Aloo Paratha — Potato-Stuffed Flatbread Moisture Control (आलू पराठा)

Punjab — morning meal associated with Amritsar and the dhaba roadside restaurant tradition

Aloo paratha is the Punjabi breakfast flatbread above all others — a whole-wheat disc encasing a spiced potato filling, rolled flat, cooked on a tawa with generous amounts of ghee on both sides. The technique challenge is entirely in the filling: potato that retains too much water creates steam during cooking that tears the paratha; potato that is over-dried becomes crumbly and the paratha splits at rolling. The filling must be smooth (not mashed with large lumps, which create pressure points) and seasoned cold, not hot. Fresh coriander, green chilli, ajwain, and dried pomegranate seeds (anardana) are the essential flavour notes.

• Structurally parallels the Turkish gözleme (cheese-herb flatbread), the Chinese bing with filling, and the Argentinian empanada in enclosed-filling-flatbread technique.

With white butter, dahi (yoghurt), mango pickle. The contrasting temperatures and textures — hot crisp paratha, cold butter, cold yoghurt — are structurally important to the dish.