If someone served me a plate of hot, crisp, stuffed parathas, I would kiss their hands. Sadly, no one is at the moment and, as I hate kneading dough, making the stuffing and so on, I satisfy my craving when I go out to eat. I did that when I went to That’s Y Food where I was served a golden brown, piping hot gobhi paratha. It was the eve of my annual leave so I decided to not to make a fuss about the fact that they were made with ghee, and got down to business. “Try a mutter paratha,” said Ranjana Singhal. I hate to say it in print but I followed that up with a achari paneer paratha and finally a jalapeno cheese-stuffed one.
Then Singhal asked, “These are frozen parathas. How did you like them?” As I gaped at her, she brought forth the parathas in their packages and told me she had launched a new product called Totaram’s Good Parathas. I am not a great fan of frozen foods but I would never have guessed the hot, hearty parathas were anything but freshly made.
“It took us many many months before we came up with the right taste,” says Singhal and adds that the process of making them is strictly controlled by stringent quality control checks. After hits and misses, debates and tasting marathons, seven flavours were finalised. “These seven are our first phase. There will be more,” promises Singhal. The vegetarian options are Aloo, Achari paneer, Jalapeno and cheese, Gobhi and Mutter. Non-vegetarians can pick up Chicken and Cheese and Mutton Keema.
The parathas have to be kept in the freezer and, for best results, brought to room temperature before putting them on the tava. If you are in a hurry, defrost them in the microwave first. “They are best made with ghee,” instructs Singhal. But I try them out later with oil and they are fine that way too. (Of course, we all know that parathas are to be eaten with a big blob of white butter).
The packets have nutrition details and instructions. My only problem was to decipher the white on green print on the vegetarian package and I had to call up Singhal for help. She has promised to look into this.
The vegetarian parathas are four to a pack and range from ₹90-135. The non-veg parathas are two to a pack and are priced at ₹120 for Chicken and ₹150 for Mutton
Available at Cafe Totaram, That’s Y Food and On The Go, the Pazhamudir and Nilgiris outlets and Deli Fresh, Tiruppur
