Mamta's Kitchen

Millet Paratha (Plain)

Bajra Paratha Sada

Mamta Gupta

IndianMainVegetarian

Bajra/ bajri/millet flour is slightly sweet when fresh. Parathas made from millet are popular dish in villages of India. City dwellers have somehow lost the habit of eating millet. It is served best with Rasedar aloo (potato curry) or Mustard leaves saag or Spinach saag. Makes approximately 8-10

Ingredients

  • 2 cups bajra/bajri atta/flour

  • 1 tbsp. oil

  • 1 1/2 cup boiling water

  • 1-2 tbsp. oil for rolling out parathas or 3-4 tbsp. dry flour on a plate (see two methods of rolling out.

  • 1 clean plastic/food bag, split into two layers of plastic and opened out

  • Oil for pan frying

Instructions

  1. Place millet flour in a heat resistant bowl, add boiling water, mix with a fork and leave until cool enough to handle.

  2. Add 1 tbsp. oil and knead to make a firm dough. Make sure that the consistency of the dough is firm enough to roll out, but not too hard. Hard dough will make hard parathas.

  3. Divide dough into 8-10 portions and roll into balls. You can make one ball at a time, making the next one while previous roti is cooking. Keep the balls covered with a moist cloth.

  4. Heat the griddle/tava/frying pan to medium hot, not burning hot.

  5. Rolling out method 1, using dusting flour:

  6. Make balls without oil, using dusting flour.

  7. Sprinkle some dusting flour on the rolling board. Place the ball in the centre of it.

  8. Roll gently, moving it around a little. Sprinkle some more dusting flour if needed.

  9. Lift off the rolling board using a flat spatula to gently ease it off on to you left palm. Gently ease it onto the griddle/tava.

  10. Rolling out method 2, inside a plastic bag:

  11. Oil the inside of tan opened plastic sandwich bag.

  12. Place one dough ball in the centre of the plastic bag.

  13. Roll it out through the plastic into a 12 cm. circle. It should not be too thin or it will break when you lift it, roughly 3-4 mm. thick.

  14. Peel the top plastic sheet off the rolled paratha gently.

  15. Lift the paratha from the rolling board, along with the bottom plastic layer, onto you right palm.

  16. Gently transfer the paratha onto your left palm. Gently (it breaks easily) peel the 2nd layer of plastic off with the right hand. (It sounds complicated but once you have done it, it is quite easy.

  17. Transfer the paratha on to a pre-heated griddle.

  18. Cooking

  19. After a minute or two, when it changes colour to darker, turn over gently using a wide, flat spatula. Brush oil on this surface. While it is cooking, you can roll out the next paratha.

  20. Turn it over once again and brush the second side with oil . Always use a spatula to turn parathas over because they are quite friable.

  21. When ready, both sides should have a quite a few brown spots on it. Millet parathas take a lot longer than wheat parathas to cook.

  22. Serve immediately, fresh and crisp.

  23. If you need to cook them in advance, cook until the pre-oiling stage and keep wrapped in a towel or in an airtight container. When ready to serve, pan fry with a little oil on both sides and cook until brown blisters cover the parathas.

  24. You can add chopped coriander leaves or/ a handful of methi leaves/or very finely chopped green chillies and onions to the dough, along with a little salt and then shallow fry it to make Bajra parathas.

Notes

  • You can add methi leaves, finely chopped onions, green chillies, mashed potatoes etc. to give different tastes.

  • The photos of rolling out of parathas are shown with a cornmeal dough, hence the yellow colour. The method however, is the same.

If you have any comments or questions about this recipe, please post them to our Discussion Board. To link to this recipe on the forum, you may use the shortcode [recipe:13311]


Content copyright ©2001-2024 Mamta Gupta and F² Limited. (All rights reserved. No copying without permission.)
Layout and design ©2001-2024 F² Limited. (All rights reserved. No copying without permission.)
Hosted on Mythic Beasts
All comments and queries to webmaster@mamtaskitchen.com