Paratha

Paratha (, also parantha) is a flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent, with earliest reference mentioned in early medieval Sanskrit, India; prevalent throughout the modern-day nations of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago where wheat is the traditional staple. It is one of the most popular flatbreads in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Paratha is an amalgamation of the words parat and atta, which literally means layers of cooked dough. Alternative spellings and names include parantha, parauntha, prontha, parontay, paronthi (Punjabi), porota (in Bengali), paratha (in Odia, Urdu, Hindi), palata (in Myanmar), porotha (in Assamese), forota (in Sylheti), farata (in Mauritius and the Maldives), prata (in Southeast Asia), paratha, buss-up shut, oil roti (in the Anglophone Caribbean) and roti canai in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Etymology
The word paratha is derived from Sanskrit (S. पर, or परा+स्थः, or स्थितः). Recipes for various stuffed wheat puran polis (which Achaya (2003) describes as parathas) are mentioned in Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, a Western Chalukya king, who ruled from present-day Karnataka, India. References to paratha have also been mentioned by Nijjar (1968), in his book Panjāb under the Sultāns, 1000–1526 AD when he writes that parathas were common with the nobility and aristocracy in the Punjab.

History
According to Banerji (2010), parathas are associated with North Indian cooking. The method is to stuff parathas with a variety of stuffings. However, Banerji states, the Mughals were also fond of parathas which gave rise to the Dhakai paratha, multilayered and flaky, taking its name from Dhaka in Bangladesh. O'Brien (2003) suggests that it is not correct to state that the paratha was popularised in Delhi after the 1947 partition of India, as the Punjabi item was prevalent in Delhi before then.

Plain and stuffed varieties
Parathas are one of the most popular unleavened flatbreads in the Indian subcontinent, made by baking or cooking whole-wheat (atta) dough on a tava, and finishing off with shallow-frying. Plain parathas are thicker and more substantial than chapatis/rotis because they have been layered by coating with ghee or oil and folded repeatedly, much like the method used for puff pastry or a laminated dough technique, and as a result have a flaky consistency. Stuffed parathas may include a wide variety of ingredients and be made with a variety of preparation styles, traditionally depending on region of origin, and may not use folded dough techniques.

To achieve the layered dough for plain parathas, a number of different traditional techniques exist. These include covering the thinly rolled-out pastry with oil, folding back and forth like a paper fan and coiling the resulting strip into a round shape before rolling flat, baking on a tava and/or shallow frying. Another method is to cut a circle of dough from the center to its circumference along its radius, oiling the dough and starting at the cut edge rolling so as to form a cone which is then squashed into a disc shape and rolled out. The method of oiling and repeatedly folding the dough as in western puff pastry also exists, and this is combined with folding patterns that give traditional geometrical shapes to the finished parathas. Parathas can be round, heptagonal, square, or triangular.

Common stuffed varieties include mashed spiced potatoes (aloo paratha), dal, cauliflower (gobi paratha), and minced lamb (keema paratha). Less common stuffing ingredients include mixed vegetables, green beans, carrots, other meats, leaf vegetables, radishes, and paneer. A Rajasthani mung bean paratha uses both the layering technique together with mung dal mixed into the dough. Some stuffed parathas are not layered, lacking in the flakiness of plain parathas, and instead resemble a filled pie squashed flat and shallow-fried, using two discs of dough sealed around the edges. Alternatively, they can be made by using a single disc of dough to encase a ball of filling and sealed with a series of pleats pinched into the dough around the top, they are then gently flattened with the palm against the working surface before being rolled into a circle.

Serving
The paratha is an important part of a traditional breakfast from the Indian subcontinent. Traditionally, it is made using ghee but oil is also used. Some people may even bake it in the oven for health reasons. Usually, the paratha is eaten with dollops of white butter on top of it. Side dishes which go very well with paratha are curd, fried egg, omelette, mutton kheema (ground mutton cooked with vegetables and spices), nihari (a lamb dish), jeera aloo (potatoes lightly fried with cumin seeds), daal, and raita as part of a breakfast meal. It may be stuffed with potatoes, paneer, onions, qeema or chili peppers.

Types

 * Aloo paratha (stuffed with spicy boiled potato and onions mix).
 * Chili parotha or mirchi paratha (incorporating small, spicy shredded pieces)
 * Dulhan paratha (originating from Hyderabad, Sindh), named for its elaborate presentation, which is reminiscent of the ornate appearance of a bride ('Dulhan' in Urdu), this dish is known for its combination of flavorful ingredients.
 * Gobi paratha (stuffed with flavoured cauliflower)
 * Paneer Paratha (stuffed with farmer cheese)
 * Keema Paratha (stuffed with Keema, a spiced ground meat usually made up of chicken or lamb)
 * Pyaz Paratha (stuffed with flavoured onions)
 * Cheese Paratha (stuffed with cheese)
 * Mughlai paratha (a deep-fried stuffed paratha filled with egg and minced meat from Bangladesh and West Bengal of India)
 * Petai paratha (thin, flaky and hand-smashed paratha from West Bengal, India)
 * Dhakai paratha (flaky layered paratha from Bangladesh and West Bengal of India)
 * Murthal Paratha, deep-fried, Dhabas of Haryana and especially at Murthal on Grand Trunk Road are famous for this
 * Roti prata (Singapore)
 * Roti canai (Malaysia and Indonesia)
 * Buss-up-shut (Trinidad; the name is Trinidadian Creole for "busted-up shirt", for the resemblance of the shreddy bread to ragged old clothes)