The Big Book of Curry Recipes (37 page)

Place in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and set aside as you prepare the filling. Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan and add the beaten eggs, onion, chilli, coriander leaves and ginger. Season with salt and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally with a fork, until the eggs are set.

Turn out onto a board and divide the mixture into eight portions. Turn the dough onto a cold, lightly-floured, work surface. Knead lightly then divide into eight portions. Take each piece of dough in turn and roll out into fat disks. Shape each one in a shallow cup then fill with a portion of the filling. Roll up the pastry edges to cover the filling then dust with flour and roll out into a flat disc. Repeat this process with the remaining dough and filling.

Heat a griddle and grease with a little ghee. Add one of the filled discs and cook for 30 seconds over medium heat then flip over. Cook the paratha until brown spots appear on both sides and serve immediately. Then repeat the cooking process with the remaining flatbreads.

Parotta

Parotta
is a traditional Indian recipe (from Kerala) for a classic accompaniment of a flour, water, baking soda, salt and oil dough formed into a ring, coiled, flattened and fried.

Ingredients:

150g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) plain flour

120ml (1/2 cup) hot water

small pinch of baking soda

salt, to taste

3 tbsp cooking oil

cooking oil for frying

Method:

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl. Using a wooden spoon to mix, work in the hot water until you have a smooth batter. Now beat in the 3 tbsp oil.

Mix until smooth with your hands and form into a ball. Place in a bowl, cover with a cloth and set aside to rest for 60 minutes.

Take a lemon-sized ball of the dough, place on a lightly-floured work surface and roll out as thinly as you can.

Brush the top of the rolled dough with a little oil. Now roll the dough up tightly so that you have a long rope. Take one end of this rope and coil it round like a spiral. Pinch the loose end closed then pat gently to firm it up. Brush both sides with oil then roll it into a flat round.

Heat a non-stick pan over high heat. Brush wit ha little oil, add a parotta and fry until cooked through and lightly browned (like cooking a pancake). Once cooked, allow to cool slightly then pat it gently from hand to hand using a clapping-type motion to separate the layers.

Serve warm as an accompaniment.

Thepla

Thepla
is a traditional Indian recipe (Gujarati) for a classic flatbread of a flour base flavoured with fenugreek and spices that’s lightly greased and cooked in a frying pan until browned and cooked through.

Ingredients:

150g plain flour

1/2 bunch fresh fenugreek (methi) leaves, finely chopped

1 tsp ajwain (bishop’s weed)

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

2 green chillies, crushed to a paste

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tbsp
ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp ground cumin seeds

oil, as needed

salt, to taste

Method:

Sift the four into a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the methi leaves, ajwain, coriander seeds, chillies, chilli powder, asafoetida, turmeric, ginger-garlic paste and ground cumin seeds. Mix well to combine then mix into the flour.

Add 1 tsp oil and knead into the flour and spice mix. Now add enough water to bring the mixture together as a stiff dough. Divide the dough into balls about the size of a salad tomato. Roll these out into thin pancakes with a rolling pin.

Heat a griddle pan, a skillet or a dry non-stick frying pan over high heat. Brush one side of the thepla with a little olive oil and set in the pan, oiled side down. Brush the top with a little more oil and fry until browned on the base then turn over and fry until browned on the other side and cooked through.

Remove from the pan and serve hot, then cook the next thepla.

Appam

This is a classic rice pancake from South India (Kerala) that is served both as a breakfast staple and as an accompaniment to certain curries, particularly kadala.

Ingredients:

100g (1 cup) freshly-grated coconut

1/2 tsp active, dried, yeast

3 tsp sugar

salt, to taste

200g (2 cups) raw rice

150g (1 cup) cooked rice

240ml (1 cup) coconut water

thin coconut milk, as needed

Method:

Wash the raw rice well, place in a bowl, cover with plenty of water and set aside to soak for 5 hours. After this time, drain the rice and place in a food processor and grind with the grated coconut until you have a thick paste.

Dissolve the yeast in the coconut water and set aside for about 20 minutes, or until frothy. After this time, mix the yeast into the rice and coconut batter. Now stir in the sugar and salt. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes in a warm place.

After this time, heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Pour a ladleful of the batter into the pan and then swirl the pan so that you have a thin layer of batter around the outside and a thicker portion of batter in the centre.

Cover the pan with a lid and cook until the edges of the pancake are golden brown and the central portion is soft and cooked through.

Using a slice, carefully remove the appam from the pan and slice onto a serving plate. Cook the remaining batter in the same manner and serve the appam warm.

Chingree Puffs

Another classic Anglo-Indian dish that as typically served as part of high tea or with picnics, but which could also be served as a snack.

Ingredients

350g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour

300g (2 cups) ghee or butter

60g (1/2 cup) onions, sliced

1/2 tsp salt

100g (3 1/2 oz) peeled prawns

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin seeds

Method

Mince the prawns finely, then pound to a paste in a mortar. In a bowl, mix together the coriander, turmeric and cumin with a little water to form a taste then work in 250ml (1 cup) boiling water until smooth.

Heat 60g (4 tbsp) of the ghee (or butter) in a pan, and when hot use to fry the onions for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown.

Pour the spice mixture over the onions and stir for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the prawns and salt and cook gently for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour into a bowl, add 120g (1/2 cup) of the ghee and work into the flour until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Work in a little cold water to bring the mixture together as a dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface and roll out thinly. Cut into rounds and fill the centres with the curried prawn mix. Fold over and crimp the edges closed.

Add the remaining ghee to a frying pan, and when hot add the puffs and fry until they are lightly browned on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

They can be served warm or cold.

