Bengali Dhakai Paratha
Bengali Dhakai Paratha is a century old delicacy and is a traditional Bengali Paratha. It is a flaky layered deep fried poori made with all purpose flour having a hollow center in the middle.
Servings 10 medium pooris
Ingredients
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 cup Flour for layering
- 3 tsp Ghee
- 1/4 cup Cooking Oil for layering
- 1/2 cup Water cold, for kneading
- Cooking Oil for deep frying
Instructions
Kneading the Dough
- Take a wide bowl with the flour, add the fat and rub well. This will help paratha become crispy while frying. We call this process as moyan.
- Now, slowly add cold water little by little to flour mix and start kneading with fingers. You should knead to a stiff dough as it will soften after resting.
- Keep the dough in a bowl and leave it for 30 mins. Cover with a lid or wet kitchen towel.
Rolling out the disc for frying
- After 30 mins, take the dough and knead again.
- Divide the dough into equal balls and roll again to get a smooth ball.
- Dust the rolling board, and using a rolling pin, roll each ball to form a circular disc.
- The disc should be little thicker than luchi/ poori. Roll out as wide as you can.
- Pour few drops of cooking oil on the disc and spread evenly all over.
- Then, sprinkle 1 tsp flour on top of oil and spread as evenly as possible.
- Now, take a sharp knife and cut along the radium of the circle; meaning from center towards the circumference or the outer line of the disc. Watch the video for clear demonstration.
- Take the corner of the cut and roll it along with the circumference (edge) into a conical shape towards top.
- Take the cone, and loosen the layers and tuck the loose ends of the outer larger part inward into the the cone.
- Place the cone on the board horizontally with the bigger part towards your left.
- Using a sharp knife, chop about 1 inch in the middle. You will be left with a small cone.
- Dip the chopped side of the larger cone in oil and place it in a bowl with the side dipped in oil facing up.
- Continue with all the balls.
- With the remaining small pointed dough, knead again to form cones and continue the same.
- Once you have rolled all, set aside and cover with damp cotton cloth. Allow to rest for 30 mins.
Making the Paratha or Flaky Poori
- Now, take one cone at a time and push your little finger inside through the narrow part of the cone from the side dipped in oil.
- Roll it gently to make a small hole. Since this has oil, it will be smooth to form a well.
- Place the cone on rolling surface and press the cone gently from top, gently using a rolling pin roll out into a 6 inch disc.
- Make sure you don't press too much else the layers will merge.
- The rolling should be done gently so as not to close the flaky layers.
- Continue with all the balls and keep it ready before frying them.
Frying the Dhakai Porota
- Heat a kadai with enough cooking oil. Once oil turns hot, simmer the flame.
- Add one dhakai paratha slowly in the hot oil. Firstly, it will go down to the bottom of the kadai and immediately will float back on the top.
- Now, using a ladle, start pouring hot oil over the middle part, where the layers will give way to form a hole.
- Press well to cook till the poori/ paratha making sure the pooris are evenly cooked all over.
- Turn to the other side, and cook.
- Once paratha is nicely coloured and crispy, remove from oil with a slotted spoon. Tilt it halfway and hold it for few seconds to discard excess oil.
- Drain to a kitchen towel for the excess oil to drain off that may still be there in the layers.
- Fry rest of the paratha in same manner.
- These flaky Dhakai Paratha are served with street style Alu diye Cholar Dal and mishti.
Notes
- Dhakai parathas are not served right as the pooris will have some oil in the layers. Let it sit for 5 to 7 mins before serving.
- Moyan or adding fat into the flour and rubbing it well is very important as this helps in creating layers or flaky end product.
- Add cold water to enable the fat covered with flour. So make sure you add the water slowly to knead to stiff dough. This dough rests for 30 mins and if you knead it too soft, you will end up with a loose dough. The final ready dough should still be stiff.
- The dough should be kneaded well so as not to get any crack. You should also roll it out carefully else if cracks form, it will dunk oil or become very crispy.
- On the final rolling out, you should not apply too much pressure as the layers till get merged.
- Frying these flaky pooris at the right temperature is very important as the layers separate with the right hot. So check if the oil is hot enough by dropping in a tiny dough. The dough should sizzle up and you know the temperature is correct.
- The moment the poori comes up, you should pour hot oil over the middle for the layers to separate.
Simmer at this stage and pour enough hot oil over it. Then flip over and cook on both sides again. - Keeping the fried pooris tilted over the kadai sides, will ensure all excess oil to drain off.
- Make sure all the oil is drained off. Since this is deep fried and if it has oil, the pooris will become soggy and not be fit to be consumed.
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