Sourdough Aloo Parathas

Teach your dog to take a selfie. It will be easy they said. At least that is what the YouTube told me. Well, it was not easy, especially when you compare teaching your dog to take a selfie with learning how to make homemade sourdough parathas. But you know who learned this new behavior so fast? My twenty-pound Norwegian Forest Cat learned it on the first try! I may not be an expert at sourdough baking but I’m trying to become creative at teaching my pets new behaviors such as let’s teach this dog to go sledding! Or how hard can it be to teach a cat to sit? (It’s actually super easy)

Have you discovered the joy of baking homemade stuffed parathas? Whether you are stuffing them with aloo (Potatoes) or Muttar (Peas) baking and creating homemade parathas is a delicious side dish. And I have to say, a great way to use your discarded sourdough starter.

Here in 2024, sourdough baking is so very trendy and here in our mountain household we are all over baking everything from pizza doughs to multigrain loaves.

For the Paratha dough

34 grams sourdough starter

104 grams of water, room temperature

100 grams of whole wheat flour

75 grams of spelt flour

8 grams of olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

LOTS of ghee for frying

1/8 cup of rice flour

What is the difference between a roti and a paratha? Oil. Lots of oil makes your parathas more fatty and delicious. Now are you ready to create a curried potato stuffed paratha?

Bring your sourdough starter to room temperature. Mix the water and the starter. Mix in your flours and salt until you have a shaggy dough. Knead your dough into a ball and set aside, covered in a warm area, like by the stove, for an hour.

After an hour knead your dough again and cut the dough into four balls. Flatten the dough balls just a little, using rice flour so they don’t stick. Set aside to rise, covered, once again for an hour. After an hour, use the rice flour and a rolling pin to roll them out pretty thin, a little thicker than a tortilla. Put about two teaspoons of aloo filling in the middle and then roll up the edges so they all touch. Close and seal the edges like a purse. With your palm, gently flatten them down so they are ready to fry in a cast iron pan when you are ready.

When you are ready to complete the parathas fry each one, both sides in plenty of ghee.

For the Aloo

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ghee

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon grated fresh garlic

1 shallot, chopped very fine

1 red Chinese chile

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 russet potato, cubed and boiled until soft

4 teaspoons water

1 teaspoon salt

In one tablespoon of ghee roast your chile. Remove and roast your shallot in the same oil until well cooked. Add your garlic and ginger, cover in your curry powder so it does not splatter. Roast your garlic and your spices very well for at least five minutes, slowly mixing in that water as your masala dries. Add the mustard seeds right at the end. Mash the potato roughly and mix that into your masala. Add salt and your roasted chile, which has been chopped. Set this mixture aside to cool while you work on the paratha dough.