MUGHLAI PARATHA BY SOUMYASHREE CHATTERJEE

IMAGE OWNER: KIRTI PODDAR

One of the highlights of Indian cuisine is the rich variety it affords in the form of street food. The omnipresent golgappes, the spicy chats, steaming momos, slurpy kathi rolls, indeed there are many an occasion when you can have your meal with just street food. Kolkata has its unique mix of street food and one item that has found pride of place in street corners and restaurant is the mughlai paratha. Essentially a street food of the alleys of Kolkata and Dhaka, this is typically a fried bread that has been stuffed with minced meat, and egg.

Mughlai paratha finds its roots developed in the kitchens of the nawabs of murshidabad influenced by mughlai elements and from there spread to greater Bengal-today’s Bangladesh and west Bengal. But not much ado about the history and nutrition of this dish, for this is a sinful dish to have, greasy, spicy and lip smacking. The dish is ideally had with an onion salad and a dry spicy potato side, which we will make along with this. Thus the preparation of dish will include preparing dough, the mince meat filling, the potato side and the actual paratha.

 We will start by gathering the ingredient which includes:

·         Maida (all purpose flour) : 3 cups

·         Minced meat : 250 gm

·         Onion : 2 large Green chillies : 5-6

·         Ginger-garlic paste : 2 table spoons

·         Turmeric powder : 1 tea spoon

·         Cumin powder : 2 tea spoons

·         Garam masala : 1 tea spoon

·         Red chilli powder : 2 teaspoons

·         Potatoes : 3 large

·         Black pepper powder : ½ tsp

·         Salt to taste

·         Cooking Oil

·         Eggs : 3

The trick in making this dish is in getting the preparation just right, meaning the dough should be just right, the mince meat filling and the potato side all add up to make it just right. To make the dough, mix salt in flour along with a pinch of baking powder optionally. Add a dash of oil and warm water to slowly knead it into a dough that’s, soft stretchy and easy to roll. Grease it with a bit of oil and covering with a towel leave it to sit for about 2 hours. While the dough rests, we will get the mince meat filling ready.

Wash the keema thoroughly and set aside. Now heat oil in a pan and fry onion sliced very thinly in it. Add salt and fry till the onion browns. Now add chopped green chilli, turmeric, cumin, red chilli powder about ½ tea spoons each. Add a tea spoon of ginger and garlic pastes also. Sauté over a low flame till it mixes well and then add the keema. Continue cooking now on a high flame. The keema itself will release some water, cover the pan with a lid and leave on a low heat for about 10 minutes so that the keema gets cooked and tender.

Mutton keema might need about 5 minutes more. Once done, remove the pan and dry the water till it’s a moist thickness. This tastes even better if it is cooked the previous day. Now for the potato side, peel the potatoes and dice them into medium small cubes. Now heat oil again in a pan and add the potatoes to it and sauté till they start turning light brown. Add ginger paste of about ½ tea spoon and another half tea spoon of cumin powder. Add 1 tea spoon of red chilli powder, and salt to taste, 1 tea spoon of garam masala. Add half cup of water and cover the pan and cook for 5 to 10 minutes till the potatoes cook and soften. Now uncover and cook till the water dries up leaving the potatoes coated with a thick spicy red cover. Remove to a dish and set aside. Chop onions into ring and set aside to serve as a garnishing side. Beat out eggs in a bowl, with salt to taste and a dash of red chilli powder. Now we are ready to make the actual Paratha.

Knead the dough lightly and then separate into portions so that we can roll out balls which are slightly larger than golf balls. Now roll out the dough into a thin square. This is a tricky part as we need to make it thin enough for the frying later, but not so thin that it isn’t able to hold the stuffing inside and breaks. Use flour to dust and oil to grease while doing this. Now use a teaspoon to spread out a portion of beaten egg on the surface, covering it evenly but for the edges. Now place a portion of the minced meat cooked and set aside earlier in the centre of this square and make a square out of it. Cover it with a bit of the beaten egg again and now fold the paratha round this central stuffing to make an envelope or packet out of it. Tuck the edges in to properly seal the packet.

 In wok heat oil on a high flame and drop the packet in the oil folded side in first. Once it’s browned flip the packet and brown the other side. Keep flipping so that the cooking is even and turns golden brown, remove from oil and place on a tissue paper so that some of the extra grease is absorbed out. Now serve this with a portion of the spicy potato side prepared and set aside earlier, some onion rings and a bit of mustard.

While my mother secret ingredients of love and smile still hold good in this dish, it is such a riot of spices and tastes that it anyways tastes great. So forget about the extra grease, add your love, sprinkle your smile with the twinkle in your eyes at the prospect of what you are making and enjoy straight from the streets of Kolkata. Bon appétit