Laccha Paratha
Pakistani or Indian flatbreads. To me, they are this amazing combination of a naan or roti and a croissant (please don’t hurt/kill me because of this terrible analogy). These are amazing with curries, dal, or even with butter and jam.
The inspiration for attempting to make these came from my roommate Zaid, who is from Pakistan and always had store-bought frozen Parathas in the freezer. My whole house loved them and I wondered how hard it would be to make them from scratch. The following is my attempt of a Paratha.
The recipe is credited to Serious Eats, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s website, Click Here for Original Recipe and the technique is from Binging with Babish’s Video “Indian Breads (ft. Floyd Cardoz)”.
Time: 2 hrs
Difficulty: 3/5
Tested: YES
Makes: 8 Parathas
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp table salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter
Canola/Vegetable Oil for cooking
Method
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add oil and use hands to rub oil into small beads as if cutting butter into pastry. Do this until beads are very small and well distributed (about 5 mins).
Add 1 cup of lukewarm water and mix together to form a sticky dough and knead for about 5 mins until a sticky ball forms. Place ball in bowl and cover in plastic wrap. Let rest for at least 1 hour at room temp and up to 24 hours in refrigerator.
After dough has rested, divide into 8 pieces and form into balls. Put a towel or plastic wrap over the balls on work surface.
One ball at a time, roll out as thin as possible. You should be able to almost see through the dough. Using a spatula, spread a thin layer of softened unsalted butter all over the dough. In a similar fashion to making a paper fan or accordion, fold in a Z shape back and forth to create one long piece of layered dough. Coil the piece of dough such that it looks like a rose with the layers facing up and down and tuck the end under the rose-shaped roll. Press down gently on the top to create a flat and round piece of dough. Repeat with remaining pieces and let rest 15 minutes. For help on the technique, look at this video: Indian Breads (ft. Floyd Cardoz). Parathas are the last bread they make in the video.
Using a rolling pin, roll each piece out to ¼ inch thick rounds.
Heat a cast iron skillet or large non-stick pan to medium heat. Cook each paratha in the dry pan for about 10 minutes each, 5 mins on each side until cooked but without much colour. Separate par-cooked parathas between pieces of parchment. If you want to freeze to use later, do so at this step after par cooking and freeze using parchment to separate parathas.
When ready to cook and consume, heat a cast iron or non-stick pan to medium heat. You can cook in a dry pan until golden brown on both sides or add a bit of butter and canola oil to have a more fried texture. Adding a splash of canola oil to the butter will prevent the butter from burning at higher heat.
Serve hot. Enjoy!