As mentioned in my earlier post , my next project was to make Aloo paratha. Had a detailed discussion with my Punjabi consultant couple of days back, got very clear step by step instructions. In fact she also got me a sample to taste in the morning, it was very very good.
Armed with the pearls of wisdom from my consultant, I started. A crisp summary of events that happened is as follows
Version -1 : To cut a long story short, my parathas started breaking up badly. They started breaking up as I was rolling it. They broke up even more when I started cooking it on the tawa. My violent temper flared up again when I saw my couple of hours of hard work disintegrating faster than the Bangalore Royal Challengers batting lineup. I scooped out some portions from the tawa and hurled it at the dust bin. But curiously, whatever broken portions I was able to cook tasted awesome. That was encouraging :)
Version-2 : Further consultations resulted in couple of adjustments in my rolling technique. Presto , no breaking now !! Perfect shape. Alas, the taste somehow went missing. After sampling , the expert cook commented on a lack of salt and chilly. Not too bad for a V2, I am improving fast , right ?
Incorrect conclusion arrived at after analyzing too few data points, as it turned out.
Version-3 : I had refrigerated the left over aloo mixture from version-2. Decided to use the same for V3, just with a bit of added salt and chilly. It should work now , right ? Unfortunately I neglected to account for the aging effect of the potato mix under refrigeration. People tell me that degradation factors of 0.5 per day is not uncommon and I had refrigerated for 3 days :(. Again shape was perfect, but a pungent sour taste resulted.
I still managed to eat two , amazing what you can accomplish when you are really hungry :-)
This is turning out to be a bit more tougher than I anticipated. I still suspect there are some crucial steps which have been conveniently forgotten by my consultant.
Hmmmm, somehow that does not surprise me :-)
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2 comments:
There is a simpler version that your consultant does not seem to have told you about. This is to mix the aloo stuffing and atta together and then rolling them. Is much easier to make than the stuffed ones.
If the aloo stuffing is too sticky,add 1/2 a cup fresh bread crumbs.sometimes aloos turn sticky when you boil them.
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