Recipe : Gond aur Atte ka Halwa. Indian gum and wheat flour dessert. Kada Prasad

I’ve been craving something sweet for a couple of days. Pre-lockdown that normally meant buying one portion of dessert - cake / macaron / pudding / ice cream. But now I was stuck at home wanting something sweet, with no enthu to bake and I didn’t want kheer, but something with texture.

Aunty Shikha (My brothers MIL) used to whip up halwas so easily when I visited with her in February. Halwa and papad is a regular breakfast in her Rajasthani household. So I decided that a wheat halwa would be simple enough and hit the spot.

This literally took less than 15 minutes to prepare.

I started with a basic Kada Prasad idea - ghee : wheat flour : water : sugar :: 1 : 1 : 1 : 1.

I had gond (Indian gum - see how pretty it is) in my pantry (I think I originally bought it because of how pretty and shiny it is ☺️). Gond is used liberally in winter sweets in Gujarat and UP for its warming properties. Given that it’s winter here, I deep fried the Gond and a mix of nuts before starting on the halwa. Removed them and then added them when the halwa was done.

Ingredients :

1 cup ghee

2 tbsp gond - Indian gum - tragacanth gum - gond katira

2 tbsp nuts (your choice of almonds, cashews, pista)

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup hot water

1 cup sugar

Method:

Heat the ghee in a wide mouthed pan - ideally, a kadhai.

Drop the gond into it, and remove as soon as it fluffs up (a few seconds)

Now put the nuts in and take them out as soon as they are done (again, just a few seconds).

The ghee might turn a bit cloudy after the nuts are fried, don't worry about it.

Now add the wheat flour, stirring continuously, so it doesn't form lumps.

As soon as you start smelling that the wheat flour is roasted (a few seconds), add the hot water.

Stir continuously as you are adding water, so it doesn't form lumps.

Once it starts melding into a halwa, add the sugar and stir continuously.

When the ghee starts to separate from the mixture, your halwa is done.

Mix in the fried gond and the nuts before serving.

Yummy and very satisfying.The husband was delighted with the totally unexpected sweet treat .

For a traditional Gurudwara style Kada Prasad, drop the gondh and dry fruits and follow the rest of the recipe.

Kim's Tip 1 : Since this recipe cooks so quickly, measure all ingredients and keep ready before you start cooking.

Kim's Tip 2 : You can decrease the sugar if you want, but do not decrease the ghee, you can remove the ghee that separates from the halwa before serving, if you are worried about it.

Kim's Tip 4 : Gond can be very sticky like 'gum' when you eat it. If you don't like the sticky feeling in your mouth, you can powder it after you have fried it. It then blends in better and you don't get sticky lumps.

Since this is cooked in ghee, the recipe is vegetarian, not vegan.  My cousin Jenny who runs an organic cafe in Mumbai, recommends substituting the ghee with a nut butter, but given how the ghee is supposed to work in this dish, I’m not sure if any vegan substitute would work here. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Recipe : Haleem - Mutton and Wheat Porridge

Haleem is a traditional dish of meat (mutton) and wheat that is stewed overnight during Ramadan, so it can be had as a nutritious and filling breakfast before sunrise the following day. Hyderabad has the most amazing varities of Haleem available during this period and we endeavoured to taste our way through as many of them as possible. It's a dish that is definitely worth waking up early for , but these days its available all around the year.

Haleem at home is served with toppings on the side, so everyone can choose their favourite flavours.

Since I wanted to recreate the recipe at home with better quality boneless mutton, I followed the recipe from the Essential Andhra Cookbook by Bilkees Latif, with my minor adjustments

Ingredients :

1/2 kg boneless mutton (or chicken)

1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp ginger paste

Juice of half a lime

1/2 kg broken wheat (dalia)

1 handful each masoor (Egyptian / red), channa (Bengal gram) and moong (husked green gram) dhals/lentils
2 tbsp ghee (Bilkees recommends 1/2 cup)
2 onions finely sliced
6 cloves
6 cardamom
2 " cinnamon
1 tbsp corriander powder
red chilli powder to taste
1 tsp ground caraway seeds - I skipped this
3-6 green chillies sliced or ground
1/2 tsp haldi - for colour I added
water
salt to taste

Options For Garnish :
chopped mint
quartered limes
chopped corriander leaves

chopped green chillies

ginger juliennes

Method :

Marinate mutton overnight in ginger garlic paste and lime juice.

