Pisces Paratha (Fish shaped paratha)

Parathas… probably the most favourite dish in North India. You must have tried so many varieties of it with aloo, gajar, muli, methi, gobi etc, etc & etc stuffed into it. But why not try giving it some interesting shape? Being a Bengali, fish comes to my mind in the very first instance. So, I have made some fish shaped parathas with soya granules stuffing. Both the look and the taste came out amazing !!!!

Preparation time: 30 minutes, Cooking Time: 30 minutes, Servings: 4

Ingredients:

For making dough:

1. Flour – 1 cup
2. White Oil – 4 Tbsp (for making the dough) + 1/2 cup (for frying)
3. Water – as required
4. Salt – 1 pinch
5. Cloves – 4 pcs

For Stuffing:

1. Soya granules – 1 cup
2. Potato – 1 medium, finely chopped
3. Onion – 1 medium, finely chopped
4. Garlic – 3-4 cloves, finely chopped
5. Ginger paste – 1 tsp
6. Tomato – 1 small, finely chopped
7. Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
8. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
9. Salt – to taste
10. Sugar – 1 tsp
11. Garam masala powder – 1 pinch
12. Oil – 2 Tbsp

Method:

• First, prepare the dough. Mix flour, salt and white oil in a bowl. Add required amount of water into it. Then knead it properly in the same way as for paratha.
• Divide the dough in 4 portions and keep aside.
• To prepare the stuffing, heat oil in a pan. Add garlic into it. After a few seconds, add onion and let it turn golden brown.
• Then add finely chopped potatoes and tomato into it. Sauté it for a few minutes.
• Add the soya granules into it.
• Add all the spices and cook it in a low flame, preferably covering the pan with a lid. This will help the potatoes to be done.
• If required, add a little amount of water. But remember, the stuffing needs to be dry.
• When the soya and potatoes are properly cooked, remove it from heat and let it cool in a separate bowl.
• Now refer the sequence of picture below to make the fish shaped paratha.
  
• Now, take one portion of your dough and roll it on a lightly floured surface. Give it a slightly elongated round shape (Pic. 1).
• Mark an oval shape with a knife on its surface. This should look like the shape of a fish (Pic. 2).
• Place some stuffing inside this oval shape.
• Cut some strips alongside this oval shape (Pic. 3).
• Fold uppermost right strip covering the stuffing as shown in Pic. 4.
• Fold uppermost left strip over this as shown in Pic. 5.
• Continue this process as shown in Pic. 6 and 7. Leave some of the bottom strips so as to give it the shape of the fish tail.
• Place a clove at the position of the eye of the fish as shown in Pic. 8.
• Prepare all the parathas in the same way.
• Heat a fry pan. First, cook both sides of the parathas without oil. After that shallow fry them with required amount of oil (1-2 tbsp for each).

Serve hot………….

** If you want to make the stuffing with chicken keema, use boiled keema instead of soya granules and prepare the stuffing in the same way.