Masala dosa

One of my relative once told me that the best way to impress your guests at dinner is to prepare some exotic food. That's not exactly why I usually prepare indian food, but he was right. I tried to do dosas at home, a typical south indian dish and everyone that's ever been in India knows that the picture below doesn't look like a real dosa. Yeah, even my experiments aren't always successful, but on the other hand the taste was good, so I'm sharing the recipe anyway! 

Ingredients: 

Dosa batter: 

240 gr parboiled rice

75 gr lentils

salt as required 

water as required

Masala filling:

2 large potatoes

1 small onion

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1tsp masala powder

oil

Wash and soak both rice and lentils 5-6 hour separately. Drain the water and grind the lentils adding needed water until smooth and fluffy. Do the same with the rice. Mix them together and add salt. Leave it for 7-8 hours in a large container.

Masala potatoes: 

Cook the potatoes with the skin in cold water. When the water start boiling, cook for 15 minutes. 

Heat some oil and fry the finely chopped onion. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Add them to the onion with the spices. Stir well and cook a few minutes. 

Heat a non stick flat pan (tawa) and add some oil. Take some batter and pour it on the pan from the centre towards the edges in a circular motion. When cooked on one side, flip it over. 

When it's ready put it on a plate, add the masala potatoes and fold it. Serve with some red chutney or with the chutney you prefer. 

Coconut rice (for ricecooker)

This is a great rice to serve as a side dish with spicy indian food. It will make a great combination of flavours.

Ingredients: 

290 gr basmati rice

240 ml coconut milk

480 ml water

1/2 tsp salt

2-3 tbsp shredded coconut

If you don't have coconut milk, don't worry, it's very easy to do at home. You need 225 gr desiccated coconut and 450 ml boiling water. Put the coconut in a food processor and pour the over the boiling water. Process for 20-30 seconds, then cool. 

Place a cloth over, bring the ends together and twist it to extract the liquid. You can keep the coconut milk in the fridge 1-2 days or it can be frozen until you need it.

To prepare the coconut rice, put all the ingredients in a rice cooker and stir well. Cover and set to cook. Stir once or twice while it's cooking. Serve with some indian curry or with the food you prefer, but I think it's the best way to balance the flavours with very spicy food. 

Indian potatoes

That's a recipe that my friend Darshana taught me when I lived in India. It's easy to make and it does taste really good.

Ingredients: 

potatoes 

oil

onion

salt

pepper

chili powder

mustard seeds

turmeric powder 

water

Boil the potatoes with the skin. Chop the onion and fry it in a pan with a little bit of oil. Add the potatoes cut in cubes and add salt, pepper and the other spices. Mix well, add some water and cook for some time. You can eat it with some chapati. 

Cauliflower indian soup

I found this recipe in the book Le migliori ricette dall'India, I tried it and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

1 big potato

1 small cauliflower

1 onion

1 teaspoon of oil

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon of fresh chopped ginger

2 teaspoons of turmeric powder

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of mustard

2 teaspoons of coriander powder

1 l of vegetable soup

300 ml of yoghurt

salt

pepper

Cut the potato in cubes, the cauliflower and onion and put it in a big pan with oil and 3 spoons of water. Cook it on low heat for 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and the rest of the spices. Mix well and cook it for a few minutes. Add soup, salt and pepper. When it boils cook it for 20 minutes on low heat, then blend it and at the end add yoghurt. You can garnish with some chopped fresh coriander (but you'll never eat this in my home) or parsley. 

Oven baked samosa

I really like samosa, but they are deep fried and that's not healthy! I found some recipes online how to make oven baked samosa, I took bits and pieces of recipes and that's my version of oven baked samosa.

Ingredients (8 samosa)

Dough:
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
water
1 tablespoon semolina flour
1 tablespoon oil

Filling:
2 large potatoes
2 carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1 red chilli
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon curcumin powder
1/2 teaspoon masala powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
oil (1 tablespoon)

1 egg

Mix the ingredients for the dough and make the dough. Leave it aside for 20 minutes. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds until they crack. Add onion and red chilli (you've cutted them before of course) and fry it until golden. Add curcumin powder and masala powder and mix. Add frozen peas and mix until tender. Add the potatoes and carrots cut in cubes that you boiled in water before. Mix for a few minutes.
Work the dough with a rolling pin. Make it thin and round shape. Cut it in half, do a cone and put the filling inside. When it's full close it. Do all the samosa and put them on a baking pan. With a brush cover the samosa with the egg you've mixed before. Bake in a preheated oven on 180°C for 20-30 minutes.

Kadai paneer

 

Ingredients:

oil

2 red chillies

2 cloves

2 teaspoons crashed coriander seeds

2 sliced medium onions

2 sticks cinnamon

2 bayleaves

2 teaspoons garlic paste

2 teaspoons ginger paste

2 teaspoons red chili powder

5-6 chopped medium tomatoes

salt

500 gr paneer

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add 2 broken red chillies, 2 cloves, 2 teaspoons of crashed coriander seeds and 2 sliced medium onions. Mix for 2 minutes. Add cinnamon and 2 bay leaves. Stir. Add garlic paste, ginger paste and red chili powder and stir for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and salt and cook until the tomatoes become soft. Add the paneer cubes and stir gently. Cook until the paneer is heated through. Serve with some rice or chapati. 

Prawn vindaloo

I tried this dish when I was in Goa and I loved it a loooot. :) I found lots of recipes on internet and I did a mix of all the recipes. It did taste good, but it wasn't the same, so I'll have to try more variations to find the right one.

