Mattar Paratha

[SuzySushi]

Tonight we tried frozen Peas Paratha, made by Pillsbury, India. We thought it was very tasty and I'd like to know how to make it from scratch. I can probably figure out the dough from other paratha recipes on eGullet, but would like to know how to make the nicely seasoned filling.

Ingredients are:

flour, peas, water, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, coriander, salt, glycerol [dough conditioner ???] onion, modified tapioca starch, cumin, green chillies, mango [amchur powder???], turmeric, chilli powder.

TIA!

[Episure]

SuzySushi,

Boil till soft 250 grams peas, drain and saute for a few minutes with

2 tbsp oil/butter,

2 tbsp finely chopped onion,

1 tbsp cumin powder,

1 tbsp coriander powder,

1 tbsp finely chopped green chillies,

1 tsp red chilli powder,

1 tsp amchur powder

and salt to taste.

Mash lightly with a fork and then use this to stuff the parathas. First roll the dough into 5mm thick x 100mm diameter. Drape this in your upturned hand to form a cup and stuff it with the mashed peas. Form into a round ball, seal the edges by crimping them with your fingers and proceed to roll it flat to 5mm thickness. Then cook it on a flat griddle with a little oil/butter/ghee.

Amchoor is dried Mango powder and adds a tang to the paratha, you can substitute it with lemon juice.

You should be able to make 4 parathas from the above quantity.

I'm a very bad recipe writer so feel free to ask for clarifications.

Edited July 30, 2005 by Episure (log)

[SuzySushi]

Wonderful!!! Thank you so much!

(I hope you and your family & friends were nowhere near the horrible monsoon in Mumbai!)

[Episure]

I had a Bombay friend staying with me in Bangalore and he couldnt go back home for 3 days. It was bad for many who were stranded in offices and schools. Restaurants and food stalls were inundated, food supplies are yet to be restored.

[anzu]

A hint from a lazy cook here.

I always make about three times the amount needed of whatever paratha filling I'm going to use, and eat the first two thirds of it simply as a vegetable dish on the first day. On the second day, the remaining one third gets used as the filling.

I'm stating the obvious, but the filling should be as dry as possible. This is one reason why amchur is being used here - it's often used instead of lemon juice or tomatoes when you want a sourish taste without adding liquid. Sprinkling amchur on okra as you fry it is another example.

When I cook parathas - being a sloppy as well as a lazy cook - the filling sometimes pierces the dough as you roll it out. It's less pretty, but this filling that's sticking out where it shouldn't be tends to fry up nicely as you cook the parathas, so it's not something to worry about.

And a note concerning Episure's version. I'd suggest frying the onion first, then adding the spices once the onions are done to your satisfaction, cooking the onion-spice mixture for about 2 minutes together, and then adding the drained peas.

Working with powdered spices, the big risk is that they'll burn and turn bitter, and adding them together with the onions increases the chances of that happening as it takes some time for the onion to be cooked enough.

On the other hand, the powdered spices do need a touch of heat to warm up the oils they contain and to bring out their flavor, and a couple of minutes (depending of course on the heat of your pan!) is usually about right for coriander and cumin.

[SuzySushi]

Great hints, Anzu!

Interesting about the difference between using amchur and lemon juice. I hadn't thought of that as the reason, but it makes it worthwhile buying amchur even if I'm only going to use a little bit.

I'm accustomed to gilding the onions first before adding the spices or garlic... I've experienced how bitter the spices and garlic get otherwise!

[anzu]

If you buy amchur, and end up with an excess of it with few ideas of how else to use it, the following is the most common way it is used in our house:

Put a puddle of amchur on a plate, smash out any lumps that have formed in it, and dip pieces of cut fruit into it before eating greedily. Most commonly, we do this with sweeter fruit, such as banana or guava, as we like the contrast between the sweetness and the tartness.

The only risk is when one tries to get too much amchur onto each piece of fruit (as we do in our greed), and then accidentall inhaling some of the powder, leading to prolonged coughing fits.

Incidentally, amchur has long shelf life. I don't really know how long, but I have kept it up to 2-3 years kept in an airtight jar with no noticible deterioration in quality.

[SuzySushi]

Oh, wow! That makes it sound like li hing mui!

[Pan]

I didn't know the expression "li hing mui," so I did a web search ad found this site.

[SuzySushi]

Hmmnn... never occurred to me that the store has a website! (But why not?)

I was referring to the li hing mui powder. I'm used to it as a coating on candies and dried fruits, but a pineapple festival a few weeks ago, they were sampling cubes of fresh pineapple sprinkled with li hing mui powder (which has a simultaneously sweet, salty, and mouth-puckeringly sour flavor).