Dosa (Indian pancake)

Dosa- the traditional Indian pancake which I grew to love.
Living in a cold(ish) country, I thought it was impossible to make dosa at home as the batter needs some heat to ferment. With no suitable warm space near radiators/in the "hot room" (boiler room), I had resigned to just the occasional indulgence when we go out to South Indian restaurants. But with some ingenious thinking (not by yours truly- thanks but I really cant remember whose idea this was), we overcame that obstacle. Oven pre-heated to low temp...now why didn't I think of that??

The below makes a lot of dosas (2 of us eat at least 4 meals with this quantity). The batter keeps well in the fridge for 2-3 days. When you go through the trouble of it, why not make it for a few days eh?

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
1 cup glutinous rice (you get to buy Idly rice in Indian stores. But am sure it'll work with risotto rice as well though not tried it)
1 cup urad dal (a type of lentil- also available in Indian stores. Doesn't matter if whole or split)

Method:
1. Soak the ingredients in cold water for at least 4 hours
2. Wash it well to remove all the soaked water.
3. Grind in a mixer with just enough water to make a smooth paste (I use a blender and fill water to the same level as the rice-dal mix. Works well)
4. Transfer batter to a large(ish) bowl (remember the batter rises- so ensure you don't fill to the brim).
5. Keep in a warm place for 8-10 hours to ferment and rise. (8 hours for warmer places)
If, like me, you live in a not so warm country, pre-heat oven to 50 degrees (not too hot or you'll end up cooking it). Switch off oven and place the batter in the oven.
6. After around 8 hours, the batter would have risen. Add salt to taste. If the batter is too thick, add a little water. Ideally you want consistency like runny custard)

To actually make the dosa-
1. Heat a frying pan (preferably non-stick) on a high flame
2. Splash little cold water on the pan to reduce the heat just long enough for you to pour a ladle of batter and spread it thinly in circular motions (like a crepe)
3. Dot butter mixed with some vegetable oil around the dosa and on it so that part becomes nice and crispy. You can also use ghee (clarified butter) for this.
4. Cook over high flame. Once the dosa starts to brown and rise away from the pan around the edges, turn it over and cook for another 30 secs or so (when cooked, the dosa easily comes off the pan)
5. Transfer on to a plate.

Dosa is best eaten hot as it can get chewy or rubbery when cold. Enjoy with sambar or chutney or potato curry or chicken curry or anything you fancy. Also tastes good with honey.

Yumm yumm. 

Panna Cotta

I love Panna cotta. Never realised it was so simple to make.

Ingredients:
250ml double cream
50ml milk
50gms sugar
1 tbsp rum (optional)
2 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
1/2 vanilla pod- just the seeds (optional)
2 sheets gelatine- soaked in cold water and squeezed dry

Method:
1. In a pan, add all ingredients (except gelatine sheets), stir well and bring it up to a boil
2. Remove from heat and add gelatine soaked sheets and whisk in well (should dissolve easily)
3. Pour in mould (or cups/glasses/anything you can easily turn it out from) and set in fridge for at least 4 hours
4. Once set, partially immerse in warm water/rub the mould between your hands to loosen the panna cotta from the sides of the mould. Turn it on to a plate.

Enjoy with your feet up :) 

Lemon Cheesecake - No Bake

For those times when you are in desperate need of an easy-to-make dessert. It takes around 25mins to make and then a few hours to set- simples :) No pic this time round unfortunately.

Ingredients:
Base:
250 gms biscuits (I used 75% shortbread biscuit and 25% oat biscuits- only because I had some at home)
50 gms melted butter (since the shortbread is already rich in butter, you get away with using lesser. Otherwise the ratio of biscuit to butter is 2:1)

Topping:
200 gms cream cheese (I used plain Philadelphia)- should be at room temperature
4 Tbsp sugar
200 gms Lemon curd (yeah - I cheated and used the store bought one)
200ml double cream

Method:
1. Crush the biscuits to an almost fine powder (easiest in a food processor. Or can be done by placinf biscuits in a bag and then using a rolling pin)
2. Add the melted butter to the biscuit powder and mix well.
3. Layer this on to the base of a well buttered springform cake tin. Press down with a spoon or your fingers to even it out and to compress it.
4. Put it under the grill (or bake) for 5mins (just to let it set a little). Remove from oven and let it cool.
5. Add sugar, cream cheese and lemon curd and mix well.
6. Add half the cream and mix well. Check if more sugar/ lemon curd is required (per your taste).
7. Add the remaining cream and mix well. Check if the consistency is thick (like whipped cream). If not, use a balloon whisk to make it thick. I used really thick double cream and didn't need to use the whisk at all.
8. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base. Even it out and swirl the top to create a pretty pattern (looks nice)
9. Set in the fridge for couple of hours. I put it overnight (around 7 hours)

Enjoy the cheesecake with a nice cuppa.   

