Mooli Paratha or Radish Paratha

My knowledge for parathas was limited only to few varieties like Aloo paratha,gobi paratha,paneer paratha and mooli paratha before marriage. Hubby is very fond of parathas as he was completely brought up in Delhi and he introduced me to various varieties of paratha's and I actually started liking parathas only after marriage.Here in Mumbai,there is a place called "Only Parathas" for all the paratha lovers,they have an amazing range of parathas with single layer,double layer and single filling,double filling or multiple choice of fillings and served with kala chana, Dal makhani, raitha, pickle and onions.We end up visiting that place atleast once a week as both of us are very big fans of their yummy parathas.
And coming to today's post I am posting a simple paratha which is stuffed with a mixture of grated radish paired with some spices .Radish is very strong in flavor when compared to other vegetables and because of this some people might not like to use it in their cooking.But radish/mooli when paired with ajwain will reduce the flavor from mooli to a great extent and also enhances the taste of paratha.
Ingredients:

for Outer covering:
2 cups Whole wheat flour
2 tsp Oil
Salt to taste
ghee/butter
water to mix the dough

for Filling:
5-6 big Radish/mooli
5 Green chillies,finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped Coriander
1/2 tsp ajwain/carom seeds
1 tsp Jeera powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Garam masala
1/2 tsp dry mango powder/Amchur
salt to taste

Method:

To make dough:

• Take wheat flour in a bowl,add enough salt to it and mix well.
• Make a well in between and pour enough water and slowly mix in the dough until it forms soft dough.
• Smear oil over it and knead again into a smooth elastic dough and cover it with lid and keep it aside for half an hour.

To make Filling:

• Grate radish and add some salt to it mix well and keep it aside for 15 mins.Squeeze out the water completely and leave it aside for some more time.Ssqueeze it again to remove all the moisture from the radish.You can add this squeezed out water while mixing the dough so that the taste of radish retains inside the paratha.
• Add ajwain,finely chopped green chillies,chopped coriander,coriander powder,jeera powder,amchur powder and garam masala to it and mix well.do not add salt to it as it leaves the water in the mixture which makes it difficult while rolling.

To make paratha:

• Take a big lemon sized dough ball and make into a cup shape using your fingers.Run your fingers in the wheat flour which eases the process of making cup.Make the cup in such a way the edges are thin and the center portion is thicker.(Or you can simply the roti to around 3 inches dia and place the filling and get all the edges together and seal and roll it again into a 6" diamenter paratha.)
• Place the radish mixture in the center until it stuff the dough cup completely.Bring both the edges together and seal it and then make in the form of sealed pouch and slowly flatten it and roll it gently into thick paratha.Do not apply much pressure while rolling otherwise the filling may come outside.
• Fry it on tawa on both side smearing oil until it forms dark brown spots on it.Grease it with ghee or butter at the end.Frying paratha's take longer time than roti's as they are quite thick and needs to get cooked evenly.

Serve it hot with Achaar,Boondi raitha and Green Chutney.
For the Mirch Achaar's recipe check here.

Note:

1. You can even add jeera or ajwain to the dough for outer layer while mixing,which gives different taste.
2. Make the dough little softer than the roti dough,it helps in sealing the edges properly and also avoids the filling from spilling out.
3. Roll the paratha's thicker than the chapathy's/roti's and fry them for long until crisp.
4. Avoid butter and ghee for a Vegan version.Use oil instead.