Wash the dhals.
Soak dhals and broken wheat for 1 hour (or overnight if you want to cook this as soon as you wake up as a breakfast dish)

Heat ghee

Fry sliced onions till crispy brown and then remove from the pan.

In the same ghee, fry cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon for a minute.

Add the spice powders and stir a bit.

Before the powders begin to burn, add the meat and marinade and saute till brown.

Add green chillies, soaked wheat, soaked dhal, 4 cups water and close the pressure cooker.

Cook under pressure for 30-45 minutes.

Open and dry out to desired consistency (like porridge)

Mash the meat and wheat a bit.

Add salt to taste.

Garnish with your choice and combination of fried onions, chopped chillies, chopped mint, ginger  or chopped corriander

Recipe : Pork Jalfrezi - Indian Pulled Pork

This is not the jalfrezi curry made “famous” in the “Indian” restaurants of London. Think of it as an Indian version of pulled pork.

Chef Atul Kocchar in his book Atul's Curries of the World writes that, "in the UK, the word 'jalfrezi' is commonly misunderstood to represent the heat level of a curry...it's thought of as a 'medium heat' curry...in fact, the word derives from the Bengali word 'jhal' meaning 'spicy' and 'jalfrezi' is the term for the original dish in which cooked meats are stir-fried over a high heat with vegetables such as pepper and onion.

Jalfrezi can be made with any meat of your choice including chicken, but red meat works better in texture for this dish.

This was a dish my nana cooked when there were leftover bits of meat (mostly beef) from a roast or if she felt the meat was “kisparla” - i.e. meat falling apart like pulled meat.

I had stewed pork in ginger, lemon and red chillies and was using the stock in other dishes, while the meat just kept getting more and more kisparla lending beautiful flavour, but too flimsy/fiddly to eat.

So I fried it up with onions, tomatoes, chillies, potatoes and spices - such a taste of eating at my grandparents home.

The recipe below is the way I made I made it this time, scroll to the end to see the way my nana would make it.

Ingredients:

250 gms leftover boneless cooked roast or stewed meat or meat leftover when making stock (see option at end of post)

3 tbsp mustard oil (can use regular oil, but mustard oil gives a nice bite)

2" cinnamon

1 star anise

1 large onion halved and sliced thin

2 tbsp chopped ginger

100 gms boiled potato skinned and chopped large (I used halved skin on baby potatoes this time)

2 large fully ripe tomatoes sliced thin

2-8 green chillies chopped (as per taste)

salt to taste

handful fresh corriander chopped

Method:

Pull the meat apart - so it forms threads / reshis.

Pork fat and skin or chicken skin can also be added chopped in small chunks.

Take a large frying pan on high heat.

When it is hot, add the oil.

When the oil is almost smoking, add the cinnamon and star anise.

As soon as the spices start releasing their aroma, add the sliced onions and fry until they start to caramelise.

From here on, the recipe needs constant monitoring and gentle stirring.

Now add the ginger and boiled potatoes and fry, till the edges of the potato start to crisp up.

Now add the tomatoes and turn the heat to medium.

Cook until the tomatoes release all their pulp and the tomato skins start to curl up on themselves. This will take a little time, but this caramelisation of the onion and tomatoes is where all the taste in this dish comes from.

Now add the chopped green chillies , give a quick stir, then add the shredded meat. You can increase the heat now, but keep an eye and keep stirring.

Adjust salt to taste (you would have most likely added salt when initially cooking the meat, so be cautious.)

Fry until the meat starts crisping up.

