Chapati has been one of the famous and common flatbread made by almost everyone in India. In fact this is made for dinner, sometimes even for breakfast at many houses. In my hometown, rice and rice flat breads or rotis have been the staple food and the people there literally cannot think of a day without eating rice. Mostly they have rice during lunch and they take a break from rice by making chapati for dinner. Even at my parents house chapatis are made often for dinner.

I always preferred wheat chapatis over rice rotis, and it made an excellent accompaniment for almost all kinds of curries. I still remember how I used to help my mom making chapatis, it wasn’t an easy task for me back then. I always faced trouble making soft doughs, rolling the dough to round shape and also while cooking it. Making the perfect soft and puffy chapatis need some practice and experience. After a few trials you can perfect the art of making chapati.

There are three major steps in chapati preparation: making the soft dough, rolling the dough to round shape and then cooking it on a skillet or tawa. I’ve found that using hot water to make the dough makes the dough soft, the dough should be kneaded well. Then comes the rolling of dough into round shape, at first it would be hard to attain the round shape, after a while you’ll be amazed to see you are almost there making round shapes. While cooking chapati, you need to take care not to over cook it as it would turn hard.

Alright, keep these in mind and get ready to make chapati.

Chapati

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour or Atta- 2 cups
• Water- 1 cup
• Salt- 1/4 tsp
• Oil- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, boil the water.
• When it comes to a rolling boil, add salt and add the flour.
• Combine using a wooden spoon, remove from the heat and let cool down a bit.
• While the dough is still warm, knead it using your hands for about 5- 7 minutes.
• You could even spread the dough on a clean countertop or a flat platter and knead it.
• The dough should be soft, if the dough is hard sprinkle little warm water and knead it.
• How soft the dough gets also depends on what brand of flour you are using. In some flour there will be a mix of all purpose flour too, this makes the dough turn little hard.
• Knead the dough into a round shape, add oil on the top spread it over and keep aside for 5 minutes.
• Make medium sized balls out of the dough.
• Place the dough ball on the wooden board or clean counter top.
• Sprinkle little wheat flour on it and using a rolling pin roll it to round shape.
• Keep rotating the dough while rolling to get the round shape and sprinkle the flour to avoid sticking to the surface.
• Always roll only the one side of the dough, don’t turn the dough to the other side and roll that side too.
• Heat a skillet or tawa or non stick pan over medium heat, let it turn hot.
• Place the rolled dough on the pan.
• In just 10 seconds (you don’t need to cook the bottom side at this point it should just get hot) flip the dough to the other side.
• Using a flat spatula, gently press on the sides of the dough, it will slightly puff up.
• Now, turn to the other side and most of the times it will puff up by itself, else gently press the sides using a spatula.
• Once it’s puffed up, remove from the pan.
• If you want you could spread little ghee or butter on the hot cooked chapatis.
• Make sure not to over cook the dough as it will turn hard and crispy.

Paratha or flat bread stuffed with browned ground beef with a hint of saffron, which made it aromatic…

If you are planning to make this, make as many as you can, because you can’t stop with just two or three and the leftovers taste even more delicious.

I am a slacker when it comes to making homemade parathas, I always rush to the nearby Indian stores if I get the craving for parathas. Only two things I have to do with store bought parathas are cut open the bag and microwave or heat it on a tawa. And I don’t have to go through the long process or should I call the longest process of making the parathas from scratch. First major step is making the dough, which also includes messing up my counter top with wheat flour and sticky dough. Next part would be rolling the dough, I have to roll and roll till I almost faint. It doesn’t end with this, the final part would be frying the parathas, I have to stand in front of the hot stove until I fry all the parathas, this some times result in burning my hands while trying to hurry up. Finally, when fried parathas are ready stacked up on the platter, I will be mostly seen with my hair standing up and dusted all over with wheat flour. A huge phew!

