making do on Corfu. Parathas, lesson 2.

Paratha Time. Cheese paratha actually. 'Making do' is on the back-burner for the moment. My supermarket's own brand flour is fine for this use. Parathas do not fry so hard as with more expensive flour. The cheapest cheese available here is German gouda at about 5.50 euros a kilo.

Parathas: lesson 2.

The flour makes a difference. hardly surprising eh? Hard flour can produce a tough cookie, but if you prefer the thin and slightly crispy variety, this is ok. A 17cm. pan does not provide much of a meal if the paratha is thin. To make a softer, thicker one with hard flour add a dessert spoon of oil to the water for the dough. Also you can fold the dough in two a couple of times in the early stages of cooking. Now you are getting professional.

The Cheese Paratha.

Flatten the dough to a long shape in the pan, put pieces of cheese on one half and fold the dough back to make an envelope. Continue pressing it out to cover the pan while thinking of eulogies to post in praise of Dr A. Cheese may seep through holes in the paratha, and depending on the variety will add excitement to this simple dish.

There was a time in Konitsa when I could afford cheese but very infrequently. The choice between milk or yoghurt was a daily reality, and your actual bread, as in loaf of, was a treat.
To see my tomatoes ripen and the onions spring, was a pleasure no amount of shopping could have competed with.

Well, that's not true obviously, but there is a serious truth in the assertion that the Western middle classes will be healthier and perhaps happier if, one day, they are forced to cut back on their comsumption, on their competition for and ambition for MORE MORE MORE.


The great majority will have to be forced back to a simpler life, you who have read this far will find the adjustment lass harrowing than people defined by their material possessions. The kind of possession I mean is the kind that does not add to a person's knowledge, understanding, and reverence for nature or human creativity.

This post was brought to you on the back of a simple pancake. Think what Dr A could do with a kilo of sell-by souvlakia.

Oh yes, could you leave a comment please, Dr A has been tinkering with the source code and he wants to see if it works. Thank you all very much.