Garnish with corriander and serve hot with rice and dhal or rotis and dhal.

I served it with rice, leftover rajma madra and cabbage stir fried with crisped up garlic, topped with chilli oil.

Kim's Tip 1 : If you don't have leftover meat, slow cook 300 - 400 gms meat (bones extra if you want) with chopped onions, ginger, garlic, red chillies or spices and veggies of your choice in lots of water. Use the liquid as stock in any dish and use the meat for this recipe.

Kim's Tip 2 : If your tomatoes have no tartness at all, you may like to add a squeeze of lime and stir, once the meat is fried.

Kim's Tip 3 : Do not stint on the oil in this recipe. I rarely use a lot of oil, but this recipe needs the oil to fry the onions, the tomatoes, the potatoes and the meat. It will seperate at the end and you can remove it before serving.

Kim's Tip 4 : Do not make this in very large quantities, the meat needs space in the pan to cook properly.

Kim's Tip 5 : Garnish with sliced fresh onion rings for a stunning presentation

Nana's Version Ingredients:

250 gms leftover boneless cooked roast or stewed meat or meat leftover when making stock.

3 tbsp sunflower oil

2" cinnamon

3-4 cloves

1 large onion halved and sliced thin

2 tbsp chopped ginger

2 large fully ripe tomatoes sliced thin

2-8 green chillies chopped (as per taste)

salt to taste

100 gms boiled potato cut in slices and deep fried

handful fresh corriander chopped

Method :

Same as above, except the deep fried potatoes are added at the end just before serving.

Recipe : Sajjige Rotti / Rawa Rotti / Rulavanchi Bhakri / Thick Semolina Dosas

Sajjige rotti / rulavanchi bhakri / rava rotti / thick semolina dosas with 2 types of chutney.

I may have mentioned before, but weekend brunches are special. These are the only 2 days that the husband has time for a leisurely noonish meal - without being on a conference call or rushing for one.

While he loves eggs made any which way for a weekend brunch, I’m taking the opportunity during this lockdown to cook dishes from my childhood or other memories. I'm not a breakfast person at all. I normally have One Meal a Day, since long before OMAD was a thing. During our 5 years in London, weekends meant heading out to see / do  / experience something and breakfast / brunch was built into the day's schedule.

This is the first time, I'm actually cooking so many breakfast / brunches at home - albeit only on the weekends. This is also the 2 meals of the week that I enjoy a carb heavy meal (since its eaten so much earlier in the day) and a cup of coffee with sugar - during the week, its green tea without sugar.

Coming back to the sajjige rotti, the way I made today’s rotti was not the thinner crispy version that’s made like a crepe. This is a very rustic style thick batter (almost chapatti dough consistency) that is shaped by hand on the pan / tawa, so its much thicker like a bhakri.

Since I was doing the hand shaping for the first time, the first dosas / rotis were a bit uneven shaped. Once I got the hang of it, they became much rounder, but since they are slow fried on a low flame, we were gobbling them as soon as they came off the pan - so didn’t take a better picture.

Ingredients:

2 cups Bombay Rava - medium fine semolina

2 cups sour curd (slightly liquidy, not as thick as store bought yoghurt - for store yoghurt, make it 1.5 cups yoghurt + 1/2 cup water)

2 tbsp coconut / dessicated coconut (optional)

1 medium onion chopped

1-6 green chillies chopped (depending on spice tolerance)

2 sprigs curry leaves chopped (only leaf not stem)

2 sprigs corriander chopped - with stem

2 tsp chopped fresh ginger (don't use the stringy bits)

1 tsp jeera / cumin

salt to taste

oil to fry

Method:

Mix the Bombay rava, coconut if using and the curd / yoghurt.

Mix well and leave overnight.

You want a dough, that is much thicker than a dosa batter and actually comes together, but not as tight as a chapatti dough.

You can keep the dough for just 20-30 minutes too, but I like the way the flavour / sourness develops overnight.

