Recipe : Gud aur Saunf Wala Atta ke Cheela - Vegan pancakes

Super high fibre vegan pancakes.

When Monica Manchanda of Sin-a-Mon Tales, posted this recipe for ‘Gud aur Saunf Wala Atta ke Cheela’ over a year ago, I had promptly bookmarked it, but hadn't got around to making it for awhile.

Since I found myself with some super strong wheat flour to be used up, I remembered this recipe and dug it out.

I mostly followed Monica's recipe for these Jaggery and fennel seed wheat crepes, but I adjusted it to suit what I had on hand and needed to use up.

For the original recipe of Monica's Granny's Gud aur Saunf Wala Atta Ka Cheela recipe, please click on the link.

This is practically a 3 ingredient recipe.

Below is the recipe with my adjustments.

2 cups super strong stone ground wheat flour - its very high in fibre.

1/2 cup powdered jaggery (or melted jaggery)

2 tsp saunf / fennel seeds

I went really low on the jaggery, so it was just a mild hint of sweetness.

Mix together the wheat flour and the jaggery with a pinch of salt.

Slowly add water and keep stirring, till you have a batter of pancake (European not American) consistency.

Add saunf / fennel seeds and leave the batter for 30 minutes so the flavours blend.

Grease a flat frying pan with a little oil or ghee and pour a thin layer of batter into the pan and spread into a circle.

Fry on both sides for about 2 minutes each until the cheela starts to brown.

A little dab of ghee on top, just made it smell and taste wonderful, but can easily be avoided if you want to keep it vegan.

We loved having these for brunch. They didn’t need anything to accompany them.

Recipe : Kala Channa Chaat - Black Chickpea Salad - Vegan

Ever since last Wednesday when the husband sent me photos of pani puri and other chaat that he had at Southampton at the match, I’ve been craving those flavours. Today’s salad was an attempt to capture the balance of sour, spicy, salty, crunchy without the sweetness.

I used kala channa - legumes like channa are not allowed on the keto diet because they do contain carbs - but we are on a slightly more flexible diet - for us no carb means avoiding grains, flour and high starch veggies.

Kala channa / Black chickpeas have a low glycemic index, and high fibre and protein so I will occasionally slip it in.

If you are following strict keto, avoid the black chickpeas. If you avoid the black chickpeas, this dish works for the raw food diet too.

The black chickpeas are more nutritious, but white chickpeas will also work in this recipe.

So, the salad is

1 bowl drained black chickpeas (you can use canned or soak overnight and cook the next day)

1 bowl chopped cucumber

1/2 bowl chopped tomato

1/2 bowl chopped onion,

2-3 sprigs coriander chopped

1-5 chopped green chillies (as per spice tolerance)

The dressing is

2 tbsp lemon juice,

1 tbsp chaat masala

1 tsp black salt (use regular salt if you don't have black salt)

Feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your taste.

I let the salad and dressing sit for awhile.

Just before serving, I tossed in a handful of groundnuts.

Kim's Tip : If the taste of raw onion is not a flavour you like, drop the onion completely or let the onion sit in the lemon juice / vinegar for 10-15 minutes which helps take the edge off.

The lamb kebabs were from @meatn16 that I picked up after a session of the @stokenewingtonliteraryfestival at their location.

The meat was fantastic. I just seared it on all sides and served it medium rare.

Recipe : Masala Fried Chicken

Back to no-carb, no-sugar since yesterday. Home made masala fried chicken - shallow fried in less than a teaspoon of oil.

The batter is a mix of spices, a pinch of gram flour and eggs.

Lots of chopped fresh coriander, fresh curry leaves and green chillies went into the batter too with ginger and garlic paste

This is a very light batter, gently caressing the chicken, so it doesn’t need flour, nor does it give you a very thick batter coating.

The batter is to flavour the chicken, not to encase it.

The egg makes it nice and crispy.

I used 3 eggs for 1 kg chicken.

Marinated for at least an hour.

Marinated chicken can be left in the fridge and fried the next day too, but in this case, add the egg just before frying. not before.

Shallow frying takes a lot more patience than deep frying, but the benefits make up for the effort.

This chicken works well as a snack and with drinks.

The more complex the spices, the more sated I feel. I don’t crave carbs, the way the husband does. I did give him a large glass of masala lassi to cool down the heat of the chicken and today he didn’t go searching for nuts or cheese to munch on immediately after dinner. So I think lassi is going to be a part of his daily dinners henceforth.

