Aloo Paratha

To make the potato filling for the aloo parathas, start out by dry roasting the spices. I used cumin and coriander. Mustard seeds also go well with potatoes. The spices can be toasted in an oven set at 325 degrees F or in a pan (preferably a thick cast iron skillet or an Indian tawa) over medium heat. When the spices are toasty and fragrant they are then ground to a powder in a mortal and pestel or in a spice grinder.


Filling:
5 cups potatoes peeled, boiled, and mashed
1/2 cup finely diced onions
1 bunch finely chopped cilantro
1 green chile pepper finely diced
2 cloves garlic finely diced
1 1/2 T coriander seeds
1 1/2 T cumin seeds
2 t tumeric powder
a few teaspoons of salt
1 T ghee
1 T mustard oil

Heat a saute pan with the ghee and mustard oil over medium heat and add the garlic, chile and onions and cook until transluscent and fragrant. Add the ground spices and cook for one more minute. Add to the potatoes. Cool to room temp and mix in the cilantro.

Dough:

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
2 t salt
about 1 1/2 cups water
Knead together all ingredients to form a dough, adding more water or flour as needed. Allow to rest at room temperature covered with a moist towel for 30 minutes. Shape into 20 equal sized balls and form each ball, one at a time into a bowl shape. Fill the bowl with about 1/4 cup of potato filling and stretch the dough over the filling to seal and form a ball. Flatten out the ball gently without tearing the dough, lightly dust with flour, and carefully roll out to about a 5 inch circle.

Cook the filled parathas on a griddle over medium heat on both sides until light golden brown.

Aloo parathas are fun to make, so find a casette of early Kishore Kumar songs on Devon Street in Chicago, Bombay Bazaar in San Francisco, or any Indian casettewalla in your area. I found this great song on a record I picked up at the Chor Bazaar in Mumbai. It's a great song to whistle along to while rolling out aloo parathas.
Tune: Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke by Kishore Kumar written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and SD Burman, from the 1957 film Nau Do Gyarah
Hear more songs from Nau Do Gyarah here.