Quick Paratha

In London, cookbook author Meera Sodha taught us her brilliant shortcut for making paratha, a type of unleavened South Asian flatbread. She cuts store-bought frozen puff pastry into portions, works each portion into a ball, then rolls them out into rounds. Cooked in a dry skillet, the flatbreads turn spotty brown and have a layered flakiness and pliability that mimic real paratha. All-butter Dufour frozen puff pastry is sold in a 14-ounce package that contains a single sheet. Widely available Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry is sold in a 17.3-ounce box that contains two sheets (use both sheets in this recipe, cutting each into four pieces). Either works in this recipe; we preferred the texture and pliability of the flatbreads made with Pepperidge Farm pastry, but Dufour scored points for its buttery flavor.