Aloo Methi Paratha / Aloo Methi Stuffed Paratha Recipe

Today the tamil Month Aadi started, Aadi Month is specially celebrated in My Home town, Salem, Tamil Nadu. The first day of Aadi is celebrated as Thengai Suduthal Pandigai in our home town. The local schools will be closed early mainly for this occasion and i still remember those days where we rush to home to clean coconut, fill it with stuffing and to do fire roasting. Me, my sister, cousins and neighbor friends wil have a competition like who is filling the coconut first and whose coconut has the more quantity of stuffing and tasty one. Mom buys a whole fresh coconut from the market and we ourself remove the outer fibre and rub it in sand to get the smooth shell. Then we wash the coconuts and put a hole on one of the 3 eyes on the coconut and start stuffing the coconut with sweet stuffing like - Jaggery, poha, rice, moongdal, dalia, sesame seeds. To know how the coconut is filled and roasted checkout my friend Chitra's space where she explained everything with detailed pictures. Chitra is my school mate and we are from same town, same area. Today Morning after seeing her post, i was excited & tempted to taste that delicious roasted coconut and at the same time felt sad missing my home town. I too wanted to try it but so far in all my apartments we have electric stove only. And more over here the coconuts will not be fresh, tender and good like we get in India. Not only the first day of the month, the whole month is considered auspicious and we worship the Goddess Amman, salem Kottai Mariamman Festival is very popular lots of people visits the temple this month from in and around the districts.

Now coming to the recipe, this Aloo Methi Paratha /Potato Methi Stuffed Paratha goes to the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge started by Priya. In which every month the group members were paired each other and each pair exchange ingredients between them and cook a recipe with the given ingredients by their partner.

I missed the past two month's post and this time decided not to miss it. For this month I was paired with Amrita Iyer of Foodsamritans and she gave me Methi and Carrot as secret ingredients in turn i gave her Wheat flour and cilantro. I have used both my given ingredients in this recipe, this is a flavorful and yummy aloo methi stuffed paratha. we totally loved it with Boondi Raita. This time somehow i got round shaped parathas all because of my neighbor aunt. Once they invited us for a lunch and she prepared Aloo Paratha for lunch, that time i was amazed to see her perfect round shaped parathas and all the parathas were even and perfectly stuffed, so soft and delicious too. After seeing her parathas i too tried it the same way and happy to see my round shaped parathas. Now off to the recipe...

Preparation Time : 20 minutes(including potato boiling time)

Cooking Time :  10 minutes + 15 minutes

Makes about 7 stuffed Parathas 

Ingredients
For Dough

1. Whole wheat flour    1 and 1/2 cups
2. Salt   to taste
3. Water    as needed

        Take a mixing bowl,add flour and salt mix well.Using water make it to a soft and smooth dough cover it and keep aside for at least 15-20 minutes.

For Aloo Methi Stuffing

1. Aloo/Potato   2 medium(boiled, peeled and mashed)
2. Fresh Methi leaves   1/2 cup
3. Green chilli    2 or 3 
4. Ginger   1" piece
5. Carrot   1/4 cup(shredded)optional
6. Turmeric Powder   1/4 tsp
7. Cumin Powder    1/2 tsp
8. Lemon juice   1-2 tsp
9. Salt   to taste
10. Sugar   a pinch
11. Oil   2-3 tsp + to toast paratha
12. Cumin Seeds   1/4 tsp
13. Hing   a pinch

Method
Boil potatoes, cool for a while, peel then mash it and keep aside.
In a blender, coarsely ground ginger and green chilli and keep ready.
Heat oil in a kadai, when its heated add cumin seeds wait till splutter, then add hing ground ginger-chilli and fry well.

After that add methi leaves, sprinkle salt and sugar, stir fry for a minute.
Then add mashed potato, turmeric powder, enough salt and mix well and fry for a minute.

And add cumin powder and give a nice stir and finally add shredded carrot and squeeze lemon juice, stir well and switch off the stove.

That's it..Aloo Methi stuffing is ready..allow to cool completely.
Once it is cooled completely, then divide into 7 lemon sized balls and keep aside.
How to Make Aloo Methi Stuffed Paratha:
Knead the resting dough for few seconds and divide them in to 7 equal sized balls.

On a well floured surface, take one ball and roll to 3" disc and keep one potato ball and seal them by bringing all the edges together and roll them gently to a round ball.
Then on a floured surface/rolling pan, start rolling gently to 8" parathas.
Do repeat the same procedure for remaining dough and potato balls.

Heat tawa/griddle,fry the parathas on both sides till turn light golden brown...drizzle some oil on all around the parathas while toasting.
After that remove from the tawa, Aloo Methi Paratha is now ready and serve hot with plain yogurt and Mango Pickle.

This is off to Priya's Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge.

Notes:
Adding carrot is optional but sure makes it even more colorful and delicious.
Instead of green chilli you can also use chilli powder.
You can also skip lemon juice and add amchur powder.
As i was concentrating with the round shape paratha i completely forgot to take the pictures of stuffing and rolling...will update it later.