Stuffed Indian Bread with Cauliflower (Gobi Parantha)

Paranthas are extremely versatile and filling food, and transforms boring veggies into delicious breads.
All you need is some pickle, or a bit of yoghurt, or even tomato ketchup. Ofcourse a hot finger burning Parantha doesnt even need that, as long as you have a nice spoonful(or 2-3) of white butter to go along with it.

I love making paranthas, they are easy, and can be stuffed and rolled in different ways. The rule of thumb I use for any parantha is the same, the softness of the dough should be the same as the softness of the filling. A too liquidy or soft filling, and it won't spread to the edges, and will make rolling out sticky and messy. A harder filling, and it will tear through the dough. Also if you are adding raw ingredients to the stuffing like onions and garlic, they should be very finely chopped.

Gobi Paranthas require the stuffing to be cooked till the cauliflower becomes soft and dry.

Puran Polis - Sweet Maharashtrian flat bread

When it comes to cooking Indian food, especially Maharashtrian cuisine, there is only person I trust to hand down the yummiest tasting dishes, and that would be my Mom. She makes the most intricate desserts, the most delicate savouries and makes it look like she was just dusting off a speck of dirt....but every time I get a recipe from her, I get this feeling of walking on a ledge, exhilarating and scary.......

This Holi festival, I finally had enough courage to attempt making those really delicate Puran Polis(Puran = stuffing made of Chana dal also called as Bengal Gram Dal I think, Poli = flat bread), because even for people who make these regularly, there are several things than can go wrong, and instead of a delicate golden yellow tastes-like-a-piece-of-heaven bread might end up with a really heavy Paratha with the taste of flour coming through like a normal bread, and thats a strict no no.

Making the stuffing:
1 cup Chana Dal
1 cup Jaggery, 2-3 cups sugar
Cardamom, saffron and nutmeg for flavor( around 1/2 a tsp each, and 7-8 strands of saffron)

Boil chana dal until soft (6-7 cups of water to boil if cooking directly in a vessel, I used a pressure cooker and 1.5 cups of water)
Strain any remaining water from the dal and keep it on the strainer for 10-15 minutes till most of the water is removed.

Add jaggery and sugar to the chana daal and cook over medium heat. The jaggery and sugar will melt and with the Chana daal will form a liquidy mixture.