Orange nutella chocolate chunk cookie

Ingredients:

1/2 cup salted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2-4 oranges, juiced
zest from 1 orange
1 and 1/3 cup self raising flour
2 tbsp nutella
100 gms dark chocolate, broken up into chunks

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar (both brown and white) together till well incorporated
2. Add vanilla extract, whole egg and juice from orange and mix well
3. Slowly add the flour to mixture and incorporate well. Try not to mix too much.
4. Add the nutella to mixute and mix well
5. Put in the fridge for 10-15 mins. This will help the butter in the mixture set a little and wont spread as much when baked
6. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celcius
7. Take the mixture from the fridge, mix in the chocolate chunks and using 2 teaspoons, spoon the mixture onto the baking tray lined with baking/ parchment paper. Ensure there is a bit of gap between the cookie blobs.
8. Bake for 14-16 mins. The cookie is ready when the sides begin to brown.
9. Remove from oven. Let it cool for a few minutes on the baking tray. Then remove from tray and put onto an airing rack. Let it cool completely.

Cookies are ready to eat :)

Kerala style chicken roast

This is my version of the kerala style chicken roast.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg chicken
3-4 medium sized onions, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes
1-2 green chillies, slit in the middle
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
3/4 tbsp Chilli powder
2 tbsp Coriander powder
2- 3 tbsp Pepper powder
Salt to taste
Vegetable Oil

Method:
1. Marinate the cleaned and washed chicken in salt and pepper
2. Heat the oil in a pan/ wok
3. Fry the chicken (shallow fry) till it is cooked and starts to turn brown. Remove from heat and keep aside
4. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan
5. Sauté the onions in the oil till it turns translucent
6. Add the green chillies and stir for a bit
7. Add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a little more time
8. When the onions start to brown, add the turmeric, chilli and coriander powders.
9. Keep stirring well till the raw smell of the powders go away
10. Add the chopped tomatoes now and the salt
11. Stir for a while till the tomatoes are soft
12. Add a little water to bring the mixture together and boil till the water evaporates.
13. Add the fried chicken when the mixture is thickening and stir well
14. Cook for another minute over a medium flame.
15. Remove from heat

Chicken roast is ready to serve.

I had the roast with dosa. But it can be had with rice as well.

Home-made vanilla and honey ice-cream

I was fascinated with a cookery show where they made ice-cream. Seemed easy enough so I thought I'd give it a go. I liked this... :)

Ingredients:
300 ml thick double cream
2 eggs, separated
50 gms sugar (approx)
2-3 tbsp honey
1 vanilla pod

Method:
1. Beat the egg whites till they are stiff.
2. Add in the sugar bit by bit and keep beating till all the sugar is incorporated into the mixture
3. Pour the double cream into a saucepan and put over a medium heat.
4. Slit the vanilla pod in half and scrap the seeds from inside. Add this to the cream
5. Bring the cream to boil while stirring continuously. Add the egg yolks to this mixture and mix well. Remove from heat.
6. Add the honey to the cream and mix well.
7. Pour the cream into a freezer proof dish and gently fold in the stiffened egg white mix
8. When well mixed, place the dish in the freezer.
9. After an hour or 2, remove from freezer and mix the ice-cream mixture thoroughly. Only the sides would have begun to set by this time. I think this stops the formation of ice crystals and makes the ice-cream creamer.
10. Repeat the churning process after an hour.
I churned it 3 times in total and then left it to set fully for 2 hours. The end result was creamy soft ice-cream. Mission success :) Had mine with warm apple crumble

Carrot halwa (Gajar ka Halwa)

This yummy rich Indian dessert can be made in numerous ways but I somehow like the following recipe a lot. It's a bit more manual labour than some of the other recipes but in the end, I think that its all worth the effort!!

Ingredients:
2.5 cups finely grated carrots
1.5 cups sugar
4 cups milk
7 cardamom pod, seeds only
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan (I used pressure cooker but a non-stick pan is ideal), put the grated carrots in and let the moisture evaporate over a medium flame. Ensure you keep stirring so that the carrots don't burn.
2. Once the moisture evaporates and the carrots start to clump together, add a tbsp of ghee and fry the carrots for a minute- the colour changes and this indicates that the carrots have absorbed all the ghee flavour.
3. Add 3 cups of milk, all the sugar and cardamom seeds. Stir till the sugar has dissolved. Cover and cook on a high flame for 10-15 mins.
4. Remove cover, add in the last cup of milk and stir well.
5. Reduce flame to low and simmer. This slow cooking means that the carrot gets cooked well and you don't have to hang around full time.
6. Stir the mixture every 15-20 minutes.
7. When the mixture has reduced to a thick consistency, add the tbsp of ghee and increase the heat.
8. Keep stirring continuously preferably with a long handled spoon. The thicker the mixture gets, the more it will spit till its more solid than semi-liquid. Be careful not to have any hot halwa splatter on you.
9. In around 10-15 mins of constant stirring, the halwa will thicken and will not stick to the bottom of the pan. This is when you know the halwa is done.
10. Remove from heat and spread into a flat dish. This will help you cut it into pieces easily.

