Musing over muli parathas.

The keto diet worked for the first 2 kg, but I persist because,  among other reasons, it allows me stuffed parathas  made with keto-atta, guiltlessly!. And so, this morning, I dug into this particularly succulent muli paratha that Saraswati, our cook, had conjured up and my mind wandered. Her overstuffed parathas are a testament to the quiet pride she has in her work, and  they bring back memories of the overstuffed parathas of my growing up years.

In our family, aloo parathas were reserved exclusively for Sunday brunches. They were uncomplicated. My mother would put only salt and red chillies in the mashed potatoes, and really overstuff the parathas. My father had this unmistakable belief, honed from years of frying any and everything, that the finer intricacies of frying a paratha required his expert hand. We were coached, of course, but there was never any doubt, that he was the supreme artist. The steps were, put the paratha on a hot tawa, no too hot and not cold either, full flame on the gas. Allow the atta to cook, but not so much that it gets dark spots; light brown spots were ok or very small dark browns were fine too. Then you turned the paratha, cooked the other side the same, while applying a generous helping of oil / ghee on the already cooked side. You turned it over and heard the satisfying sizzle, cooked it on the same full flame for a period of time that could be judged only from years of experience, and then turned the flame low till the paratha was crisp. You naturally repeated the process on the other side. 

And so, very often on a Sunday morning, my parents would get into our narrow kitchen, for aloo parathas in summer and gobhi and muli parathas in winter. The parathas were ever so crisp and flaky and I was always confused whether the butter tasted better, as it was, straight out of the butter dish, or when it had melted golden all over the paratha.  The confusion persists. To this day, I finish off the curd that accompanies every paratha meal beforehand; can’t have anything interfering with that soft flakiness and the taste bomb that the stuffing is. 

The keto diet will be easy to stick to.