Trinidadian Paratha Roti
Recipe by The Ivory Hut
by: Three Many Cooks
Serves: Makes 8
Ingredients
- If you like, substitute self-rising flour for the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- 7½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling and sprinkling
- 8 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 cups lukewarm water, or as needed to create a soft dough
- ¼ cup ghee or oil, or more as needed
- 1 to 2 sticks softened butter
Instructions
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Slowly pour in 1 cup of the warm water; mix very lightly with your hands until a portion of the dry ingredients come together into a shaggy, fairly dry dough. Transfer that portion to a plate. Repeat mixing with another cup of water, then followed by the last cup of water, sprinkling in additional water as needed in the last batch to form “shaggy dough”.
- Return shaggy dough portions to the mixing bowl and knead lightly it, adding oil, to form a soft mass. Coat bowl with oil then cover dough with a damp kitchen towel until dough is relaxed (or until it has properly “soaked” as they say in Trinidad), about 1 hour.
- Divide dough into 8 portions and gently form into smooth balls. Dust the balls with flour and place them about 4 inches apart on a floured baking sheet. Cover with a damp towel; let rest again for half an hour (or more, if you like) until dough relaxes again.
- Working one at a time, roll a dough ball on a floured surface into a thin round. Spread a thin coat of softened butter on the entire surface. Sprinkle flour on buttered surface. Following photos, slit dough with a knife from center to an edge. Starting on a cut end, roll dough in a cone shape. Using your thumb, tuck the dough into the open end of the cone, filling the hole completely. Then press the pointed end of the cone, and lightly press the dough back into a ball shape and return it to the floured baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. Let dough rest again, about 15 minutes.
- When ready to make the roti, set out a plate and two clean kitchen towels. Heat a large skillet, griddle (or tawa if you’ve got one) over medium heat. When skillet is properly heated (very important), roll one of the dough balls on a lightly floured surface into an approximate 10-inch round. Brush skillet with butter (or ghee) and then lay the roti on the hot skillet. When small bubbles appear over half the roti surface, about 1½ minutes (if roti is cooking too fast, lower heat), lightly brush with butter and then flip. Continue to cook, occasionally spinning roti to prevent burning and pressing down on the edges with a spatula or wooden spoon so edges cook properly. When second side is done, lightly brush the first side with butter again. Flip one last time just to let the butter soak in. Roti surface should be slightly crisp and lightly spotted browned.
- Place the roti into the center of one of the clean towel, fold each side of the towel over to cover the roti, and twist the ends of the towel to create a candy-wrapper shape. Grabbing each twisted end of the towel, smash your fists together to break up the roti layers. Transfer roti to the plate lined with the other kitchen towel; cover roti to keep it warm. Grease skillet and repeat with remaining dough balls, occasionally shaking the "beating cloth" over the sink to get rid of crumbs. (Or eat them like I do. 🙂 )
- Photos by The Ivory Hut & Tom
I’ve never heard of these before but they look so good!
Yupper’s! I would need a hands on class :-)! Looks yummy!
You’re not wrong, Bob. It’s sort of funny because I say in the post – you really need someone to teach you. But also if you made this dough and did something even close to what these directions say you’d get a fantastic bread (you just might not be able to call it Trinidadian Paratha Roti), but it would still be incredibly delicious 🙂
What a great recipe!
How I would love to dip this into a spicy curry!
i’m a trini myself, and i have to say your paratha (or buss-up-shot) looks great! maybe as good as my dad’s?…. don’t tell him that though 😉
Oh, thank you Amanda! What a compliment! We had a lot of help from our friends, but we are definitely going to keep making them and hope ours turn out this well again 🙂
How I would love to dip this into a spicy curry!
I’ve been looking for a recipe for this!! We had these when we were in Trinidad…filled with deep fried shark, lettuce, onion and some fabulous sauce!!
good trini paratha, this is what I know growing up in Trinidad.
looks good for a person whose not trini, im trini btw, mines looks and taste way better though
what type of flour did you use.. I would like to try this..
We used all-purpose flour. Good luck!
Hey,
I’m from Trinidad and I was very pleased to see this recipe on your site. Paratha is one of my favorite things to eat and I love the smell of it. These look delicious.
Thanks.
They do look good for someone who doesn’t have the experience, I’m from deep South Trinidad and I endorse you lol! To get the absolute real taste you have to ask the elders… Happy cooking!