Quick Besan Lachha Parantha with Garlic Chutney

So the other day, Man, Woman and Children aka husband, me and kids went out to eat. And a woman noticed my little one in the stroller, all bundled up in a yellow-purple sweater and blue-orange-purple-yellow woolen cap. And she remarked “Oh, now aren’t you the prettiest baby girl I’ve ever seen? ”

me- ummm…. He is a boy.

She- Oh, am sorry.

me- No Problem. 🙂

Now, I love colors. I really do! They make life beautiful and worth living. They are the tadka to my dal and the makkhan on my paranthas. They jazz things up, to say the least. But I don’t like the fact that colors, like religion, have been assigned and categorized!!! Hey, you take black and I’ll take white. Blue can be his and pink should be hers. Even though it was a beautiful soft purple (and not the pretty pink) that was the cause of the misunderstanding, it still wasn’t reason enough to assume the gender. Was it?

Now don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t upset or angry at the woman when it happened. It was an honest mistake. Nor was it a big deal to me that my Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) looked like Dora (the explorer) to her. But it made me think why have we destroyed the innocence, neutrality (not to be confused with net-neutrality 🙂 ) and the whole essence of colors in the process? Why does PINK symbolizes all things girly and BLUE has become synonymous with boys? In a world, where black and white are alternatively been shunned and embraced on sad and joyful occasions, green and orange have been sacrificed in the name of religions, pink and blue have been given the huge responsibility of announcing the gender of a child, to the world, from a mile away…….. not much is left, is it?

Of course, there is ‘makkhan wala Besan lachha parantha with garlic chutney’ left and that makes everything alright with the world, once again! When I first tasted these paranthas at my parents’ house, (made by our awesome house-help) I swear to you that I heard winds blowing, birds chirping and violins playing in the background. No, No, No I am not talking about the movie Mohabbatein here, I am talking about the awesome besan paranthas. And the garlic chutney? It’s why you will hold your tummy and say “Gosh, Why did I eat so many darn paranthas?”

Yum

Quick Besan Lachha Parantha with Garlic Chutney

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

For the Garlic Chutney (for 4-6 people)
• 66 gms peeled Garlic cloves
• 2-3 tsp red Chili powder (hot and bright red chili powder works best)
• 2 1/2 tsp Coriander powder
• 6 tbsp. Oil
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 tsp dry Mango powder
• 1/8 plus 1/4 cup Water to grind the chutney
For the Parantha (for 3 paranthas)
• Dough made out of Whole wheat flour
• Ghee to shallow fry the paranthas
• 3 tbsp. Besan/Gram flour
• 2 1/4 tbsp. Oil
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• 3/4 tsp Chili powder
• 1 tsp dry Mango powder
• 1/2 tsp roasted Cumin powder

Instructions

For Chutney
1. Add garlic, chili powder, coriander powder, and salt in a grinder and grind it into a fine, smooth paste using water.
2. Take a steel pan and add oil to it. When the oil heats up, add the paste and let it cook for sometime. You will notice that initially, the paste will absorb all the oil and then when cooked, it will ooze out oil.
3. Add mango powder to it and give a minute before turning off the heat.
For Paranthas
4. In a bowl, mix besan, oil and spices. Mix well.
5. Roll the dough into 5-6 inch diameter. Apply one-third besan paste on the dough. I found that fingers work best for this.

6. Now fold the rolled-dough in and out in waves to get the layered affect.

7. Roll the log into a disc.
8. Flatten it out and using dry flour, roll it out once again.

9. Heat a cast iron tava on medium-high heat, shallow fry the parantha using ghee on both sides. Enjoy it with yogurt and garlic chutney.

Notes

Sometimes, using a pan made out of reactive metal can turn the chutney green in color. That is why I went for a steel pan. Adding dry mango powder in the end also helps in avoiding garlic oxidation. If the chutney is still turning green, then let the chutney cool down before adding mango powder.

Individually, both chutney and parantha have right amount of mango powder in them but together they can taste a bit more tangy than you would like. In that case, reduce the mango powder to half in the parantha recipe.

Always use iron tava for juicy and crispy paranthas. Non stick totally ruins the taste and texture of paranthas, in my opinion.

Besan paranthas have a tendency to be little drying. Ghee works better than oil in besan paranthas as ghee keeps it moist yet crispy.

Oil floating on top of the chutney saves it from drying out. If you want to use less oil, you should consume it within few hours.

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