It also means a tiny bit of extra sleep in the morning :)

If you have left it overnight, depending on the weather conditions, you may notice that your batter has become drier or wetter than the night before.

Don't adjust it at this stage.

Add  the onions, chillies, curry leaves, coriander leaves, ginger, jeera and mix well.

These are the traditional additions, feel free to experiment with flavours you like.  For eg. my chillies are now 3 weeks old (grocery run in the coming week), so I felt they weren't spicy enough, so I also added a 1/2 tbsp of crushed black pepper.

Mix well, preferably use your hands to get a more even mix. (be sure you have washed with soap and not just used santizer :) )

There will be some liquid content in the onions, ginger and herbs.

Now if the dough feels too dry, add a few drops of water.

If the dough feels too wet, add a little rava to the mix.

The picture above shows the consistency that you want.

Make portions. With the above quantities, I got about 10 portions.

The next step is shaping them.

Traditionally, the rottis are shaped on banana leaves or some other traditional leaves (I forget which ones my nana used) and flipped onto the pan.

Modern methods, involve shaping the rotti on a greased plate or on plastic sheets.

Personally, I found these methods very fiddly and also I was only cooking for 2, so I shaped them directly on the pan.

Take a flat frying pan  / crepe pan or dosa tawa.

Heat the pan on medium heat.

Grease the pan with a few drops of oil. The traditional method is to use a small onion or potato cut in half speared onto a fork (don't let the tines come all the way through, you will end up scraping your pan). I currently use a silicon pastry brush to grease the pan.

I made portions like above, popped one on the pan. Dipped hand in a bowl of water and then flattened  the dough directly on the pan itself.

You need wet hands to use this method, doughy hands will make the dough stick to your hands. So rinse hands in a bowl of water, before shaping the rotti.

Flatten the rotti evenly to between 1/2 - 1 cm thickness.

Don't make them too large or they will be very difficult to flip over.

Fry for a few minutes on each side until slightly browned.

I served it hot off the pan with 2 types of chutney, although I have to say that the coconut chutney went better with this dosa / rotti. The advantage of this rotti, is that it can even be eaten without chutney, making it a one pot meal.

A dab of white butter on top is also a perfect accompaniment.

Kim's Tip 1 : If you have just a little chutney left in the fridge, you can add it to the rotti dough.

Kim's Tip 2 : This recipe is an excellent way to use up curd / yoghurt that has turned a bit sour. If you don't have sour yoghurt, add a tsp of fresh lemon / lime juice to your yoghurt and use.

Let me know if you try this out.

We got a good warm bit of sun this winter noon.  So, after this meal, someone decided a nap was in order, followed by a cheery wake up with South Indian Filter Coffee.

While the other someone was out in the sun tending to the garden and feeding our sparrows, laughing doves, wagtails and other birds who have become extremely demanding. They chirrup loudly if the feeders are approaching empty to let me know it’s time for a top up.

Recipe : Green Coconut Chutney

In Manglorean / Udupi cuisine, chutneys are eaten with breakfast items - dosas, idlis , vadas, sometimes even with hot rice. They are a very essential condiment and there are multiple versions and variations of them. I have quite a few on this blog.  These chutneys do not resemble the bottled "chutneys" of the UK in any shape or form.

Also, its not just different from the UK chutneys. For eg : My mum-in-law who is from UP once tasted a mild coconut chutney I had made at home and her feedback was "iss mein khatai hi nahin hain" (there is no sourness in this). In their house in UP, a chutney has to be sour.

This chutney is one of those that will go well with any South Indian / Udupi / Tamilian type of snack or breakfast. In the picture above, I have served it with chattambade / dalvada.

Ingredients :

1 cup fresh/frozen coconut

1 cup tightly packed corriander leaves & stems (if you don't normally use stems, save them for this chutney)

1-2 cloves garlic

2-6 green chillies

salt to taste

Method:

Grind all the ingredients to a fine paste.

Do not add any water, unless absolutely necessary.

Adjust salt to taste.

