Lemon rice, aloo paratha, stuffed baby baigan, kale chole palak May 23, 2009

We were craving Indian food at the weekend so I made this spread on Sunday. Both the stuffed aubergine and kale chole palak were taken from the Khazana cookbook. I’ve liked everything I’ve made from the book but his recipes aren’t always especially well written. No real problems, just things like spices added to the dish not in the same order they’re listed in the ingredients list etc.

I’d been looking for other ways to use the black chickpeas I bought for the puttu kadala and this was an amazingly tasty way to use them. The aubergines were stuffed with a ground peanut and spice mixture then steamed. It was a very good way to stuff aubergines and I’ll certainly use this method again and vary the stuffings. The lemon rice was from one of the Rasa cookbooks and was just rice cooked plainly with lemon juice and zest and a tempering of oil, urad dhal, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Again I’ll be using this method again and again as it was a very easy way to add interest to rice.

I have to admit that the aloo parathas came from the freezer. I’m terrible for stocking up the freezer with things like that “in case of emergency” and those emergencies are rare! My freezer is so full that I’m having to use up my emergency items even though it wasn’t an emergency and I’d rather have made my own. Still, they were good and tasty and just needed a few minutes per side on a hot tawa straight from frozen – so they really would be good for emergencies!!

Keralan scramble March 29, 2009

When we were in Kerala we really enjoyed the South Indian breakfasts – dosa, idli, sambar, chutney and all the other trimmings. It’s my favourite breakfast in the world and I could eat it every day. But every day people of all nationalities (including Indian) queued for made to order scrambled eggs and omelettes and ate them with toast and ketchup! In one of the hotels though, my husband saw Keralan scrambled eggs listed and decided to depart from his daily dosa. He liked it so much he ended up having it 3 days on the run, and today I decided to create a vegan version of it. I simply used tofu instead of the eggs and made a few tweaks around the cooking method. I normally use the VWAV version of scrambled tofu, but this is absolutely my new favourite. I was really pleased with how it came out and will definitely be making it time and time again. I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 finely chopped red onion (I used red because that’s what I had but white is fine)
1 finely chopped hot green chilli
1 crushed clove garlic
2 healthy tsp mustard seeds
1 healthy tsp turmeric
400g tofu
1 chopped large tomato
2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
8-10 fresh curry leaves (if you can’t get these its better to leave them out than substitute dried. You can add some fresh coriander and it will be tasty but it won’t be so Keralan.)
Black salt or salt and pepper

Heat the coconut oil in a large frying pan. Then add the onion and chilli and cook until soft. Add the garlic, mustard seeds and turmeric and cook for a few more minutes. Crumble in the tofu and stir so that all the onions and spices are mixed in. Then add the tomato, coconut and curry leaves and cook all together for about 5 minutes. You may like to add a splash of water if it starts to dry out, to keep it moist. Just before serving, sprinkle on some black salt or salt and pepper. Black salt is available on-line from Seasoned Pioneers or from good Indian supermarkets, and gives a lovely eggy taste, but if you can’t get it or don’t like it, just use salt.

I served it with some chapatis (I admit they were bought from an Indian shop and stashed in the freezer for when chapati emergencies strike. See this post if you’d like to make your own). Or serve with any other Indian bread or even toast.

More about Thoran February 14, 2009

I’ve mentioned thoran before. It’s absolutely my favourite way to use cabbage and I quite often eat it with brown rice and dahl. I ate stacks of it while I was in India recently because you can hardly get a meal without it in Kerala! It’s not only cabbage though – the cabbage sometimes has carrot mixed in with it, or it can be green beans, okra or beetroot. I enjoyed them all but I really think this dish brings the best out of the humble cabbage! I learnt a few tricks in India about how to make better thoran, and subsequently this one was the best I’ve made.

The first thing I learnt was that whatever vegetable you use you need to chop it really finely. Green beans and okra should be cut into tiny pieces, and cabbage, carrot and beetroot should be almost grated. For the picture above I used the food processor and it was a bit over mushy – I’ll hunt out the grater attachment next time. The amounts  below are approximate because as ever I forgot to weigh them, but it doesn’t really matter – it doesn’t need to be exact.

1 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup grated coconut (I use frozen, from the Indian shop, but unsweetened dessicated will do. In India of course they use fresh)
2 chopped green chillies
1/2 onion, finely sliced
Sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 dried red chillies

Combine the first lot of ingredients in a large bowl and really squeeze it together with your hands, almost as if you’re kneading it. That’s the thing I saw in India that I think really made the difference. Then heat a big pan or wok and add the coconut oil, then the red chillis and mustard seeds and heat until the seeds start to pop. Then add the cabbage mixture and stir fry for about 5 minutes on a high heat, then lower the heat and cover and cook for another 5 or until the cabbage is tender.

And here’s a picture of the chapatis I made for the same meal. I’ve made them before but these were the best I’ve ever made, copied from watching the chef on our houseboat.

I used about 150 gms of flour, mixed with about 100 mls of warm water and 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil until I got a nice smooth dough. I kneaded it for a bit then let it sit for about 20 minutes covered with a damp tea towel. I rolled them really thin and slapped them in a hot pan for just a minute on each side – they should still look under cooked. Then I held them over a naked flame on each side until they got nice brown speckles. They were really soft and flexible and yummy (and even stayed nice and soft when I reheated one the next day and ate it slathered with peanut butter for breakfast!).