Raw Papaya Paratha

Raw Papaya is used in salads, curries or stuffing for parathas – either way it is a great way to eat it as it is very nutritive. This vegetable is used very often in Thai cuisine.

The raw papaya that is shown here, did not have a single seed inside and made my job that much easier. I just had to peel off the skin and grate it. This recipe is from the famous chef Sanjeev Kapoor of Khaana Khazana fame.  It turned out so delicious that I did it a second time and was highly pleased to see it disappear from the serving plates before I could churn out another one!

See here also for the Raw Papaya Salad recipe.

Ingredients:

For the stuffing :

Raw Papaya

Raw Papaya (grated)	About 2 cups
Green chilies (chopped)	1 or 2
Red chilly powder	½ tsp
Jeera/Cumin powder	½ tsp
Garam Masala	1 tsp
Amchur (Dry mango) powder	1 tsp
Salt	As per taste
Coriander leaves (chopped)	2tbsps

You will also need the following:

• Prepared chapatti dough from wheat flour
• And oil for shallow frying

Method:

• Prepare the dough with whole wheat flour as you normally do for making chapattis. It should be soft and pliable.
• Make fairly large sized balls from the dough and keep them aside.

For the Stuffing:

Ingredients

1. First squeeze out the juice as much as possible from the grated raw papaya and place it in a bowl.
2. Roughly crush chopped green chilies and salt together and add this in the bowl.
3. Next add all the powders (red chilly, jeera, garam masala and amchur) and the chopped coriander leaves.
4. Use your hands and mix them well.
5. Take each dough ball, flatten them using your hands or the rolling pin and take a small quantity of the above mixture and place in it (as shown in the pic) and seal it well. 
6. Now using the rolling pin, and dusting the board with wheat flour, lightly roll them into the required size parathas.
7. In the meantime, heat a tawa or a griddle. Wait till the tawa is hot enough and then lower the flame to "low" and place the prepared paratha on it. After a minute, flip it on the other side.
8. Dribble a little oil on the edges and fry them on either side till brown spots appear.
9. Remove and serve hot with plain curds.

Grated Raw Papaya mixture being stuffed in the paratha base

Note:

• The above stuffing is enough for 3 medium size parathas.
• A dollop of home made butter (white butter) placed on this hot paratha tastes excellent. Watch out for the extra calories though. 

Paratha being fried on one side

Paratha almost ready