Mauritian recipe: farata

Posted by Sarah Duff on 4 October 2012

Farata, the Mauritian equivalent of Indian paratha (and similar to Cape Malay rotis), is a flat bread typically eaten with curry. It’s buttery, flaky and delicious. The good news is that it’s really easy to make farata at home – a perfect accompaniment to Mauritian, Indian or Cape Malay curry.

Mauritian farata

Makes 8 faratas

1 kg white flour
2 tbsp melted butter
80 ml warm water
Salt and oil
4 tbsp melted butter

Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt together. Rub the flour/salt mixture with the melted butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Gradually add warm water to make a soft dough. Cover the dough mixture and set it aside for at least 10 minutes. Then divide the dough into eight portions and form each into a ball and then roll out into circles. Brush each circle with melted butter and fold over into a half circle. Brush again with melted butter and fold over once more to form a triangle. Roll out the triangular shapes to get thin circles.

Fry the faratas, one by one, on a hot griddle or frying pan for one minute on each side or until cooked (when it has golden brown spots).

Serve farata with Mauritian curry (get a Creole chicken curry recipe here) or serve in a Mauritian-pizza style (like in the photo) – with a cooked tomato sauce, steamed spinach and melted mozzarella.

I learned to make this Mauritian recipe on a cooking lesson with the fantastic chefs at LUX Le Morne. For more on LUX Le Morne, click here.