Hi Bold Bakers.
I'm very excited to have Ami back in the kitchen with me today.
Hi, everyone.
We are making traditional Indian Paratha.
An absolutely beautiful bread and Ami is going to walk me through all the steps and we're
going to make it it's going to be really easy I
think I think so.
Okay, Ami, I want you to show me how to make this because it's such a beautiful bread.
It's rich in tradition, and I have no idea how to make it.
Okay, well then let's get started.
So here we have three cups of flour.
And we're going to throw in some salt.
And then you know, we just mix this dough with our hands.
So I'll put the salt in and then you can if you want, you can just swirl the salt around
the flour.
Okay, with my clean hands with your clean hands.
So Ami, I have a question already.
And we made something before and we have to use a different flour.
Yes, what flour is this?
So this is a it's called maida flour.
It's a it's a white flour.
You can use all purpose flour.
Okay?
maida is it's a finer grain it's a more traditionally used for flaky Malabar.
parotta.
But all purpose flour would work is okay, great.
And then we're going to throw in some oil.
And then what?
What you should do is just sort of, like you would with like butter and flour.
You just gonna rub the oil into the flour until it's evenly mixed kind of a little bit
lumpy.
Yeah, or just yeah, just kind of like as evenly as you can, you know, bring out your flour
from the
bottom.
I love how we can make this with our hands and not have to use a machine.
Yeah,
it feels good.
This is what I tore breadmaking so much is because it's flour.
It's salt water, like there might be a little bit of yeast or like oil or like maybe it's
a it's raising agents, like baking soda or something.
But they're pretty much all made by the same ingredients.
Just different technique.
Yeah,
it's really so basic and really such a building block of so many meals around the world.
Yeah.
How's that?
Looking at that looking good.
That's
looking really great.
Here.
Let me feel for a sec.
Yep, it's so um, so once you have all the oil rubbed into the flour pretty evenly,
this is a some water we're going to put in and it'll be sort of wet and sticky at first.
But as you keep going, it'll come together.
So you know if it looks like you're doing if it looks like you're kneading it and it's
still really crumbly and dry.
You can add water just a little bit more, but I would just go like a few drops at a
time.
Yeah, like it won't, it won't need much.
And if it's if there's too much water in it, it'll get a little too sticky and
natural just to hydrate it because I mean you know, I know Ami you know this when you
make bread dough is and pastry.
It's really important to remember that we have to rest this when we're done right?
Yeah, absolutely.
So that the gluten relax.
Yeah, so the gluten relaxes and windows and breads are relaxed.
They express liquid, you don't get wet or so you're like Oh no, was my dough
is a little bit on the dry side, you lash in water, and then it's too wet,
right.
And you do want this dough in particular to be on the softer side, not too sticky that
you can't roll it but you want it nice and soften.
It's forgiving.
If you make it with a little bit too much water, you can add in a little more flour.
I mean, it's it's okay.
Yeah, you know, these are all just, you know, when I was growing up making these roti and
Paratha and whatnot, it was always a bit of a you know, there was no real measurements.
Yeah, throw in some flour.
And then you know, I would kind of stand by the sink and put a little water at a time
and keep going.
So these measurements are you know, they're pretty close, but they're, you know, your
your flour might be slightly different.
The day might be more humid.
There's a lot of different factors that might cause you to need more or less water.
Like you said, it's forgiving.
Yes.
Something that my mom taught me is just doing a pinch test, and you want to
make dinner just have it be nice and soft, so that you can pinch it almost all the way
down.
And that seems nice and soft.
That seems right.
Okay.
Yeah, like this.
Yeah,
this is this is a fun bread.
Yes.
No yeast.
So it's easy.
Yeah, that's looking nice.
It's like all coming together.
It's looking really nice and smooth.
And even evenly mixed.
Yeah,
it's not too dry.
It's not too wet.
We're just now what's our next step.
So we're gonna let the dough rest for about an hour.
If you're in a hurry, and you really want to just get this done, you can but it's nice.
It's makes it a lot easier to roll out without the dough pulling back on you.
So we're gonna give it out, cover it with either a plate or some plastic wrap so it
doesn't dry out and we'll get back to it in an hour.
So there's been an hour I'm excited for this next step because I know that there's all
sorts of fools and everything so so I am your student Ami tell me what to do.
Okay,
so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to divide this dough into eight equal
portions.
Now,
why don't I divide it in half and then I'll show you how we then then we can work.
I want you to do what you do, which is this okay?
When you ask me to divide something into things, she puts it up with her
takes off balls, you do it your way.
Okay?
I've never seen anybody do this before
this is I mean, that's because you haven't spent enough time in the kitchen with an Indian
mom.
That's true.
That's very true.
You know, it was all everything is just done by field, at least the way we did it.
So we would make sure every pieces were even by going like that, if they feel even in a
major and
you just don't always get it like exactly right.