If the coconut is too sweet for your taste or the garlic / chillies too sharp, a little squeeze of lime (<1/2 tsp), can help round up the flavours

Kim's Tip: If you do not have fresh/frozen coconut, you can substitute with good quality dessicated coconut as follows.

Take 3/4 cup of dessicated coconut, add warm water slowly and keep mixing. Do not go above the 1 cup level. Let is sit for at least 15-20 minutes, then use like regular coconut.

Recipe : Chattambade / Dalwada/ Parippu Vadai/ Masala Vada - Vegan

Chattambade/ Dalwada/ Parippu Vadai/ Masala Vada with Green Coconut Chutney.

This vegan fried snack made with split channa dhal / split Bengal gram / split chickpea lentils is made across India and is called different names across the country. Each household uses their own spicing and ratios. Some add a mix of different lentils to their wadas.

This one is my method and suits our tastebuds best.

Ingredients:

2 cups channa dhal / split chickpea lentils

1 chopped onion
2-10 chopped green chillies depending on spice tolerance
1 handful chopped coriander
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped curry leaves (optional)
Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Method:

Soak 2 cups channa dhal / split chickpea lentils overnight (8 hours at least)

Drain to remove as much of the water as possible.

Some people coarsely grind the entire lot. We like the crunch from the whole bits, so I coarsely grind 80% of the dhal and use 20% whole.

Mix the ground and whole lentils together.

Add all other ingredients except oil

The mix should be dry enough to form vadas/cutlets.

If it’s too wet, you can add besan/chickpea flour.

My batter was just a bit wet (I didn’t have time to leave the soaked dhal to dry), so I formed the wadas (slightly flattened balls) and left them on a sheet of kitchen roll to get rid of the slight excess.

Deep fry in hot oil on medium flame until golden.

Don't be tempted to increase the heat, you will get burnt outsides and raw insides.

Serve hot with chutney / ketchup.

Nana occasionally made these as a tea time snack, but we had these for brunch on a cold winter day.

Kim’s tip : If grinding fresh chutney, do that first and then grind the dhal in the same jar without rinsing/washing. The leftover chutney imparts good flavour to the dhal. 

Recipe : Nana Maggie's White Coconut Chutney

This is the traditional white coconut chutney that is served with snacks at Udupi / Manglorean restaurants.

It can be eaten with idlis / dosas/ vadas / hot rice - the options are endless.

This is my grandma's recipe. Her recipes were never precise, she was much worse than me at measuring stuff, these are my approximations.

Ingredients :
1 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen, not dessicated)
5 green chillies
1-2 cloves of garlic

Lime juice to taste (1/2tsp - 1 tsp)

Salt to taste (a pinch or so)

For Tempering:
1 tsp coconut oil (other oils can be used)

1/2 tsp urad dhal

1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp mustard seeds

Method:
Grind all the ingredients for the chutney together.
You want a bit of coarseness, not a very smooth paste.
You can add a few drops of water at a time, if it gets too dry.
Transfer to a heat proof bowl.

In a tempering pan, heat the coconut oil and add the urad dhal, followed by the curry leaves and mustard seeds.
When it splutters, add the tempering to the ground chutney.

Serve with idlis, vadas or dosas.

This chutney keeps well in the fridge for 7-10 days.

Consume at room temperature.

Kim's tip:

Add a pinch of sugar if your coconut isn't sweet enough.

Recipe : Mummy Lorna's Red Coconut Chutney

This is a Red Coconut chutney which is seen more in homes than in restaurants. Very few Udupi restaurants actually serve this chutney. This is not the chutney that is applied on the inside of the Mysore Masala Dosa.

This is my mum's recipe. Personally, I prefer this chutney to the regular white chutney.

Ingredients :
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen, not dessicated)
3 tsp channa dhal roasted
2 dry bedgi chillis (more colour than heat)
marble size ball of tamarind / 1 tsp tamarind paste
1/2" ginger
Salt to taste

For Tempering:
1 tsp coconut oil (other oils can be used)
grain of asafoetida / hing 

1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp mustard seeds

Method:
Grind all the ingredients for the chutney together.
You want a bit of coarseness, not a very smooth paste.
You can add a few drops of water at a time, if it gets too dry.
Transfer to a heat proof bowl.

