sindhi koki

it's been over a month since i last cooked in london. right before i left on my travels, i made sindhi koki one night, totally out of the blue. i was rummaging through my fridge and pantry when i realised that i hadn't been to waitrose or the indian grocery store in ages. no pasta. no rice. no maggi noodles. not even any frozen left overs. the only thing i seemed to have in abundance was pickles. all kinds of them. mango chunda, mango chilli, vadu manga, manga thokku, green chilli, andhra onion, to name just a few. all thanks to my dad who can't send me enough of pickles through h who is in bombay every other week on work!

the pickles were so tempting that i searched desperately for parathas in my freezer but with no luck. that's when i decided to make parathas myself. i had loads of chappati atta and a little bit of coriander lying around from some rasam i had made a few days back. i used them both in this recipe (from tarla dalal's subziyah cookbook) for double parathas also called sindhi koki:

4 cups wheat flour
2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
6 green chillies, finely chopped
2 tbsps coriander leaves, finely chopped
2 tbsps ghee to be added to the flour
sufficient water to make the dough
salt to taste

add the finely chopped onions, green chillies and coriander leaves to the flour. knead a slightly stiff dough with ghee and salt. make equal portions. roll out each portion like a thick round chappati. i like to add a little bit of yogurt at this stage to make my parathas really soft. with a knife, make a design of diagonal lines criss-crossing each other from one end of the chappati to the other. this is to ensure that the koki gets cooked well. rub the tava with a touch of ghee and cook the koki on a low flame, (adding ghee when turning from one side to the other) till golden.