Weekend breakfasts at my mom’s house were always ones worth waking up on time for. My all time favourite was “aloo anday” essentially, potatoes and eggs. I think it was a Quesnel thing; actually, I’m almost 100% sure it is a Quesnel thing. You make hashbrowns, that’s right, no packaged crap here, with onions and garlic, and then when they are forkish tender you crack a bunch of eggs on top, and cook until the whites are no longer runny. Serve up with some Heinz canned beans (yup, this foodie goes wild for that canned goodness), toast and OJ, OH MAMA! I’m drooling now just thinking about it.
With all that being said, this blog post is not for that dish, haha. It’s actually for my second favourite breakfast, aloo paratha; potato filled Indian flatbread. Serve these hot, smeared with butter and with buttermilk, or, scrap the butter (nooooo) and serve up with some mango pickle. Whichever way you choose to eat these, you’ll be sure to love them as much as we do.
Aloo Paratha
Potato Filling
6 potatoes
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tbsp oil (we use coconut oil)
1 tsp Jeera (Cumin seed)
½ green chili, chopped or
½ tsp of red chili (omit all together if you don’t like spice, or add as much as you want)
Salt to taste
2-3 heaping Tbsp Garam Masala
Dough:
2 cups duram atta flour (available at any South Asian grocery store. See photo below)
Water
1 tsp oil
Filling Directions
Boil the potatoes until fork tender, let them cool slightly, peel and set aside
Over medium heat, add oil to a large frying pan, add the jeera and toast slightly (about 30 seconds), add in the onions (and green chili if using) and cook until translucent. Once onions are cooked, add in the red chili, garam masala and salt, cook for another 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside.
Mash the peeled potatoes and add the onion mixture. Mix well until everything is combined, adjust the salt/chili to your preference now if not enough.
Dough Directions
In a medium sized mixing bowl, measure out the flour
Add a small amount of water at a time, mix with your hands as you’re adding it in, you want the dough to just come together; if you add too much water, just add a bit more flour until it feels almost like pizza dough. Knead for about a minute, cover the ball with a tsp of oil and set aside.
Putting it all together!
Have a small bowl with oil nearby, or, if you’re being bad, melted vegetable shortening.
Heat a flat cast iron pan over medium-high heat, or you can use a pancake pan, or any pan for that matter with low sides
Make a small ball of dough (approx 2 inches high and across – no need to be exact, the size of your ball just determines the size of the finished paratha)
Roll out the dough until it’s about the size of a small plate (keep your surface lightly floured throughout the whole process so the dough doesn’t stick)
Take some of the potato filling, shape into a ball, and place in the middle of the dough
Bring the edges of the dough up and over the filling, squish it together at the top and give it a little twist to secure it
Carefully twist and press the filled dough down into a flat disc
Start rolling out the dough. Here’s what I do:
Roll one side about three times, lift, flour the surface, flip to the other side, roll again a few more times, continue until the dough is about 1/8 of an inch thick.
Lift the parauntha and place onto the hot pan, let cook for about 1-1 ½ minutes and then flip, oil the cooked side and after another 1-1 ½ flip again and oil that side. Cook again for the same amount of time, flip, oil, do it once more and your parauntha should be ready, if not, cook a bit longer on each side but don’t oil anymore (unless you want to).
Place in a plate on top of a piece of paper towel, make as many as you’d like (the filling and dough will keep in the refrigerator for a few days.
Eat as they are, or serve with buttermilk; sour cream; butter; mango pickle, or anything pickled for that matter. My favourite is pickled lemon…mmmmm.
French Pressing 