It's Diwali time and with it comes all the amazing cooking of the festive season. Today, we're going to visit an all-time favourite with a butter and sage paratha. For a crunchy and flaky paratha, let the dough coils rest overnight in the fridge and wrapped in plastic. For better preparation, you can also parcook them so the dough is cooked but the paratha is not yet browned. Easier to stack and then brown when ready to eat. Now this recipe doesn't require a lot of ingredients but there are quite a few steps.
Recipe yields 8 but it's diwali so I'm guessing you're doubling or tripling it for family and friends.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of unsalted butter cut into pieces
- 24 sage leaves
- 1 tablespoon of Himayalan salt
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 3 cups all-purpose flour and some extra
Method
- Melt butter in pan over medium heat until foamy (about 5 minutes). Continue to cook stirring once in a while until it starts to sputter (2 minutes more).
- Add the sage leaves and stir constantly until milk solids start to turn golden brown and leaves are beginning to scrip (5-7 minutes)
- Transfer leaves using slotted spoon to a plate and season with a pinch of salt
- Continue to cook butter until milk solids are golden brown (1 minute)
- Transfer butter into glass or steel measuring cup making sure to scrape all pan juices.
- Let butter mixture sit for 2-3 minutes
- Carefully pour 1/4 brown butter leaving solids behind into a bowl. Chill the rest in the fridge until creamy. It will be used for paratha layering.
- Whisk sugar, flour and salt into a large bowl. Add 1 cup of warm water and 3 tablespoon of the butter in the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until it is a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 15-20 minutes.
- Knead dough in the same bowl until it is smooth (2 minutes)
- Transfer to unfloured surface and continue kneading until smooth and elastic, 8 minutes (Dough will be very sticky at first but will grow smooth, avoid adding more flour).
- Roll dough into ball and transfer to clean bowl. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of butter and arrange so that smooth part of ball is facing up. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 2-3 hours.
- Remove dough onto lightly floured surface and cut into 8 pieces.
- Take 1 piece and roll against surface to form into ball. Coat with butter and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel for 20 minutes.
- Remove reserved butter from fridge and stir to make sure solids are mixed and spreadable. Roll 1 piece of dough on lightly floured surface until as thin as possible. Shape does not matter, you just need to make it thin. Use fingers and spread reserved butter across dough. Dust with flour and add 3 broken leaves on top.
- Starting from top, roll dough into a long snake. Fold ends into the center, stack 2 coils onto each other and press firmly. Lightly dust and place on parchment lined sheet. Repeat with the rest and let rest for 2 hours or overnight as recommended (if chilled overnight, make sure to remove dough 30 minutes prior to starting the next step).
- Heat a cast-iron or other non stick skillet, roll-out dough coils onto lightly floured surface and rotate until round shape. Brush off excess flour, parcook paratha about 2 minutes per side and transfer to clean sheet as you repeat.
- Brush pan with brown butter and place paratha in the pan. Brush paratha with more butter and cook turning every 30 seconds. Brush with butter as needed until paratha is golden and crisp (3 minutes)
- Wrap in kitchen towel and scrunch to release stem. Repeat with remaining parathas
- Enjoy with your favourite dishes!