Friday evening, picked up the kids, and invited the weekend bug to bite me. All I want to do was throw my bags and cozy up in bed. The kids are never drained of their energy, are they? The weather is too cold to do any shopping, and my son wants meatballs and chapatis for dinner. Well how about combining them. Stuffed parathas sound good? Well, I was left explaining why the meat was squished into the chapatis when my son had a frown - no meatballs on the dinner plate? Thank god he bought my explanation, and gulped the parathas with butter!
What you need: Makes 8-10 parathas
For the stuffing:
1 lb ground turkey1/2 cup onion
1 tsp lime juice
2 cups fresh or frozen spinach
1/4 tsp coriander/dhanya powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
A pinch of turmeric
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
For the chapati/flat bread:2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup hot or warm water
2 Tbsp yogurt
½ tsp salt
1 tsp oil
To layer and dust: A cup of wheat flour and a few spoons oil/butter
Now, on to the filling. In a thick bottom saucepan, on medium-high flame, add the ground meat and fry until brown. About 7-10 minutes. Add in all the other ingredients, and stir fry until all the water from the spinach evaporates. Add salt, and let cook. When the oil starts to leave the sides of the pan. Turn it off and let it cool down.
While that cools, prep the dough. Mix the flour and salt thoroughly with 1 tsp oil. Add warm water, and yogurt; knead the mixture to a soft yet pliable dough. Cover and let it sit for about 15 minutes to an hour. Divide the dough equally into 8 lemon sized balls. On a rolling board, or flat surface, dip a dough ball in a little flour dust, and roll it out evenly to form a palm sized flat round bread. Mould it down to form a cup.
Scoop about 2 teaspoons of filling, place it in the center of the dough cup. Pinch in the sides of the the cup to form frills encasing the filling. gently cup the dough in your hands, and press the ends together to seal them, and twist it a bit and press the dough down into a ball.
Dust the rolling surface with flour and roll out the ball flat to form a bread. Heat a skillet or pan, and cook the parathas to a golden brown on both sides. Serve warm with butter or yogurt. Enjoy!