Daring Cook Indian Dosas

As I'm a bit light on the pocket money situation I thought this nice recipe wouldn't break the bank too much. I like Indian food and do make it from scratch reasonably often, one of my favourite books is Anjum Anand's book "Anjum's new indian". It's also quite healthy, which is what I need after a week on holiday indulging myself. I haven't made dosas before but I'll try anything once, with regards to food that is ;-).

The recipe was a little labour intensive, especially the coconut wrestling, and the pancakes took quite a few goes to get them right but they turned out very tasty in the end. Give them a go!

This is Debyi from http://www.healthyvegankitchen.com I am so excited to be your host for the September 2009 Daring Cooks challenge. It took almost a month to decide which recipe that I wanted to do. I wanted to choose something that could be easily adapted for our GF'ers and other Alternative Cooks, as well as still being tasty for everyone else. So, I finally decided on Indian Dosas from the refresh cookbook by Ruth Tal.

Indian Dosas
This recipe comes in 3 parts, the dosas, the filling and the sauce. It does take awhile to make, but the filling and sauce can be made ahead and frozen if need be. You can serve them as a main course with rice and veggies, or as an appetizer. This does take a little planning ahead, so make sure you read the recipe through before starting.

Serves 4

Equipment needed:
large bowl
whisk
griddle or skillet
ladle (or large spoon)
spatula
vegetable peeler &/or knife
large saucepan
food processor or bean masher

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut
¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Happy eating!

Anjum Anand Curry Goddess

I got a rather lovely Anjum Anand   cookbook for Christmas and we have been happily working our way through some of the recipes. So far so good, as the dishes have all been delicious and really tasty. This red Goan chicken dish is no different and I thought I'd share it with you.

Ingredients

serves 4

Red Goan spice paste

2 large, mild, fresh chillies, deseeded

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds

3 cloves

6 black peppercorns

3/4 tsp tumeric

9 large cloves of garlic, peeled

1cm piece fresh ginger, peeled

good sized piece of cinnamon

1 tsp tamarind paste

3/4 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

5 tbsp white wine vinegar

Whizz all the ingredients of the spice paste up in a blender until it forms a fine paste. You can then store it in the fridge for up to a week. 



Red Goan Chicken

4 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

4 tbsp Goan red spice paste 

4 large tomatoes, chopped

salt, to taste

700 g chicken joints, skinned

 

Heat oil in a large non-stick saucepan. Fry the onion for about ten minutes until browned and then add the spice paste and cook, stirring, for about two to three minutes. 

Add the tomatoes and salt, cover, and cook for about ten minutes until the tomatoes have soften and reduced down. Take off the lid of the pan and continue to stir the tomatoes for another six to eight minutes until they have become darker. 

Add the chicken and coat it well with the sauce. Add 250ml water, bring to the boil, then cover and cook over a low heat for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Uncover the pan, then turn the heat up and boil off the excess moisture, tossing the chicken all the time. Do this for about three or four minutes until the sauce has reduce and has darkened further. Serve with rice and Indian bread.

Spiced sweetcorn soup

This simple concoction was originally intended to be a plain sweetcorn soup, but the only bread I had in the house was naan bread and I thought adding a hint of spice might compliment the bread very well. The soup is cheap, easy to make and reasonably healthy so it probably ticks most peoples boxes.

Ingredients:

• Two 400g tins of sweetcorn, try and get good quality stuff that hasn't had salt and sugar added. Leave a tblsp aside to decorate


• Two large potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch dice


• 1 onion finely chopped


• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped


• 1 red chilli pepper, deseeded if you like, and chopped


• 1 litre of chicken stock


• 4 heaped tsps of cumin seeds


• salt and freshly ground black pepper


• 2 tblsp yoghurt to serve


• a small sprig of parsley or coriander to garnish


• naan bread

Method

Heat a small pan on a medium to high heat and dry fry the cumin seeds until they release their aroma and slightly colour, (keep an eye on them so they don't burn) then grind them with a pestle and mortar. Heat a small amount of oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat then add the onion and garlic. Fry for a few minutes until slightly softened then add the potatoes, chilli and ground cumin. Stir for a few minutes then add the chicken stock and simmer for about 15 minutes before adding the sweetcorn and cooking for a further 5 minutes. Check the potato and onion are soft ,then take off the heat and blend until smooth. It is quite a thick soup but if you find it too thick add a little water. Season the soup and then ladle into warm bowls, with a spoon of yoghurt, a small heap of sweetcorn and a sprig of parsley on top. Serve with warm naan bread.

Serves 4