Mughlai Kheema Paratha

Directions

1. Marinate the finely chopped onions with ½ tsp turmeric powder, ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp chilli powder. Leave aside for 10 min.
2. Knead the all-purpose flour and wheat flour, together with ½ tsp salt, 1 tbsp hot oil, water and milk, till a soft, non-sticky dough is made. If it feels sticky, add a little all-purpose flour and knead again. Keep the dough aside for 5 min.
3. For making the minced meat stuffing, heat the griddle and add 2 tbsp oil. When the oil is hot, add the whole bay leaves, cumin seeds and the whole spices. Let them change their colour to light brown. Now add the meat (marinated with ½ tsp turmeric, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp chilli powder for 20 min) and the coriander and cumin powders and sauté on a medium flame for 5 min. Add the garam masala powder and sauté for 10 more min. Switch off the gas and add the lime juice and mix well. This forms the meat stuffing.
4. After 5 min, take out a palm-sized ball from the main dough and roll it into a big, thin circle: the thinner, the better! This is the paratha base.
5. Heat another griddle and add 2 tbsp ghee. Let it smoke. Now slide the paratha slowly into this, so that the edges do not fold. The heat should be medium. Now flip the paratha after 1 min, lower the flame and add 3 tbsp of the cooked minced meat stuffing. Spread a little, but don’t spread till the circumference. Add two eggs (whisked with ¼ tsp salt) on this meat and spread till the circumference. Add half each of the marinated onions and chillies and spread over again. Importantly, the ingredients of the stuffing should be quickly added to the paratha one after the other, otherwise the paratha base will become crisp, making it hard for you to give a triangular (or square) shape afterwards.
6. After 1 min, fold the circular paratha from three directions in order to get a triangular shape (four directions for a square), pressing each fold for 5 sec, so that the fold gets sealed with the (still raw) egg underneath. Increase the flame at this stage to medium for 2 min and then revert back to a low flame. Low flame is important, so that the egg gets cooked to perfection and the paratha is super-crisp! After 7 min, flip the whole paratha very carefully using two spoons, one placed above and the other below. Continue cooking at low flame for 5 min. Now increase the flame to medium for 2 min, pressing the paratha softly from the top. Reduce the flame again and continue to cook for 5 more min, pressing the paratha down with the kitchen spoon. This is can be served with chutney, pickle, yogurt or simple tomato-chilli sauce!