Ingredients:

Mixture of spices:
vinegar (1-2 tablespoons)
salt (1 teaspoon)
black pepper (1 teaspoon)
red pepper (1 teaspoon)
coriander powder (1 teaspoon)
cumin seeds (1/2 teaspoon)
mustard (1/2 teaspoon)
cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon)
ginger powder (1/2 teaspoon)
cardamon (1/2 teaspoon)
cloves (1/4 teaspoon)

prawns (500 gr)
boiled potatoes (225 gr)
tomatoes (225 gr)
onion (1)
garlic (2 cloves)
oil (2 tablespoons)
lemon juice (1 tablespoon)

Mix all the spices with vinegar. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic. Add the spices. Mix, then add tomatoes and potatoes. Cook 15 minutes on low heat, then add the prawns and cook for a few more minutes. Add the lemon juice and serve with some rice or chapati.

Chapati

This is the indian bread I used to eat every day when I lived in India. It should be round shape, but I'm not good at it. It may be the rollin pin's fault (they use a smaller one in India) or just me not knowing what round shape is. :) It is very easy to do.

Ingredients:

whole wheat flour
salt
oil
water

Mix the ingredients in a smooth dough (it shouldn't be too hard and too sticky). Leave the dough for about an hour then work very thin round shape flat breads. Cook them in a non stick pan. Flip them over 3 times, then the chapati is ready. Easy, right?

Onion pakora

I decided to try to do pakoras, but I had to make adjustments to the recipe that I found on internet. There were a few problems: it had fresh coriander (and if you know me, you definitely know I can't stand fresh coriander! Too bad, that it is in every indian dish!) The other thing is that it was supposed to be with chickpea flour, but I couldn't find it in our stores, so I used just corn flour instead.

Ingredients:

2 cups corn flour
1 cup rice flour
oil
onions (1)
chillies (2-3)
salt
cashew nuts
curry powder
coriander powder
cumin seeds
baking soda
water

Cut the onion and chilli very thin. Add half teaspoon coriander powder, coriander powder and a pinch of salt. Put the cashew nuts in water for 10 minutes, then add them to the onion. Mix the flour with a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon od cumin seeds and 2 tablespoons of oil. Add onions and cashew nuts, mix it dry, then add some water and some oil if needed. Make small balls out of the pasture and deep fry them.

Samosa

Last night I invited a few friends on an indian dinner and I tried to cook new recipes, so the next few post are gonna be about indian food.

I learnt how do samosa from a lady on youtube: Manjula.

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 cup of flour
1 tablespoon semolina flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup lukewarm water

Filling:
3 boiled potatoes, chopped in small cubes
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon masala
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup frozen peas

Make the dough with flour, semolina flour, salt, oil and water. When the dough is ready leave it aside for 15 minutes. In the meantime heat the oil in a pan. Add the frozen peas and the spices, then mix. When the peas are tender add potatoes and mix. Cook for about 15 minutes. Cool them a little bit.
Put the dough in 4 pieces. With the rolling pin make it thin and round shape. Cut it in half. Make out a cone and fill it with the filling. When you filled it put the edges of the dough together. You should have a triangular shape. I'm not really good at explaining this, Manjula in her video is a lot better than me. Be careful, it should be attached well. When you did all the samosas deep fry them in hot oil.

Butter paneer masala

And here it is, the recipe for butter paneer masala. I was so enthusiastic, 'cause the paneer turned out so well, that I tried this recipe that I found here as well. Of course I had to adapt the recipe to my taste... yes, sorry, but I can't stand coriander. It wasn't that difficult, but it took me a lot of time and it was really spicy (ask my friends!) :) Here is the recipe as I did it.

I served the butter paneer masala with some basmati rice and a chapati.












Ingredients:
paneer cubes (15 pieces)
butter (40 gr)
cinnamon stick (1 piece)
red onion (1/2)
garlic (4 cloves)
red chilli (1)
ginger
tomatoes (4)
salt
yoghurt (3 tablespoons)
oil

Spices:
masala (1 tablespoon)
chilli powder (1/4 tablespoon)
sweet chilli powder (1 tablespoon)
curcumin powder (1/4 tablespoon)
ketchup (1 tablespoon)
water (2 tablespoons)

Mix the spices in a bowl and do a smooth paste.
Fry the chopped onion in a pan with a little bit of oil until brown. Then put it in the food processor with the garlic, red chillies, ginger and some water; blend it until you have a smooth paste. (I didn't have fresh chillies so I used the dry ones and I didn't have the ginger rooth so I used the powder.) Then blend the chopped tomatoes. In a non-stick pan heat the butter with a cinnamon stick. Add the paste made of garlic and onion and mix for a while. Add the spice paste and cook for 30 seconds. Add the blended tomatoes and cook for some time on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix. Add the paneer pieces and yoghurt. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, then serve. 

Paneer

And yes, I did it! :) I made my own paneer. Paneer is, for those who don't know it, an indian cheese.

And I was so exited that after that I made a dish out of paneer and invited my friends for dinner. :) The recipe will be on the blog soon.

I found the recipe here: How to make paneer. It's really well written, 'cause it illustrates everything from step to step.

Ingredients:
1,5 l whole milk
lemon juice from 1 lemon
vinegar

Boil the milk and when it starts boling add the lemon juice and mix it. The milk will start to curdle, but if it doesn't want to curdle, add after a few minutes a little bit of vinegar and continue to stir. After a few minutes put it away to cool a little bit. Put a muslin cloth on a bowl. I didn't have it, so I used a cotton cloth and it was ok. Pass everything through the cloth. The solid parts will remain on the cloth. Wrap the cloth and run cold water through it. Then squeeze it to remove all the liquid parts. Wrap it tight and put something heavy on the top. Leave it for 30 or 40 minutes. After that cut it in cubes and you have your own paneer.