It is a layered soft and flaky bread made out of plain flour and oil. It is a popular Indian street food.
It is popular in the southern states of India – Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu. It is a best seller of thattu kada(road side eatery) and also called as malabar parathas. Usually the parottas include egg. But I am making the eggless one and it surely taste good.
When I was in Chennai, I always used to see the guys working in the roadside small eatery places waving dough around till it gets stretched into what resembles mini flying saucers :D. seriously! You would understand only if you have seen it, you can even browse in youtube, there are so many videos showing that. This requires a lot of practice to master. I tried few times and yet to master it. 😉
Whenever I go near a parotta place in Chennai, the smell of making them is just so good. I have heard it taste best with the salna. But I have never tried them at a road side shop sadly. My dad always stops me from having them at a road side shop. But I always wanted to have it once there ;)! He feels it’s not healthy 😉 I agree 😉 But just once just to taste them. My Boyfriend always used to say , the road side shops taste really good 😉 but also mentions that I would not have them if I get to see the way they make it there 
. May be I will still like it.. May be not 😀
You can make this using wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour considering the health values, though the all-purpose version tastes and looks a lot better. Wheat version is simply the lacha paratha. And for lacha paratha you just need less oil. But the texture of this parotta is lot more different and even taste differs. Trust me, it looks complex but it is very easy to make once you start making it. The tip is to roll the dough as thin as possible and then the layers would come nicely.
If you think this is going to taste like the frozen ones, NO
, it is not! It tastes lots better than the frozen ones. 🙂
- All purpose flour / Maida – 2 cups
- Baking soda - ¼ tsp
- Hot water – ½ cup
- Milk – ½ cup
- Sugar – 2 tsp
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Oil
- In a bowl or a clean surface, add all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda and sugar and mix well. Make a well in the middle and slowly add the water and milk and make soft dough. Add a tbsp. of oil and mix into the dough.
- Cover the dough with a lid or a damp cloth and allow to rest for fifteen minutes.
- Apply some oil in your hand and also grease your work surface with oil and pinch dough to make smooth round tennis sized balls. Rest it again for ten minutes covered.
- Take each ball and roll it thin. Thin here means it should be so thin that it’s almost transparent. You can also use palms and fingers to stretch out into a thin sheet. Shape is not important here. Even if there are very few tears its fine at this step. (as you work with each portion of dough, be sure to keep the rest covered so it doesn’t dry out)
- Slowly lift up one end of the sheet using fingers. And make pleats (like saree) moving towards the other end. (It’s like folding each fold on another).
- When this step is done, hold one end of the long strip and roll it towards the other end to create spiral balls something like a rosette. Roll the other ones similar way and grease them and cover it again for ten minutes.
- On a greased surface, place each spiral balls and roll into a thick parotta. Grease them again.
- Heat a non-stick pan on medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, place the thick parotta on the pan and cook on both sides till golden brown. You can drizzle oil as you roast them on the hot pan.
- Prepare other parottas similar way. Now arrange all parottas placing each one on top of another on the work surface. Now using both your hands, crush them together similar to clapping action and pull back. This helps to open up the layers of the parotta.
- Serve it hot with nice gravy.
2. Crushing clapping process of the parottas after taking off from the hot stove is the essential step. But be careful.
3. You can add egg to the flour which will make the parottas even more rich and soft. But I wanted to do eggless.
4. You can use one cup of all-purpose flour and one cup wheat flour also.
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Serve parotta with any vegetable curry or chicken salna or even simple raita.
