Cauliflower Paratha - Phulkopir Paratha

Our Saturday began with watching movies in the afternoon; first one in the lot was 'The Deadman' starring Johnny Depp. I am a huge Johnny Depp fan trying to catch all of his movies but that the act of choosing 'Deadman' was a terrible mistake I realized half an hour through the movie when my hubby started snoring away, the slow theme of the movie having lulled him to sleep. Struggling to keep eyes open over an hour, I too finally gave into the soporific effect and fell asleep. So people suffering from insomnia instead of sedatives may try watching 'The Deadman' because it is sleep-inducing, the title appropriately befitting the movie for it really makes people dead, dead in sleep...lol

 

 

For night there were two movies in the checklist, one was 'Chinatown' starring Jack Nicholson and 'Charade' starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Both were breathtaking to watch. Fraught with gripping suspense and quandaries to solve, both the movies kept us on edge till the final climax. It was 2 hours past into midnight when we finally hit the sack.

While we entertained ourselves watching movies back to back, our menu for the night consisted of something special - Cauliflower Paratha. Little different in making from the conventional parathas, where the parathas are rolled out with the stuffing inside, this paratha is first rolled out before being filled with the stuffing and each morsel of this crunchy paratha is pure pleasure, reminding you of the taste of Alu - Phulkopir Singara.

 

Ingredients :( for 4 parathas)                             Cooking time: 30-40 minutes For filling: ü  200 gm grated cauliflower ü  1 tsp kashmiri red mirch ü  2 tbsp peanuts ü  1 tsp sugar ü  Salt to taste ü  1/2 tsp ajwain or carom seeds ü  3 tbsp cashewnuts and poppy seeds paste ü  5-6 green chillies (chopped) ü  1 tsp garam masala powder ü  30 gm coriander leaves (chopped) ü  White oil or ghee for frying For Dough: ü  1 cup all-purpose flour ü  1 cup atta or wheat flour ü  A pinch of salt ü  A pinch of sugar ü  1 tsp oil ü  Required amount of water Method: 1) For the filling, heat oil in a wok. When oil turns hot, add ajwain and wait till it sputters. Add grated cauliflower and peanuts.  Shallow fry. 2) Add green chillies, sugar, salt, kashmiri red mirch, 3 tbsp cashew nuts and poppy seeds paste and garam masala powder. Add 1/4 cup of water. Mix in. 3) Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes till the filling completely dries up. 4) Finally add coriander leaves into the mixture and fold in. Filling is ready. 5) For the dough, mix in all the ingredients and knead supple dough. Divide the dough into lemon size balls and roll each out into paratha like shape of 5 inches in diameter. 6) Put tablespoon of filling on one side of the paratha. Pull the corner from the other side and fold it over. Pinch the edges.   7) Fry them in ghee or white oil or in a combination of both. Serve hot with coriander or mint chutney.