made with flour, water, saffron, and cardamom: It turned out ok.
This time the randomly chosen country is Bangladesh.
Paratha (Bangladesh)
How it’s supposed to look (source):
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 cups of flour
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 egg
- Water — start with ¾ of a cup
- 1 cup of Ghee
I never had or used Butter Ghee before. I ordered it especially for this recipe. It seems to be a great product to cook. It melts like normal butter, but doesn’t burn.
Instructions
- Pour 3 cups of flour (I used all purpose flour) into a bowl
- Add two teaspoons of salt
- Break one egg over the flour
- Add water
- Mix & knead until dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to your bowl or hands
- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in a covered bowl
- Cut the dough into 4 balls.
- Roll the balls into thin rectangles and spread Ghee on dough (melt it a bit if it’s too hard)
- Sprinkle some flour on top
- There are three ways to fold the dough described in the video. I chose the option where the dough-rectangle is folded & rolled like a cinnabon before rolling it out to a thin circle.
- Put one round dough circle in the pan on medium heat. Put some Ghee on it. Flip the dough each 2–3 minutes and repeat until the dough is golden-brown.
Experience
Flour / Water ratio: I ended up needing much more flour than the recipe said to stop the dough from being sticky.
Get the dough as thin as possible: The thinner the dough is, the more even it cooks in the pan
Result: I’m quite happy with the result. The Paratha ended up being crispy & chewy with a buttery taste. We ended up eating some of it during the day and then some along with dinner (rice, roasted vegetables, olives, aubergine).
