Category Archives: Cooking indian

Cooking indian, Cooking international, Cooking middle eastern

A Samosa/ Sambousek/Samsa– fried pastry by yet another name

There are various versions of a savoury filling wrapped around with a crumbly/ flakey pastry through the world. The indians have their samosas and kachoris.In the middle east there are the Sambousek/ Fateyers/rokaka. korea the Mandu, South america the empanda..Even Russia has something called a vareniki and the Uyghur Muslims the Samsa-which they bake in a clay oven like the tandoor..So all foods are related or sometimes similar. The lines started to get blurred with all the invasions and migrations..

When i lived in the West indies they would make fried potato pastry called “Aloo(potato) Pie”

Cooking indian, Random bits and bobs ..

The bhatura – dough not pass me by

This gently oil poached bread ( fried) is perfect for clogging up those arteries which aren’t already buggered . Best served with a chick peas curry which will mean another blog post.

These are very similar to the west Indian doubles but eaten fresh and hot and not wrapped to be like a sandwich.

We can make these with multiple kind of flour mixes, but for today’s one I used wholemeal spelt, plain flour and whole wheat flour .

Flour- 250g

Spelt flour- 100 g

Whole meal flour- 100 g

Baking powder-  5 g /1 tsp

Warm water- 240-260 g depends– we want a semi soft dough

Yeast-4 g

Salt- 8 g

Sugar- 8 g

Oil-15 g

  • Mix flours yeast baking powder sugar  and add in the water to make the dough. Add in salt/oil  and leave to rest.
  • When resting keep dough covered to prevent it from skinning
  • After 15-20 mins you will see the dough start to rise .
  • Scale into about 50 g balls and rest for -5-10 mins again.
  • roll out about 1/2 cm thick .Leave for 2-3 mins
  • Gently poach(not really)/fry in hot oil. These should be puffed up and browned after frying.
  • Eat one or many depending on how badly you want to clog up those arteries.
  • Typically served with a chickpeas curry,but you could do other stuff with it..
Cooking indian

Aais chicken masala..

  • oil -10 ml

  • butter15 gm

  • cumin -¼t

  • cardamom green-2

  • cinnamon- 1 small pc

    • cloves 2-3

  • Heat oil, add butter and whole spices
    then add 500 gms chopped onions and saute on low heat till light brown.
    Add ¼ tsp coriander pdr, 1/8tsp cumin powder, pinch turmeric powder.
    Add in about 20 gms of ginger and garlic paste. continue to saute.
    Add in 400 gm tin of chopped tomatoes , and slow cook till the oil starts to separate out.
    Then can add about 1 kg of chicken on the bone which should ideally be marinated with ginger and garlic paste about 20 gms and about 100 gms of plain / greek yoghurt.
    at this stage you can also add in chilli powder to your taste or 2-3 green chillies.
    let is simmer on low heat with a lid for about 30 minutes.
    Season with salt and some garam masala powder. Also a small pinch of nutmeg. Add some fresh coriander and mint for the oomph factor.
    We would get a chicken curry or masala like this maybe once every few months when we were growing up. Even chicken was a treat not for daily eating. Aai would take us to the butcher I still remember the name Prakash where they would take a fresh chicken and cut it up and wrap in newspaper to take home .
Cooking indian, Cooking international

Crab or prawn tortellini

This is a kid of a pleasant fusion recipe i want to make and have made before using prawns..

  • Crabmeat or chopped prawn – 425 g approximately
  • wonton wrappers- 1 small packet
  • egg 1/2 to seal edges of pastry above
  • onion – 50 g/ 1/2 a medium brown / yellow onion
  • oil-10 ml
  • mustard seeds-1/4 tsp
  • curry leaves- 1/2 sprig stripped and shredded
  • ricotta or cream cheese- 30-40 g to bind the meat and keep moist
  • Basil and coriander – to embellish , chop and make your crab even more sexy
  • ,Heat oil, add mustard seeds and crackle them, then add chopped onion and saute with the curry leaves
  • Add your crabmeat or chopped prawns and take off the heat..
  • Add in ricotta and herbs and mix well.
  • The next bit is tricky but with practice easy to do.Take each wonton sheet/ wrapper and brush with beaten egg. Put a small piece of filling in the centre and fold into a trinagular shape and seal the edges. Then turn the two edges of the triangle to the back and stick to each other to form the classical tortellini shape.
  • Poach in boiling salted water and serve as is or with a moilee sauce
Cooking indian

Moilee

.

this is a creamy coconutty sauce that’s traditional with fish. We can also use it with prawns.

But tomorrow I’m doing this for my friend Gautam Kotwal ,with crabmeat wontons/ravioli.

That recipe is for another time though. Today we just make the sauce. or rather you make the sauce and can add some fish or prawns to cook in the sauce.

Oil -15ml.

Mustard seeds-1/4tsp about 1g

Onion brown/ yellow depending on the country you are in just not red -1 medium sized one about 200g.

Curry leaves -fresh only please 1sprig

Asafoetida/hing -small pinch.

Green chilli- 1-2 slit length wise.

Ginger – 1 small piece maybe 5 g sliced vey thin or cut in julienne

  • Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds until they crackle.
  • Add in everything else on list above and saute till onion is transparent, do not brown.
  • Then add in half a tin of coconut cream or 3/4 of a full one (400 g) usually and a pinch of turmeric , and salt.
  • Simmer with pescado/ fish for those of you who do not speak spanish of your choice and eat with rice , appams or thick dosas( there is recipe for that here).

Turmeric- pinch

Coconut cream -1 can – use maybe 3/4th. hard to say without seeing how good your coconut cream is.

Salt – to make bland things better and increase your blood pressure if you eat too much