Yeah.
And then if you know if, what if, what if this feels a little bit bigger, you pinch
off a little more, and you kind of keep going, I think I'm okay either.
Yeah.
And then you can cut it, you know, and this dough, I'm gonna say, it's a bit wet is it?
Well, no, no, no, we just have we have a fair amount of dough, I'm going to say that each
one of these sections, we're going to cut into three equal equal pieces.
You can make them as big or small as you want.
But sometimes this we're just learning how to make Parathas they might be easier when
they're slightly smaller or a little bit easier to work with all by feel.
Yeah, all by feeling you know, but you know, then if they all feel more or less even.
And I think these things are, don't have to be an exact science.
And then you roll them into little balls or just,
I just leave them the way they are, you know, it will bring the ball back.
And so the dough doesn't dry out.
We'll put the ones that we're not working with in here and we can just keep them covered.
Here I have a tea towel being covered on with this.
Yeah, that sounds good.
Alright, so we're gonna start with Okay, we're gonna start with a, our balls of dough, I
have a couple of rolling pins was kind of a rolling pin is this?
Well, this is the very classic rolling pin that you will use to roll any Indian bread.
Yeah.
And it's just, I mean, you can use any kind of a rolling pin.
But these I picked up the last time I was in India for a very long time ago.
So very traditional.
These are funky.
And I love them.
Yeah, we're just getting rolling pin.
So we're going to take a nice, generous pinch of flour all over our surface.
I like how in this new kitchen, we get to do it together.
Yeah, exactly.
How much more space.
So then, you know, I like to make a nice really even ball with my hands.
Okay, and then flatten it out.
Just a little less work for the rolling pin.
Okie dokie.
Now I'll pat both both sides with flour.
I'll press it into the flour on both sides so that it doesn't stick to the counter and
it doesn't stick to the rolling pin.
And then oh, basically just roll a circle as best you can.
And you know, I'll roll back and forth a little bit.
And then I'll keep turning it.
You know what's really, so I've never used one of these before.
But you know what's really funny?
Is that it you get, like such precision on it.
I don't think it's because the shape of it or something.
But, you know, like, I'm going to get this spread really thin because of this rolling
pin.
The way it's designed.
That's incredible.
Yeah.
And we would just kind of go back and forth with our hands like this.
My mom has this amazing way of rolling where it looks like she's just going back and forth.
And yet somehow she ends up rolling this perfect circle.
Yeah,
that's just a mom thing.
My mom does the same stuff.
They just know stuff that we don't need just Yeah, they just do.
But what they that's what they have over us.
Well, what
I always say to my mom is you know what, it all tastes the same.
That's true.
So does it matter if some of them are thin in the middle, but then take on the edges.
But no, I mean, I think you want to try to get it as even as you can.
And like you know what, you can always just go around the edges.
If I can start seeing light through it.
That's a good gauge as much.
Yeah, and it's you know, it's not going to tear.
You can see I can lift it up.
It's pretty pliable.
That's
the funny, that's the thing I was gonna say is that it's a really pliable dough and all
it is is salt and flour, oil and water.
Yeah, I think the resting phase really helps with that.
I think.
Yeah, there you go.
You can see through us.
Yes.
And so next we're going to take some butter okay.
And this is a nice soft you can use ghee as well.
But we'll either butter or ghee just make sure it's nice and soft but not melted as
you want to to.
To melt on the pan problem is you just want the layers to the layers of the Paratha to
stay layered and so you don't want the ghee or the butter to melt into the dough.
Any I'm taking about a tablespoon of butter more or less.
It doesn't have to be exactly I'm going to try to brush the entire surface with the butter.
So I'm guessing I would have thought that this butter is creating the layers is also
creating layers.
Well the butter at the layers of butter and dough together.
So okay, so the butter will kind of keep the layers of dough separate.
Mm hmm.
And how can that to thank you spread it all over.
Yeah.
Okay, so now we're going to start at the top and we're going to do a very tight coil.
So this is what's going to start creating those beautiful flaky layers.
Gotcha.
Now you're gonna notice a little bit of flour on the underside, as you roll don't try to
brush that off because those that little bit of flour will also help keep the layers separated
as you're cooking.
So now that you've got a nice tight coil like this, I stretch it out a little bit.
Okay?
Just a little bit, give it a you know, so that you have yet again,
this is such an easy tool to work with a lot of us.
Yeah,
it's nice, it's very forgiving.
So now we're going to do a coil.
And we're going to meet together in the center.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to coil this one up, okay, and this one, the other
end down.
Gotcha.
Okay, so I'm showing, you get this really pretty shape.
Yeah, and now we're gonna just sandwich them together, like
that.
So you got them like this.
Yeah.
And then you sandwich them right bash, and then we're going to
press him, and then we're gonna squash them.
And we're gonna let them rest.
Let him rest.
And we're going to repeat that.
Oh, there we go.