Carrot halwa is ready to serve. You can serve it hot or once its cooled. I like it hot just plain on its own or with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

Hope you enjoy this dessert :)

Chicken Kabab Puffs

This is my husband's and my variation of chicken puffs (similar to pasty but softer crust)

Ingredients:
1 pastry sheet (store bought)
250 gms boneless chicken kababs (see recipe for fried chicken kabab on this blog)
1 onion, sliced
1 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp Ginger-garlic paste (or finely minced)
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tsp garam masala (curry powder)
Salt to taste
1 egg, beaten

Method:
1. Make the fried chicken kababs (recipe in this blog). Ensure that the chicken pieces are cut very small- about 1/2 inch pieces each.
2. Sauté the onions
3. When the onions start to turn translucent, add ginger-garlic and stir for a minute. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée.
4. Add the garam masala when the tomatoes are cooked through.
5. Add salt and stir for a while.
6. Add little water to bring the mixture together and simmer till the water evaporates. The onions and tomatoes would have reduced to a thick mixture.
7. Add the fried chicken kababs to this mixture and stir for a minute or two.
8. Remove from heat and keep aside
9. Cut the pastry sheet into equal rectangles (roughly about 3x5 inch pieces) or squares
10. Fill half of the pastry sheet with the chicken mixture. Leave a little gap on the side to seal
11. Brush some beaten egg on the side of the pastry sheet and fold the other half over the chicken mixture. Press to bind. The egg acts as a glue to bind the sheet.
12. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper (so that the puffs don't stick to the bottom.)
13. Brush the top of the puffs with beaten egg to give it the beautiful glaze when baked
14. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (fan assisted oven)
15. Bake in pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes
16. Remove from oven and serve hot.

Hope you enjoy the puffs as much as we did :D

Unakka Chemmeen chamanthi (Dry shrimp Chamanthi)

This side dish made with dry shrimp and coconut adds a special flavour to your meal. Best had with rice porridge (kanji).
In the picture above, the chamanthi is served with Biriyani, Raita, papad and pickle.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dry shrimps (unakka chemmeen)
1 cup grated coconut
1 clove garlic
1 inch piece ginger
4-5 dried red chillies (vattal mullaku)
1/4 onion (or use 4-5 shallots)
few curry leaves
1 lime-sized ball of wet tamarind
Salt to taste
1 tsp Coconut oil

Method:
1. In a pan, dry roast the shrimps till they are brittle to the touch. Keep stirring continuously so that the shrimps don't burn.
2. Remove from heat and keep aside
3. Put a few drops of coconut oil in the pan. Put the dried red chillies in the oil and stir till crisp.
4. Remove from heat and keep aside.
5. Put all the ingredients in a mixer and blend to a fine texture. Try not to add any water.
6. Once ground well, remove from mixer and shape into a ball.

The chamanthi is now ready to serve.

Moroccan style Lamb Chops

This is my variation from the many recipes I looked up before making this.

Ingredients:
1/2 kg Lamb chops (around 4-8 depending on size)
1 tsp Vinegar (I used cider vinegar. Think Balsamic would be better)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tsp pepper powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3-4 tbsp Olive oil
salt to taste

Method:
1. Marinate the Lamb chops with all the ingredients listed for atleast 2 hrs.
2. Heat a frying pan
3. Add some olive oil and leave for a while to heat up
4. Place the marinated lamb chops on the hot oil and move around a little for the oil to spead
5. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side for pink in the middle finish (rare to medium rare). Cook longer if desired but lamb is best served pink.
6. Remove from heat and place in foil for a further 2-3 minutes

Lamb chops are now ready to serve.

I had mine with khubhus (Arabic bread), hummus and a fresh salad made with lettuce, bell pepper, big red chilli pepper and tomatoes with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing.

Hummus Tahina

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas (400 gms)
1 clove garlic
2-3 tbsp Tahini (Sesame paste)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 Lemon (Juice)
2 sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
4-6 stoned olives (optional)
Salt
Olive oil (to bring mixture together)
Water (to bring mixture together. use with olive oil)

Method:
1. Put the garlic in the food processor with a few chickpeas and blend
2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend by slowly adding olive oil (or olive oil and water) to being mixture together.
3. Make into a smooth paste.

