Recipe- Winter Special Matar Paratha

When it comes to food, winter always reminds me of 2 things – gajar halwa (carrot pudding) and matar ke parathe (green peas stuffed flatbread). These two vegetables are available in abundance during winters in Delhi and are made quite often in every household. Paratha is Indian flatbread which is made with whole wheat flour and stuffed with practically everything. There’s lentil parathas, all veggies that you can imagine and even chocolate paratha! They are usually eaten as breakfast in northern states of India and I make it very often in my kitchen.

Sweet peas mixed with spices and then stuffed inside the flatbread always remind me of chilli winter days back home. Mom would always make rice kheer (rice pudding) with these parathas and I would happily gulp all down in few minutes. Now the thing with green peas paratha is that they have to be made using fresh peas. There’s no way you can use frozen peas, I mean if you want you can but they aren’t remotely similar in taste to parathas made using fresh peas.

Ingredients

Dough

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
water as required to knead
1/2 teaspoon oil

Stuffing

1 cup peas boiled and coarsely mashed
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon red chili powder or to taste
salt to taste
1 teaspoon oil
ghee to roast the parathas

Method

Dough

* Take the whole wheat flour in a bowl.

* Add water little by little and knead to a soft dough.

* Smear 1/2 teaspoon of oil on top.

* Cover the dough and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

Stuffing

* Take out the seeds from the peas, and put them in a pan of hot water.

* Simmer on medium flame till peas are soft.

* Take out the peas from the pan, drain the water and set aside.

* Now you can either blend them using a blender or crush/mash them using a pestle. I prefer crushing them with pestle.

* Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.

* Once the cumin seeds crackle add the chopped garlic and saute till the raw smell goes away. Next add the crushed peas, salt, red chilli powder and mix.

* Cook on medium flame for 2-3 minutes till the aroma of spices, garlic is all well incorporated into the peas.

* Switch off the flame, take out the stuffing in a bowl and set aside.

Make The Paratha

* To make the paratha, take a small amount of dough (size of a big lemon) and shape it round. With the help of rolling pin roll the dough into a circle of around 1/8 inch thickness.

* Apply 1/4 teaspoon of ghee/oil all over.

* Place around 1.5 tablespoon of filling in the center.

* Gather all the edges and pinch them together forming a seal.

* Flatten using you fingers and roll again into a circle of approx 1/8 inch thickness.

* Place the paratha on heated tawa/griddle.

* Once there are light brown spots on one side, flip the paratha and apply ghee/oil.

* Flip again and apply more butter/ghee/oil on the other side now. Cook till paratha has brown patches all over.

* Serve hot with yogurt and pickle.