Flatbreads | ashstylegourmet's Blog

For me traveling to different places necessarily also includes tasting the local cuisine and getting to know the names of their food dishes. During my recent Budapest visit, one of the days we ate at the local street food restaurant and the sight and taste of their flatbread totally made me think of our very own Bhaturas. They called it Lángos, it is the Hungarian street food that is a deep-fried flat bread made using refined flour, yeast, water or milk. They also use potato and sour cream or yogurt to make this and the name changes accordingly.

Through this post I wished to highlight the similarities of the breads that go by different names in two different countries, which are geographically far away from each other. In North India we have our Bhaturas that are made using refined flour and yogurt (I make use of this). I have been observing this very fascinating food fact about breads in different countries that I have traveled so far. The basic ingredients of the breads is very much common around most parts. (You can check out my older post about the Georgian bread here.)

Sharing my Bhatura recipe and also the pictures of the Hungarian street food from my recent travels.

BHATURAS

INGREDIENTS:

Refined Flour: 250 gm

Sour curd: 100 ml

Ajwain/Carom seeds: 1 Tsp

Water: 100 ml

Salt: 1 Tsp

Cooking oil: for frying

METHOD:

Take the refined flour and add the salt and Ajwain to it and mix. Add the curd and mix well, we get a lumpy flour mix.

Using the water make a loose dough, it will be sticky. Use some oil to prevent it from sticking to the palm and make a round ball and keep this in the bowl and cover with kitchen towel. Keep this bowl in a warm place for 2-3 hours. For these bhaturas I do not keep the dough in warm place over night. I prefer the taste and flavor of the bhaturas with short leavening time. (had seen a north Indian friend keep the dough overnight and then made the bhaturas).

Note: (I prefer to make them a bit smaller than the regular bhaturas seen in restaurants as then I do not need to pour too much oil in the Kadai for frying. It is not a healthy habit to keep the leftover heated oil for reuse)

Heat cooking oil in a Kadai and deep fry the rolled out bhaturas until they become puffed up golden on both side. Pressing them with the fry ladle skimmer while frying in oil helps to puff them up.

These were served hot with spicy masala chole.

Hungarian Lángos

Sharing below pictures that I clicked of the Hungarian Lángos displayed in the restaurant in Budapest.

ashu’s photography-Lángos with sour cream and cheese

ashu’s photography-Lángos with Chicken Goulash

This plate of the bread with the chicken goulash was very tasty, very close to my cooking style and taste preference. We enjoyed tasting this new dish and loved our dinner at this Budapest restaurant that evening.

I hope you all liked this post as much as I loved cooking the bhaturas and writing and sharing the pictures with you all here.

Enjoy home cooking and eating with the family at the dinning table and create memories 🙂

ashu

Greetings from Ashu to all the readers. It has been a sudden unexpected absence from this online space of mine and I sure missed posting new posts. Starting this new day of March with one of my healthier recipes, Green Papaya Paratha that uses raw papaya as the main ingredient of the recipe.

Parathas are a common menu item in the Indian household, a well accepted food by all, be it the kids, young or old folks. One can have any number of possibilities or types of parathas. It is one of my favorite dishes to make for breakfast, nothing beats the hot stuffed parathas and achar/pickle on a chilly winter morning. I have very fond memories of the yummy parathas that I used to make in the winter months during my stay in North India.

Breakfast happens to be the most essential meal of the day and hence one should try and make sure to eat a wholesome, healthy one on a regular basis. The necessity to make a nutritious breakfast made me try out this different paratha, making use of the raw papaya that I had got from the market. Papaya fruit has lot of health benefits. It is a rich source of antioxidants and phytonutrients that work against free radicals, is great source of Vitamins A, B, C and K, a good source of fiber, also has the digestive enzyme Papain and thus helps in digestion too. It is also rich in calcium and some other minerals. The taste of grated raw papaya is also very refreshing and one can make use of it to make many dishes, but here I incorporated it to make the filling of the parathas and with little addition of oil, the crispy and hot parathas were heartily devoured. If you have not tried this paratha then I suggest you to try once and then decide.

Many a times one is faced with taking care of a sick loved one and is faced with the question to what type of food to include in the regular diet. This Paratha would make an excellent snack or meal menu option as it is wholesome, with vegetable that has fiber, vitamins, is good for digestion and as is a regularly made food item in Indian houses hence one does not have to put extra efforts in its preparation. When cooking for family or loved ones, do make the food with a smile and add loads of your love to it.

Recipe for Green Papaya Paratha:

INGREDIENTS:

Raw Green Papaya: 1 Small

Green Chilli: 2

Green Coriander: 1 Tbsp

Sesame seeds: 2 Tbsp

Carrom seeds: 1 Tsp

Wheat Flour: 250 Gm

Water: 1 Glass

Oil: 50 ml

Turmeric: 1 Tsp

Red Chili Powder: 1 Tsp (Optional)

Salt : To Taste

Chaat Masala: 2 Tsp

METHOD:

Wash and dry the raw papaya. Cut into half and remove the seeds if any. Grate both the halves of the papaya and put in a bowl.

Finely chop the green chilies and green coriander and add to the bowl of grated papaya.

Add sesame seeds, carom seeds, red chili powder, salt, turmeric, and mix all the ingredients of the bowl.

In another bowl make a medium-soft dough of the wheat flour using water. For method of making wheat flour dough click here.

Make lemon-sized balls of the dough. Take a dough ball and roll out a small round puri and add the raw papaya filling, close the edges and again roll to make a circular Paratha.

Heat a Frypan or Tava on the gas flame and cook both side of the paratha, apply oil as per taste.

Apply oil and Cook paratha on both side till golden brown or crispy.

Once the parathas are ready, one can sprinkle Chaat masala powder over them and serve with either a yogurt raita or a mint yogurt chutney or Tomato Ketchup.