However, last weekend I had an emergency paratha craving. First thought I had was, get the store bought ones. Second thought was, too lazy to dress up and drive to the store. Third thought was, to kill the craving. Fourth thought was, make homemade paratha from scratch. Guess what? I went with the fourth thought; yay, yay. Once I started making the dough, I got in to the paratha groove. I stuffed the parathas with browned ground beef and added saffron to make it even more aromatic. Store bought parathas might taste good, but homemade parathas are the best and healthy. Obviously, there was a huge mess in my kitchen after the successful paratha making. And guess who volunteered to clean it up? My hubby dear, of course after devouring the parathas

Ground beef saffron stuffed and folded Parathas

Ingredients:

For making the dough:

• Wheat flour or Atta- 3 cups
• Warm water- 1 1/2 cups
• Salt- two pinches
• Vegetable oil- 2 tsp

Preparation

Step 1: Making the dough

• In a large bowl add warm water, salt  and add wheat flour slowly and mixing it with the end of a wooden spoon.

• Combine everything well and transfer the dough on a flat platter or wooden cutting board.
• Using your hands, knead the dough thoroughly for about 5 minutes until soft and smooth.
• Knead the dough into a round shape and pour oil on top, combine it one more time.

• Keep aside for 10 minutes.
• To prevent the dough from drying out, cover the dough with wet paper towel or clean wet kitchen towel.

Step 2: Making the ground beef saffron stuffing:

Ingredients:

• Ground beef- 8 oz
• Onion, minced- 1 medium
• Cumin seeds- 1tsp
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Saffron, soaked in water- a pinch
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- 2 tsp

Preparation:

• Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil, add cumin seeds and saute till it gets aromatic.
• Add minced onion along with salt to the oil and saute till tender.

• Add ground beef to the onions and break the beef without lumps using a wooden spoon.

• Let the beef cook well and turn brown.
• When the ground beef starts to brown, add chilly powder, fennel powder, coriander powder, garam masala and saute for few minutes.

• Finally add saffron soaked in water to the browned beef and mix well.
• Add cilantro, remove from the flame and let cool down.

Step 3: Rolling the parathas and stuffing it

Ingredients:

• Kneaded wheat dough
• Wheat flour for dusting the dough
• Browned ground beef saffron for stuffing the parathas

Method:

• Make large balls out of the kneaded wheat dough and keep aside.
• Place the ball on the rolling mat or a board dusted with wheat flour.

• Roll the dough into a round shape using the rolling pin.

• Place 1 tbsp of beef stuffing on to the middle of the round dough.

• Fold  the two ends of the dough with the stuffing on the middle and press the dough to stick it.
• Now, fold the other two ends and press the dough on the top to seal it.

• Flour the stuffed, wrapped dough and roll it into a square shape, roll it up and down first and then sidewise.

• Repeat this and roll the rest of the dough and stuff it.

Step 4: Frying the Beef stuffed parathas:

Ingredients:

• Ghee- enough for spreading the parathas while frying it

Method:

• Heat a tawa or non-stick skillet over medium heat, spread the pan with little ghee and place a paratha on it and let it turn golden.

• Flip it to the other side, spread little ghee and using a spatula press the paratha, it would puff up slightly.
• Fry on both sides until it turns golden brown, adding ghee according to your needs.

Parathas without the stuffing.

• Follow the same method for making the dough.
• After rolling the dough ball into a round shape, fold the two sides of the round dough.

• Now, fold the ends as well and press on top to seal it.

• Dust the folded dough with wheat flour and roll into a square shape, roll side wise first and then up and down to make the square shape.

• Fry it on the tawa by spreading ghee on it.

Serving:

• Serve the beef stuffed and folded parathas with Raita or your choice of sides.
• Plain parathas can be served with chicken curry, lamb curry or vegetable korma.

Tips:

• For healthy parathas, avoid using ghee or use very little.
• You could even make this without folding it, just roll the dough into a round shape and fry this, this will give you Chapatis.
• Leftovers can be refrigerated. Heat it in the microwave or on stove top before having it.
• Rolled dough without the stuffing can be stored in the refrigerator for a week. While storing this in an air tight container, dust wheat flour in between each rolled dough, this will prevent the dough from sticking together.