Again, it's better to go.
So I'll be when
they're at the stage, and there have been coils, what do we do next?
What's the next step?
Well, now we roll them out again.
Okay.
So just take one that maybe one of the first ones you've had that have had a chance to
rest.
And this time we're going to roll them out to about an eight inch circle.
I
can do that.
It definitely helps if they had a chance to rest.
Doesn't matter easier to roll.
Yes.
So we're gonna be rolling this out to about six to eight inches nice and thin, but it
does not have to be as thin as our first roll.
I can feel the layers.
Yeah, I know that cool.
Yeah.
Look at that.
Yeah, nice.
Okay, so they're all rolled out, and we're ready to cook them.
Great.
My favorite part.
Okay, so this is our Tawa, which is a very thin iron pan.
It's traditionally used to cook roti, naan.
And in this case, paratha. interesting.
You know,
I've seen these before, but I've never used one.
Yeah, they're really I mean, you could
use it a regular iron pan as well.
These are just thin and they heat up really fast.
Yeah.
So you're gonna put the burrata on flat on the Tawa is dry, there's no oil or butter
on that.
And we're going to cook both sides until they're nice and golden brown.
For those of you who have not seen Ami on on my social media, ami has been helping has
been a part of the Bigger Bolder Baking team for like over a year now.
And you definitely have taught me a lot, especially when it comes to like the bigger bowl baking
worldwide recipes that we do.
Like we do recipes from all around the world, and we release them on a Monday.
And every time you come to me with all of these like crazy ideas, stuff I've never even
heard of.
It's so fun.
There's just amazing things being baked all around the world.
Yeah, all the time.
Yeah, for Christmas time.
Remember all the different cookies we did?
Yeah, we're just going again, this Christmas.
So good.
And yeah, it's just it's great to have that perspective.
Because I only know what I know.
You know, but it's great to have you come in and be like, Well, how about this dad?
Have you done this yet?
On the website and things like that.
So but Ami you are definitely my culinary superhero.
Why, thank you.
It's fun for me to because there's all these things that like, you know, I might have always
been curious about or have never heard of before, but in you know, in doing research
for, you know, what kinds of things we might want to look into baking.
It's, it's really fun to learn.
Yeah, great learning.
You do learn a lot.
Yeah, every time we do learn a lot.
Yeah.
So we see, like, we've cooked both sides of the burrata, it's just you know, you've got
some darker spots here.
I love how this bread is just puffing off and you're getting those lovely little bubbles.
Is that from our like, from the rolling and the coil and the flattening and all that
stuff?
Yeah, I think so.
There's also you know, just moisture, like the the water in the dough is the water in
the butcher.
Yeah.
Creating.
See yeah.
Okay, so we are done with the first round of cooking.
Good.
Okay, and now we're gonna cook them again.
This time really quickly, we're just going to toast them up with some butter knife.
So we're going to put a generous amount of butter and a hot pan.
Delicious.
toast it we want the heat to be you know, like medium.
The paratha has already cooked you're just toasting the outside.
Alright, so it looks like this is done.
You see my pan is nice and hot and smoking.
So now we're going to do one last thing before I brought that is ready to be eaten which
is we're going to take it out and we're going to scrunch it.
Oh interesting.
And I do it with a tea towel because my hands are very sensitive to heat.
You can do it with your bare hands if you I can do a bare hands and that is to release
the steam so that the brotha stays nice and crunchy and it shows up.
You can see all the different layers.
Yeah, you can gorgeous.
I'm going to just keep going while this pan is hot.
If it looks like it's steaming a little too much, you just lower the heat.
Nice and smoky.
If you have a fan over your stove, you could turn that on which we don't So we'll just
smoke up your your kitchen.
So do you repeat this process for the rest of the bread?
Absolutely just keep going and tell you'll be done in a few minutes we'll be ready to
eat
up my favorite time time to eat the paratha so Ami I have to say I think we did a great
job.
Look at how flaky look at all is so good.
This is why we do all that rolling
Yes, yeah.
Oh, here's all the beautiful layers.
Oh my gosh, my
notes like crispy on the outside and kind of doughy and layered
huh, it's like pastry.
Yeah,
it's like a rolled out croissant.
It's insane.
It's so good.
I could imagine this with like, a kind of a sweet curry.
Creamy.
Mm hmm.
This is your you always have the perfect amount of salt and all of your baking salts.
Yeah, salt
is everything salt and butter, salt, and sugar.
It's like everything you know, just brings out flavor.
Yeah, for something as simple as paratha which is really just
flour.
Yeah, it's insane.
It's so good.
I really hope that you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you army for coming and baking with me today.
my pleasure
I learned something new.
That was so fun.
And if you liked this episode, definitely check out the episode where AMI and I made
some mo says from scratch, pastry and everything.
It was absolutely incredible.
And but I hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you back here.
We're getting ready soon.