Not philistine! Having to make the darned things yourself puts them in the realm of fantasy. Having them in the freezer makes them a fact! That said, even if one cannot always find good aloo parathas and gets the jones, the Indian or Oriental grocer will stock frozen Roti Prata from Singapore or Malaysia. These come in frozen uncooked rounds, most conveniently separated by parchment paper.
What you do is make the aloo filling, even cooking the filling a little in a non-stick skillet, and seasoning it with lemon or lime juice after this slight initial cooking, or mango powder before. Do what pleases you, but do not make the filling greasy. Take a frozen round, peel off paper from one face, carefully spread a judicious amount of filling almost to the edge, leaving a respectable border. Take a second round and peel off one face and slap it down.
You should have have 2 frozen rounds sandwiching the aloo filling, with the top and bottoms protected by parchment paper. While all these exciting events are going on, you, with your third and fourth hands [having gone to India, you naturally have acquired said extra arms] have placed a skillet, nice heavy duty non-stick of appropriate dimensions on the stove and have even started the heating element going.
Now you remove the topmost bit of parchment paper, and slap down that face onto the skillet with a swift, dextrous flip of your palm that does not spill anything. Carefully remove the remaining bit of paper. The "pratas" [sic] will begin to sizzle, they have that much shortening and anneal themselves at their edges with a little judicious encouragement from you with a spatula of appropriate size, shape and material [to not damage your pan].
Regulate your heat to brown, not burn the pastry. Flip it over and cook the other side. make sure to cook the sides adequately, so all is cooked through.
Faster than kneading your own dough, although not by all that much, if you are handy with flour and have planned ahead.
Edited by gautam, 28 October 2007 - 03:15 PM.