Onion-Stuffed Flatbread or Parathas

There’s been too much going around lately. Excuse my long hiatus from the Bay Leaf kitchen.

Well, that was not the kitchen from where I took leave. The saying goes in Indian households that a woman can never bid the kitchen goodbye.

Things are changing though.

Women are becoming more empowered; but I have some problem with that word or idea if that means you hand over your ‘typically’ ‘female’ tasks to someone else – another woman or a man (or to some thing robotic?) and go out in the outside world establishing your identity. Another one – when did we lose our identity? I respect women empowerment, definitely. Don’t get me wrong. But this is not the definition I can vouch for. And of course – women empowerment for whom? That poor lady is perhaps nicely forgotten in this ‘social’ people’s definition.

Things are getting hotter I guess. This is not what I intend to share now. No. Not at the least. I just wanted to say that I tremendously respect those women out there who balances a family life, caring for a sick child, supporting a husband working terribly hard to reach a much sought-after goal, juggling more than one job/project during the five days of the week, cooking dinners and baking delicious goodies, and then keeping awake in front of the tiny top to jot down those accounts and edit and arrange those pictures. I do. Tremendously.

What does one do when the going gets tough and the struggle gets slippery? Think of home? Think of beautiful things? Think of positive energy? Think of delicious home cooked food? Yeah… that one.. that’s exactly where I catch that wavelength. Delicious food from home. Now. I am here. I am where I want to be.

The onion paratha or one of those typically Indian onion-stuffed flatbread is perhaps the simplest, tastiest, and the utmost comfort food you can get anywhere 15 air/flight hours away from home – if you have access to some onion and flour and an oven, any kind.

Back home, there were two spots that I terribly miss when it comes to these. The tiny little coffee shop in the center of Kolkata, my home town, which also served parathas along with pickles and a delicious yoghurt dip and those shabby, open air stalls that lined the road just opposite my workplace in Delhi. Here in Trondheim, I have to make my onion parathas myself. And although they do not appropriately match my indigenous memories, they are not a compromise either.

Here’s how you can duplicate them in your kitchen without much fuss, for a straightforward breakfast, no fuss dinner, or a left-over, away from home lunch.

Onion-Stuffed Indian Flatbread or Parathas

What do you need?

~ Whole wheat flour: 2 cups plus additional for kneading and rolling
~ Onion: 2 small or 1 large, finely chopped, comes just shy of 1 ½ cups
~ Spring onion – 2 sprigs, finely chopped
~ Cilantro – 1 sprig, finely chopped
~ Whole Coriander - ¼ teaspoon (optional)
~ Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon
~ Salt – ½ teaspoon
~ Water – ½ cup
~ Vegetable Oil (not olive oil) – 4 teaspoons

What should you do?

1. Dry roast the cumin and coriander, if using, in the microwave for 2 minutes at Medium or by stirring them on a griddle over medium to high heat for a few minutes until the aroma starts filtering. Grind them using a mortar or pestle or a coffee grinder.

2. In a large enough mixing bowl, place all the dry ingredients and blend with a spoon. Add two teaspoons of the oil and blend thoroughly. Use your hands to knead the mixture, squeezing in the onion to mingle with the rest, as you knead. The onion juice will make the mix moist already.

3. Add water a tablespoon at a time and keep kneading until the dough comes together. It will be soft but not really tacky. If it’s sticky, add some more flour and knead. Cover and let the dough sit for 10 minutes.

4. Knead some more. I like to feel the dough at this stage and knead just for the fun of it. It’s soft, coarse with the onion and spices, may be a tad sticky too. Add some flour to make it workable, then divide dough into 6 rounds (I made 7 a little smaller in size), the size of a large lemon.
  

5. Lightly flour your counter and use your rolling pin to stretch each rounds into flat breads. This can be a little tricky and needs some practice. Start with punching each ball down at the center, then with short slow slides of the rolling pin stretch the dough on all sides to make a somewhat round shape, approximately ¼ inch thick. Keep your counter and pin floured or it can get sticky. If it does, it will only make the subsequent tasks more difficult. Messy business. But worth it.

6. Another pick on your enthusiasm can be the coming off or loosening off of disobedient onion pieces – ignore them or press them back into the flattened dough. Use a pastry brush to brush off the excess flour.

7. Heat up a frying pan – a cast iron works really well but a non-stick one is a nice start towards a happy experience. Gently and carefully place the flat bread on it and lower heat to moderate. Wait 2 minutes and then with a soft cloth, lightly press the sides and rotate to go one circle. Flip to roast the other side. Follow the same rhythm. Wait a minute now, use a soft cloth padding to rotate the bread till it gets light brown scalds. Flip. Take care not to burn yourself.

8. Now is my (and my MIL’s) time tested method to reduce fat consumption. Normally the breads are pan fried using a generous amount of ghee. But we see that keeping the breads aside till we finish roasting the whole stack of breads and then brushing them with a little oil and roasting some more makes them soft, healthy, and very very tasty. So, store the roasted breads in a separate plate till we are done with the remaining 5 balls.

9. When you finish roasting the last bread, let it stay on the pan, use a pastry brush to lightly coat it with a little oil (you can also use ghee or butter for better flavor and taste), and place another bread from your roasted stack on top of it. Brush oil or butter on the top of the second bread. Flip both together so that the second bread now lies face down. Place another bread on the pan-stack and brush oil on it. Place the fourth one on top of it, brush again, and flip to make this face down. Repeat for the next two.

10. Randomly flip a few of the parathas now – just to warm them all up equally and brown them enough. You can brush more oil or butter on them if you will. Not a necessity though. They are ready to be served.

Serving tips

Serve these with Indian pickles, tomato chutney, a dollop of sour cream, or plain yoghurt. You can also pep up the yoghurt or sour cream dip with a minced clove of garlic and chopped cilantro. Yummy.

These long instructions might seem intimating but once one gets a hang of it, one realizes it’s not that difficult; especially when one poses this against the outcome for a comparison. Trust me, it's worth all that effort. All of this placing, rotating and flipping actually takes around 3 minutes per bread. Yes, time consuming, like several other Indian goodies, but not for nothing. 

Note to myself ~ Next time, I make these onion parathas at Bay Leaf's kitchen, I must compliment these instructions with a video. Till then, let me know your experiences of Indian flatbreads.