A Simple Paratha Recipe – Sybaritica

This Simple Paratha Recipe uses only four ingredients, including water, and the technique it uses makes for terrific, flaky-textured Indian flatbreads.

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or Atta flour;
• 1 ½ tbsp. Butter or Ghee;
• ¾ tsp. Salt;
• ¾ cups of Water approximately;
• Extra flour for rolling.
• Extra vegetable oil or ghee for rolling and cooking;

• Blend the salt and butter (or ghee) into the flour, by hand or in a food processor, until it forms a ‘mealy’ texture.
• Add enough of the water, a little at a time, to form a smooth dough.
• Knead the dough well for several minutes, form it into a ball, and let it rest, covered, for about 30 minutes.
• When ready, divide the dough in to 4, 6 or 8 equal portions (depending on the desired size of each) and roll each into a ball, keeping these covered with a damp cloth until needed.
• Roll each ball out until it is a circle with about 1/8 of an inch thickness, dusting the board with flour as necessary.
• Brush the surface of the circle VERY lightly with oi or ghee, then fold the circle over on itself to form a half-moon. Brush the surface of this with oil as before, then fold the dough in half again to form a wedge-shaped quarter circle.
• Roll out each wedge until it is 1/8 inches thick and repeat the same series of operations with the remaining dough.
• To cook, heat a griddle or Tawa over a moderate flame, brush each Paratha with oil on both surfaces, and then cook on both sides until nice dark spots form, pressing with a spatula down if the dough ‘balloons’ excessively.
• Keep the cooked parathas covered and either serve warm right away, or wrap and reheat for service later.