Heat the coconut oil and add the asafoetida, followed by the curry leaves and mustard seeds.
When it splutters, add the tempering to the ground chutney.

Serve with idlis, vadas or dosas.

This chutney keeps well in the fridge for 7-10 days.

Consume at room temperature.

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.

Recipe : Hyderabadi Sheer Kurma - Vermicelli Pudding

A low-sugar, but slow cooked bowl of sheer khurma for that festive feeling. (Today is Ayudha pooja at home in Mangalore and Navami at the in-laws in Kanpur) It’s a Persian influenced - Hyderabadi vermicelli pudding.

Sheer Kurma is similar, yet different from the sevai ki kheer of North India and the vermicelli payasam of South India.

I used raisins instead of the traditional dates, but I got the “right” type of vermicelli from an Indian store in Brick Lane. These are much longer strands than the regular vermicelli.

Recipe :

Quickly fry a handful of raisins and cashewnuts or almonds in some ghee.

Roast the vermicelli in the same ghee.

Turn your flame to medium.

Add warm milk and slow cook until the milk thickens and the vermicelli is soft.

(Start with 2 measures of milk for 1 measure of vermicelli and keep adding milk)

Keep adding milk, so that the consistency isn’t sticky.

You want a smooth pudding consistency.

Add sugar to taste

And keep stirring gently, so that the milk and sugar caramelise together.

I left it a little more liquidy overnight, so it could absorb some more. But this is optional.

Garnish with powdered cardamom seeds or a few more roasted nuts.

A hint of rose water or saffron is also a lovely option for a different taste.

Served hot for breakfast or as a dessert.

To make it vegan, use coconut milk instead of regular milk.

It’s a simple recipe, but requires patience, constant monitoring and stirring.

I also don’t like having anything else going on the cooking top when making milk based sweet stuff, because I feel their delicate nature absorbs the other smells of food being cooked. But that’s me.

Recipe : Salmon Soy Wasabi

Another low carb meal that is quick to prepare.

I added a hint of honey to the marinade for a bit of sweetness and a sticky glaze, , but you can drop the honey for a keto dish.

Ingredients:

4 salmon fillets (about 400 gms - skin on or off - your choice)

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp soya sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

1-2 tsp wasabi paste (wasabi paste and fresh root differ in spiciness - taste and adjust)

1/2 tsp honey (optional)

2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tsp oil

Method:

In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, soya sauce, ginger, wasabi and honey.

Marinate your cleaned and dried salmon in this mix for about 15-30 minutes.

Kim's tip : Don't marinate delicate fish fillets for too long in an acidic marinade, you may just end up with hash in your pan when the fish starts flaking apart.

Heat a pan with the oil.

Scatter the sesame seeds in a plate.

Roll the marinated salmon in the sesame seeds and pan fry lightly on both sides for a couple of minutes until the fish is done to your liking.

Remove the fish from the pan to a plate.

Put any leftover marinade and sesame seeds into the pan and thicken, then pour over the fish.

This was a no carb meal, so I served it with stuffed peppers and a salad, but you can serve it with any simple rice, fried rice or noodles.

Recipe : Haalu Menasina Saaru - Milk and Black Pepper Soup

I was craving some nice spicy home cooked soul food after returning from holiday.

Goan sausage chilli fry, egg masala, broccoli and bottle gourd with split Bengal gram and haalu menasina saaru (milk and black pepper soup - a Kannadiga Brahmin recipe)

Given the black pepper in it, this rasam / soup is great during winters and the monsoon season and is used to treat seasonal coughs and colds.

Dry roast

1 tsp - 1tbsp Black pepper,
2 tbsp dhal - I used channa, you can use channa & urad 50-50 and
2 tbsp grated coconut.

