Aloo Parantha- Tips to Freeze

I'm a freezer girl. I always try to dump anything and everything into my freezer which makes my life easier and  helps me to get out of my laziness to spend hours inside my kitchen. I wake up half an hour prior to my kids' bus time and those thirty minutes are like hell! I always thought that the song 'Jame raho... ' from the movie Taare Zameen Par was made just for me. I know all moms take that to their credit. But I guess I'm more closer to that character ;) I plan to wake up earlier; set 6-7 alarms from 5 am to 5:38am; but wake up at the last set time. Waking up kids, packing tiffin,ironing uniforms, preparing breakfast, making them eat .. all these are done in those thirty minutes. Kids' bus arrive at 6:10 and many a times I miss that too. I had to then drive and drop kids to the big roundabout where I could catch the bus. I know my friends must be laughing at this as they always make fun of me.

In the midst of all these things, the only relaxing bit is that I always store something and all in the freezer which helps me to prepare breakfast in no time. Whenever I make parathas or rotis, I make 5-6 more and freeze it. I also freeze sandwich stuffings, french fries,home-made burgers etc. Also when planning for some dinner party, the first thing I do is freezing some parathas. This makes our job easier.

For The Dough:

Wheat flour 3 cups

Salt             1tsp

Oil              1 Tbsp

For The Stuffing:

Potato                         3 large/700 g

Oil                              2tbsp

Onion                         1 chopped into chunks

Green chilli                 2 chopped finely

Ginger-garlic paste      2tsp

Cumin powder            1/2 tsp

Chilli powder              1 tsp

Coriander powder        1/2tsp

Turmeric powder         1 tsp

Garam masala powder 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice                1 Tbsp

Coriander leaves          3 Tbsp

Salt to taste

 Method:

Stuffing:

1.  Mix the dough ingredients together in a bowl and add water to knead into a soft and pliable dough. Keep it aside.

2. Boil potato with salt and turmeric until cooked nicely. (Don't overcook them as it may result in messy stuffing)Cool them and grate them finely.

2. Crush onion, ginger, garlic and greenchilli in a grinder. Pulsing for 2-3 seconds is enough. Don't turn into paste. This is done to prevent paranthas from breaking while rolling.

3. Heat oil in a pan and saute onion paste in that till the raw smell disappears and colour changes slightly. 

4. Add spices to this. Saute for a few seconds.

5. Add grated potato to it and mix nicely and mash with the spatula. Make sure that masalas are coated evenly and nicely. Switch off the flame.

6. Add coriander leaves and lemon juice to it. Mix again.

7. Let it cool.

Parantha:

1. Make 12-13 balls of both the flour dough and filling.

2. Take a flour dough and roll slightly into a small circle. Place a ball of filling on it and cover from all the sides. Pin on top and shape into smooth balls again . Keep it aside. Repeat this step until all the dough balls are used up. 

3. Now take the first filled dough ball and flatten to a big circled roti.

4. Cook this on hot tawa (medium-low flame) flipping over both sides, spreading ghee/butter/oil on the parathas. Serve it  hot with dahi(curd) or achar(pickles). 

Notes:

#Grate cooked potatoes instead of just mashing them as this may prevent breaking while rolling.

#Use all purpose flour while rolling parathas to prevent sticking on the base. All purpose flour(maida) is better than whole-wheat flour(atta) for this purpose.

#Crush onion,ginger and garlic to prevent breaking of the parathas resulting in messy parathas. Avoid stems of coriander leaves for the same purpose.

Freezing tips:

Once you roll parathas, place it on a medium hot tawa and cook for a few seconds till a slight color change. Flip it over and cook the other side for another few seconds. (This step helps preventing parathas stick to each other or to the cling film)

 






No need to cook completely until crispier or flakier. Take it out to a plate with tissue paper and let it cool nicely. Once cooled layer your parathas with cling film (or plastic sheets or baking sheets) in between each parathas and place it inside a ziplock bag or air tight container. Once dumped into freezer bags, squeeze out maximum air as possible from inside and then lock the bags. I lock 3/4th of its face and then squeeze out air . Lock it after that. Freeze it until use.

To cook frozen parathas:

No need to thaw your parathas. Take it out from the freezer and place it on a medium-high hot tawa. Cook both sides until crispier and flakier. Brush oil/ghee/butter to make it more crispier. Serve hot.