Hummus tahini is ready to serve.

Chinese Steamed Fish

First time I had Chinese steamed fish was for Chinese New Year this year. I loved it. The following recipe is a mish-mash from a lot of research online and input from my friends Esti, Sayuri and Lee :)

Ingredients:

1 whole white-meat fish (sea bass, cod etc)
2-3 thinly sliced spring onions
1/2 inch piece ginger, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Sesame oil
Soya sauce

Method:
Clean and fillet fish (do not remove skin)
Place on plate which can be put into a vessel for steaming
Lay most of the ginger and little of the spring onions on one fillet of fish
Place the other fillet skin-side up on the other fillet (sandwich effect) and top with some more ginger and spring onion
Place plate in a vessel of boiling water to steam
Steam for 8-10 mins
While fish is steaming, heat little sesame oil in a pan
Put in the garlic, remaining ginger and some spring onions and fry well
Keep aside when done
When fish is done, remove from vessel
Drain out any water from the fish plate
Pour the garlic and oil mixture on top of the fish
Pour 4-5 tbsp of soya sauce on top of the fish (or as per taste)
Sprinkle the remaining spring onions on top of the fish (optional)

Serve hot with rice

Kappa

Not a very elegant looking dish, but kappa and meen curry (casava and fish curry) is a fab combination and is one of my favourites.

This is the recipe for Kappa/ Casava

Ingredients:

1-2 medium sized Tapioca (a.k.a Casava/ Kappa)

Set1-
1/2 cup Grated coconut
1 tsp Jeera
4 green chillies
4 garlic pods
few curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt

Set 2-
Mustard seeds
1 onion, sliced
curry leaves
2 dried red chillies
Coconut oil

Method:
1. Peel the tapioca and cut into roughly inch sized pieces.
2. Cook tapioca with water and salt. Drain well and keep aside
3. Grind set 1 ingredients with little water to form coarse paste
4. Arrange paste on top of kappa addding little water
5. Splutter mustard seeds and then all the other ingredients in set 2 and add to vessel
6. Close with lid and cook for 5 mins
7. Open and stir well

Kappa is ready to serve. This goes best with red chilli fish curry.

Red Fish curry (Kottayam style)

Ingredients:
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds (uluva)
2 Red dry chilli (vattal mulakku)
4 green chillies
Few Curry leaves
1 Onion, chopped
4-5 garlic pods, sliced
1/4 inch ginger, thinly sliced
2 small pieces Kodamn puli (fish tamarind), soaked in warm water
2 tbsp Chilli powder
1/4 tbsp Coriander powder
1/4 tbsp Turmeric powder
1 kg Fish (King fish or some fleshy fish)
coconut oil

Method:
1. In a mud/ earthern pot (mann-chatti) heat some coconut oil. Splutter the mustard seeds. Add the fenugreek seeds to it. Stir lightly.
2. Slit green chillies and add to pot. Add the dried red chillies.
3. Add onions, ginger and garlic. Stir well. Add curry leaves.
4. When the onions start to brown, add chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder.
5. Stir well till the raw smell of the powders go away and the mixture is blended well with the oil.
6. Add the pulli (tamarind) and the water used for soaking it.
7. Add more water if required for the gravy. Add salt as required.
8. Bring to boil.
9. When the gravy starts to boil, lower the heat slightly and add the fish pieces to it.
10. Cover and cook for around 15- 20 minutes or till the fish is cooked. Ensure you swirl the pot once in every 5-10 minutes so that gravy moves around and mixes well with the fish. Do not use a spoon as the fish will flake as it begins to cook.

The fish curry is now ready to serve. However, the taste intensifies the longer it stands after removing from the flame.

This is a spicy dish and goes well with kappa. It is also had with rice. I love the meen curry, moru kaachi (buttermilk curry) and thoran (coconut infused side dish) combination :)

Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Rava (Sooji)
1/2 cup Rice flour
1/4 cup Plain flour
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1/2 tbsp Ginger paste
1/4 tsp Asofetida (Hing)
1 tsp Pepper powder
5-10 Whole peppercorns
1-2 Green chillies, thinly sliced
1 Onion, chopped
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients except onions in a bowl
2. Add enough water to get a very runny consistency
3. Heat a flat pan and put some onions on top. When the pan is really hot, sprinkle the batter onto the pan. Do not make the dosa thick. Put some oil/ ghee on top and spread it evenly with a flat spatula.
4. Cook over medium high flame. When the dosa become crispy (golder brown), turn it over and cook again for a minute or so.
5. Your Rava Dosa is ready to eat.

Tastes great with chutney.