Growing up, on Sunday mornings before church, my parents and I would steam mantou, microwave custard buns, or—my favorite—reheat frozen paratha. I loved dropping the hard discs into a hot pan and watching them transform. One night I made one for Teresa, my babysitter, and from then on, we only ate her chicken molé with paratha.
Fast forward to a year or so ago: A new, local tortilla factory started selling flour and corn tortillas at my go-to grocer. I remember picking a bag up, holding the stack in my hands, and instantly being reminded of those childhood parathas. Homemade flour tortillas are softer, with greater wrappability, but still have that unnatural flakiness. Which got me thinking: Could there be a way to combine the two?
Here we have a dough that’s tortilla in content, paratha in form. Softened lard gets mixed into flour, salt, and baking powder until pebbly. Using both all-purpose and pastry flour keeps protein levels low (read: less tough torts). If you don’t have pastry flour, sub in 1/2 cup cake flour. If you don’t have either, simply omit the pastry flour, increase the all-purpose by 6 tablespoons, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
This piecemeal mixture gets coaxed with warm water into a dough so pillowy, you’ll want to go cheek-to-cheek (and hey, who’s stopping you?). Divide into balls and roll out. If you were making tortillas, you’d go straight to a hot pan—but here’s where we veer into paratha territory: Smear each dough round with a thin layer of lard. Then roll up and coil. These coils, rolled out once more, turn into layers and layers of flakes.
The tortillas cook quickly, blistering after just 30 seconds on each side. Keep them warm, wrapped in a towel; or, let them cool thoroughly before storing in the fridge in an airtight container or bag. They come back to life after a quick toast in a hot pan (I would know, because I’ve been making breakfast tacos most mornings since the parathatillas were born). Try them bundled around shredded Bo Ssam meat, soft-scrambled eggs, tempeh nuggets, or simply drizzled with olive oil and seedy sprinkles. —Coral Lee
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