Salad was a mix of loads of juicy stuff in season - lettuce leaves, grated carrot, a little sweet corn, cherry tomatoes.

Dressing was the fantastic avocado oil that I bought from @hunterandgatheruk @freefromevents last weekend, a hint of cider vinegar and some dried chipotle chilli flakes.

Fridge Cleanout : Bread & Butter Pudding

Homemade bread and butter pudding.

I made it to finish a whole lot of leftovers.

Husband messaged me this morning to say that when he returned tomorrow, he wanted to do one carb dinner @gopalscorner before going back on no carb, no sugar.

When I’d ordered home delivery from @romulocafelondon last Friday, I’d got some of their fantastic pandesan, but barely touched it.

It had dried out over the weekend and I was ready to get rid of it, but when he said another 48 hours of eat anything before going back on diet, I decided to make this pudding.

Greased a baking dish.

Sliced the pandesan buns in half to thin them out.

Slathered some pandan kaya (a coconut milk, egg and pandan/kewra flavoured spread) This was a bottle of really yummy stuff a friend got me from South East Asia, but I’m not a bread and jam or toast and marmalade eater and it was languishing at the back of a cupboard.

You can use butter or marmalade or any jam you like.

I had some dried cranberries and let them soak in water as I prepped the other components.

I didn’t have milk, but when @anu.hasan.uk was here last month, she had got some coffee mate which was also in the cupboard.

When @spiceupthekari visited Venice for her friends wedding last year, one of the takeaway gifts was a small jar of apple chutney / jam made by his nonna.

So I made the custard of this apple chutney, coffeemate, water, 4 eggs and cinnamon to taste. I didn’t add any sugar, because there was enough sweetness from the pandan kaya, apple chutney and coffee mate.

Layer the bread slices, sprinkle some dried fruit and nut, pour the custard to soak the bread. Repeat till all the bread has been arranged and soaked in the custard.

The recipe has to use slightly stale and hard bread, otherwise you will end up with a soggy mess. Let the bread soak in the custard for at least 20-30 minutes. I left it for an hour.

Just before popping it into the oven, I put the top layer of nuts and a few slivers of dehydrated coconut.

Bake at 180C for 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Recipe : Carrot & Baby Radish Salad - Vegan

This was another of our no-carb dinners.

Carrot & Baby Radish Salad

4 carrots - cut into circles

1 small packet baby radish - 200 gms - quartered

1-5 green chillies chop in circles(depending on spice tolerance)

2 tsp lime juice.

1 tsp salad/olive/avocado/nut oil

2 sprigs fresh coriander chopped

salt to taste

Soak the chopped green chillies in lime juice for a few minutes.

Add salt, oil and chopped coriander.

This is your dressing.

Mix this into the chopped carrot and baby radish.

This I let sit for awhile, tossing occasionally as I was cooking the chicken.

The carrots and radish are crunchy.

So it sits well and the flavours blend together if left for a bit.

The Masala fried chicken is just chicken cooked with onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and some spices I had on hand.

Recipe : Bean Sprout Salad (Vegan)

This salad is bean sprouts.

2 minutes stir fried in a hot pan (any more and you will lose the liquid as they start to turn soggy and soft). I’m not a fan of their raw taste, so just about 2 minutes.

You can use them raw if you like.

Dressing

2 tsp lime juice,

1 tsp soya sauce,

1 tsp chipotle chilli flakes,

1/2 tsp Chinese all spice powder

1 tsp of hazelnut oil - I need to finish this bottle, any olive oil or salad oil will work too.

Toss gently.

I served it warm, because sprouts once heated can turn soggy quite quickly.

It barely takes 5 minutes to put it together.

So glad the weather is turning warmer and we can eat a lot more salads.

I served it with a Texan slammer - jalapeño poppers with cheddar cheese, encased in pork mince / sausage meat and rolled in bacon from @marksandspencer Lightly pan fried at home.

Fridge Cleanout : Bamboo Shoot & Mushroom Miso Soup with Thai herbs.

Another clean out the fridge recipe.

I had a frozen bouquet garni of thai herbs (lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime & chillies) which I crushed & boiled in water.

Remove the herbs/ strain.

Then in went some chopped bamboo shoot from the back of the fridge.

Next, in went whatever was left in the miso paste jar.

The final stage was chopped chestnut mushrooms (that I’d retained from Sunday’s fryup, just for this soup) and emptied out some New Orleans’s hot sauce bottles.

Garnished with chopped coriander .

Voila! Fusion Asian Soup for a snowy evening in London.