I love Aloo Paratha.
Aloo Paratha, it’s not actually very descriptive is it, just two words? But you know what I mean, those spicy, potatoey flat-bread things that (and this is the important bit) you can make loads of, freeze, then whack one in the microwave and eat with mixed pickle and plain yoghurt when you can’t be bothered to cook properly. Yes, like everything, they’re better fresh, but they get away with the microwave treatment quite well. The stock in my freezer is, however, running low (there are 2) and so today I tried to actually make them myself. I have a recipe and as I like to think of myself as a veritable god in the kitchen, well most of the rooms of my house actually (and I can cook too), how hard can it be?
I have the recipe from the lady who made the Paratha in my freezer, had all the ingredients and was busy peeling the potatoes when I noticed, halfway through the instructions, that although everything was still in western characters, 3 of the sentences were obviously written in Hindi. It’s a similar concept to this blog which (for some unknown reason) links to me and switches betwen English and emotion at will. Now I have a list of ingredients:
Stuffing:
8oz/225g potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp amchoor
2 fresh green chillies, finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated
2-3 tbsp freshly chopped coriander
Dough:
7oz / 200g chapati flour
1/3 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp ghee
The plan being to scale this up if it worked. Now I did all the make two sets of balls, rolled out the dough, put the stuffing inside it, then roll the whole thing out flat and cook nonsense and they tasted okay, different from the ones in the freezer, but okay. Well, actually they were a bit weird and I couldn’t help but wonder if those 3 sentences might have contained some information that was utterly vital. Now I reckon it would be easier to get a new recipe than to learn Hindi (yes, call me a lazy swine if you must - you wouldn’t be the first), therefore if you have a tried and trusted family recipe for Aloo Paratha, please send it to me. In English.
German Phrase For Today: “getrocknete Mango Pulver” - Amchoor. Not always available at your local Aldi…
Song playing as this was published: The Beatles “Come Together”
If you were to scan the recipe, we might try to help
You are just too cute, darling.
Well, obviously not that cute, or I wouldn’t be in a position where I didn’t want to ask the person who wrote the recipe what it meant / to cook me some more……. I’ll gladly accept compliments though, darling….
Sivani From what I’ve been told it has absolutely nothing to do with food and looks like someone took down a telephone message halfway through writing out the recipe…..
Oh good lord. Send me your mailing address and I”ll just FedEx a bunch of them to you. Qeema parathas are just as good though (if you’re feeling carnivorous). My cook’s out of town or I’d give you the recipe here and now. I think that what you’re missing however (and this is a guess) are ground cumin (zeera), and a bit of crushed red chili peppers (kutti laal mirch). If you describe exactly HOW they taste different, I could probably fine-tune my guesses somewhat.
Of course the problem with desi cooking is that everything’s done on a sliding scale of “a pinch” or “a little bit”, or “as much as you can get on your little fingernail”, which is so completely relative that it drives me mad.
i want to make a film on the gora in germany who tried to make desi food!!
i’m slightly shamed by the fact that you made parathaas, while i can’t even manage plain rotees (or naan/chapati).
i think i’m going to go bug my mommy to make me some aalo parathas right now and get the recipe for you, while i’m at it.
I emailed you a recipe weeks ago - was it no good, or not what you were after? Oh dear
Good luck in your search for the right stuff!
Sin: That’s a kind offer, the last time I had food mailed to me (from England) it burst in the pack and the delivery guy wasn’t impressed at all
And I think all cookery is like that - mine certainly is - it’s all a pinch of this, dash of that, have a taste, add more jeera (or whatever) as required. I suspect that if I got the same person to cook me paratha again, they’d taste a bit different, it was just that they were all from such a huge, identical batch……
Stairs: I’m sorry, I have absolutely no record of the e-mail. And as for “searching for the right stuff”, I have been for years, believe me…..
sarah: I don’t think anyone will be too shocked by your” English guy cooks food” film. They might have at laugh at watching him try to buy the ingredients in Germany though, or explaining to the guy at customs exactly what this bag of brown spice with urdu and gujarati script on it, that he bought in London is…..
And get your mommy to make some? That is what’s wrong with you young desi girls today
(okay, in the case of one particular desi girl, I can think of several things, but we’re not going there) - can’t cook properly. Do you think “that” desi girl made the parathas, or her mother…….?
[…] popular and visited page on this blog is the one about making (or not, as the case may be) Aloo Paratha, with a dodgy recipe. It gets a minimum of ten to twenty hits a day from search en […]
just to let you in to a little secret,Sarah, us ‘gora’ and indeed ‘gori’ can actually knock up pretty impresive desi cuisine,i am a ‘gori’ married to a punjabi man and have been told numerous times my cookings no different to theirs and their mothers.It’s all about the teacher!!! p.s i can teach you how to make great roti too!!
Good to Hear that Gori’s can make Desi food, can you make Kemaa Paratha…???