Cool & grind these ingredients in a dry grinder.

Fry this ground mixture in 1 tbsp ghee.

Add some water (from washing the grinder)

When it bubbles, add 1 cup room temperature or warm milk on medium to low flame.

Let it come to a boil and thicken a bit.

Keep stirring, so it doesn’t burn.

Season with ghee - methi, hing, jeera, whole red chilli, curry leaves

Before serving, garnish with fresh coriander.

We have it as soup, rasam, dunking dip for rotis, or poured over hot rice.

The final picture is my plate of rice with the milk soup and eggs.

Recipe : Wak Serjak - Pork Stew from Tripura - North East India

My red meat of choice is pork. I grew up eating pork on Sundays. My grandmother was an amazing cook and made the most delicious pork dishes. Manglorean style pork is heavy though and very conducive to Sunday afternoon naps. So not really dishes for mid-week. and we keep our dinners light as far as possible.

So it was a fantastic revelation for me, when we lived in Guwahati in 2011, to discover a multitude of pork dishes that were super tasty and yet very easy to prepare (no heavy grinding of masalas) and super light on the tummy. As light as eating chicken.

A lot of pork dishes in Assam, are cooked with local herbs which are difficult to find outside of the state. My friend Sanjukta is a great resource for local recipes and her blog is an excellent starting point.

When I lived in Guwahati, there weren't too many local food bloggers, so the first book that I bought for help with local cuisine was Hoihnu Hazel's collaboration with Penguin. This recipe is from that book.

I'm happy to say that in the decade since then, North East Indian food is slowly working itself into public consciousness due to the enterprising passion and commitment of a few foodies like Gitika Saikia in Mumbai and  Sneha Saikia in Delhi.

Wak Serjak in its thinnest form is like a soup, you can however let it simmer for awhile so it gets thicker. And in the Manglorean/Goan fashion of maturing pork, keep reheating leftovers (if you have any) daily, until it becomes a nice thick mass. Its super-delicious at every stage.

Ingredients:
2 kg pork (I like a good balance of meat and fat and bones - here I buy pork belly and ribs seperately to add to the mix)
2 tsp oil
4 tbsp ginger paste
6-8 green chillies chopped
4 medium onions chopped
6 medium tomatoes chopped
salt to taste

Method:
Wash and drain pork. Cut into bite sized pieces.

Heat oil in a deep pot and add ginger, green chillies, onions and tomatoes, fry till golden brown.

Add pork and stir-fry for awhile until pork is cooked. I tend to cook the fat and bones first so the fat breaks down, before adding the meat.

Add salt and 4 cups water. Then cover and leave to simmer for awhile (use less water if you want a thicker gravy.

Adjust salt and fresh chillies to taste.

Serve hot with cooked rice.

Optional garnish - freshly shopped corriander leaves for a fresh herby taste.


Note:
Optional - since the tomatoes here in the UK, don't have any tartness, I added the juice of one lemon - to taste.

I found Bergamot lemons in the market last week and as an Earl Grey aficionado, I had to bring them home. In the North East of India, the tomatoes are tart enough that you don’t need to add any thing citric. But here I added the juice of a whole bergamot to 2 kilos of meat.

The essential fragrance of the bergamot was lost in the cooking, so it tasted like any other lemon in the mix.

Cooking with Fennel

This is the first time I'm cooking with fennel (the vegetable, I use the seeds regularly, even the fresh version of the seeds which used to be available in this season in Gujarat)

Pork & fennel chilli, fennel scented couscous and a carrot, apple, fennel slaw.

I had got the fennel in my @abelandcole box a week ago, but hadn’t been home to cook. So it had started to look a bit wilted.

I used the best crisp thin bits in the slaw, the thick semi-wilted bits went in the chilli, and the dehydrated bits went into the couscous as it was being cooked and discarded when it was drained. The fronds were used as garnish.

Jugaad cooking as we call this in India.

Quite happy with the flavour, I will buy this vegetable/herb again. How do you cook fennel?