Bori

Bori
is a traditional Indian recipe (from Bengal) for a classic dish of black lentil paste flavoured with chillies, ginger, aniseed and asafoetida that uses baking soda as a raising agent that’s piped and baked in the oven before being deep fried.

Ingredients:

75g (1/2 cup) urad dal (black lentils)

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground aniseed

1/2 tsp asafoetida powder

1 tbsp water

1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

Wash the black lentils under plenty of cold running water then transfer to a bowl, cover with plenty of water and allow to soak for 1 hour. Drain completely then transfer to a coffee grinder or spice grinder along with the other spices and baking soda. Render to a fine powder then add at most 1 tbsp water.

Meanwhile, line a baking tray with aluminium foil and brush gently with a little oil. Transfer the bori paste to a piping bag and squeeze out grape-sized pieces of bori. When the baking tray is covered transfer to an oven pre-heated to 100ºC (210ºF) and bake for 2 hours, turning the boris over half way through.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Typically boris are deep fried before using. Simply heat oil in a pan or deep fat fryer to 180ºC (355ºF) and cook the boris until golden brown.

Dosa (Rice and Lentil Crêpes)

Dosa (also spelled Dhosa) is a classic Indian recipe for a classic batter of rice and skinned black chickpeas (urad dhal) that’s flavoured with fenugreek seeds and cooked as a thin pancake and which can be stuffed or served plain as a snack or accompaniment.

Ingredients:

120g (1 cup) sona masuri rice (or any similar medium-grained rice)

120g (1 cup) idli rice (ponni rice is best), parboiled

75g urad dhal (skinned black chickpeas [gram])

1/2 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds

1 tsp salt

1 onion wedge

a little oil

Method:

Wash the rice and place in a bowl. Wash the urad dhal and place in another bowl with the fenugreek seeds. Cover the contents of both bowls with water so that the water comes 5cm above the level of the rice and dhal, respectively. Set aside to soak for about 6 hours, by which time the dhal should have swollen and the rice grains should be soft enough that you can easily break them between your fingers.

Wash a grinder and pour in 2 tbsp of the dhal soaking liquid. Using your hands, scoop out the soaked dhal and transfer to the grinder. Process a handful at a time, until the dhal purée is fluffy and silky smooth (this can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the type of grinder you have).

After each batch has been processed, scrape into a large (about 4l) bowl. Now add 200ml of the rice soaking liquid to the grinder and add the rice. Grind the rice to a smooth, but slightly gritty batter (about 20 minutes’ processing).

Scrape the rice batter into the bowl with the dhal batter and stir to combine. Season with the salt and stir gently with your hands to combine. Cover the bowl loosely with a clean tea towel and place in a warm spot (an airing cupboard is ideal) to ferment. Fermentation works best at around 32ºC (90ºF). In warm climates, you can set the bowl aside in the kitchen over night. In colder climates fermentation can take up to 18 hours (you can, if you wish place the batter in a gas stove with just the pilot light on).

By the end of fermentation, but batter should have doubled in volume. At the end of this time test the batter. For Dosas, you need a batter that is of pouring consistency, add water as needed.

Place a non-stick pan (about 22cm [9 in] diameter) over high heat. Add a drop of oil, stick the onion wedge on a fork and use to spread the oil over the entire pan. Pour a ladleful (about 60ml [1/4 cup]) of the dosa batter into the pan and very lightly use the base of the ladle to swirl the batter over the pan, using concentric circles. When the batter is fully spread over the pan, drizzle a few drops of vegetable oil over the surface of the dosa.

Cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes, or until the base of the dhosa is cooked and a light golden brown in colour. Now either fold the dosa over in half or roll it into a scroll (if you like your dosas crispy, carefully flip over and cook on the other side).

Serve with sambar and tomato chutney. Alternatively you can stuff with potato masala or bhajia (fried vegetables).

Poppadoms

Poppadoms is a classic Indian recipe for a classic smack or accompaniment of thinly-rolled gram (chickpea) flour dough that is first baked and then shallow fried in oil before serving. This is often served as a starter to accompany pickles and dips, but can also be served as an accompaniment to certain vegetable-based curries..

Ingredients

300g (2 cups) gram (chickpea) flour

1 tsp coarsely-ground black pepper

1 tsp ground cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 garlic clove, peeled and finely minced

60ml (1/4 cup) water

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, to dust

oil for brushing

Method:

Sift together the chickpea flour, cumin and sea salt into a bowl then stir in the black pepper and minced garlic. Add 50ml of the water and bring the ingredients together to form a dough. If the dough is too dry, then add a little more of the remaining water until the ingredients come together.

Turn the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Now take the dough and roll into a sausage shape about 5cm in diameter and 15cm long. Divide this into a dozen pieces of equal size.

Take the first piece and brush one of the cut ends with oil (this will be the top). Sit the dough on your work surface with the un-oiled side down then use a rolling pin to roll it out into a very thin circle about 16cm (6 in) in diameter. Dust with a light sprinkling of cayenne pepper then carefully transfer the poppadom to a greased baking tray. Cover lightly as you prepare the next one.

When all the poppadoms are done, transfer to an oven pre-heated to 150ºC (300ºF) and bake for about 20 minutes, or until crisp and dry (keep checking them after about 15 minutes to ensure they do not burn).

Remove the baked poppadoms from the oven and set aside to cool. At this stage, they can be stored in an air-tight tin or container until needed.

To cook, heat a 3mm (1/8 in) depth of oil in a large frying pan. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) add a poppadom and fry until it begins to curl at the edges. Turn over with tongs and cook on the other side. Remove from the pan, drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately.

Snacks and Savouries.