Dinners from north and south (India)

Continuing the theme of accidentally vegan food, here are some other Indian dishes that I cooked during my vegan month. As I utilised a range of ready-made elements these were actually speedy enough to prepare quickly after work too. Firstly from the south of India, the classic masala dosa, and also the classic Gits dosa mix. It's going to be very hard to replicate a proper paper thin dosa at home, but actually the Git's mixes work pretty well even if my dosas were a little on the thick side. I cooked quick potato filling to go in them, as well as a green beans thoran.

I basically used this recipe for the beans, which proved to be excellent; fresh and crunchy, beans and coconut are an excellent combination. The potato masala was a simple mix of a medium potato, carrot, onions and peas with some added flavourings. Firstly fry a couple of teaspoons of mustard seeds in some hot oil until they start popping, and then fling in a small handful of curry leaves, around a tablespoon of ginger paste, a medium chopped potato, a small chopped onion, and a generous sprinkling of salt. Turn the heat down, put a lid on and leave until the potato is virtually cooked through. You can also add a little water if things are starting to stick. Then put a couple of handfuls of frozen peas in, and put the lid back on. Once the peas and potato are fully cooked, add a small handful of roasted cashew nuts, and give everything a good mix. Once the vegetables are done, I made up the dosa mix and cooked these in a non-stick pan. You'll definitely need to work quickly to spread the mix to get it as thin as possible, but even if they are bit on the thick side, they are still very tasty.

Moving further north, I utilised some ready-made Shana parathas to go with my soya mince keema. I always tend to have a packet of these in the freezer as they are very handy for emergency dinners, and on further investigation I also discovered that they are vegan (huzzah). Soy mince, like Quorn, is pretty flavourless so you need to be very generous with your other flavours. For this keema I fried two red, sliced onions in a couple of tablespoons of plain oil, with a couple of bay leaves, a stick of cinnamon, and two cardamom pods. Once the onion was softened and slightly browned, I added 2 tablespoons of garlic/ginger paste, a heaped teaspoon of chilli flakes, and good sprinkling of salt. This was all cooked over a medium heat, until the onions were nicely browned. At this point I added 3 teaspoons of garam masala, and 1 teaspoon each of ground coriander and ground cumin. After allowing the spices to fry for a bit, I tipped in around 300g of vegan soy mince. Once everything was well mixed and heated through (around 10 minutes), a couple of handfuls of frozen peas went in, and I left everything to simmer gently until they were cooked through. You should end up with a dry and spicy keema, which can be neatly scooped up by some hot off the pan parathas.

So there you have it, two pretty speedy dinners, which are full of flavour and spice and just happen to be vegan.

Chickpea chaat

As I mentioned before, Indian food is probably the easiest vegan food to prepare. Lots of it is accidentally vegan, and it's damn tasty. This is part recipe, part assembly job for a snack that can be easily expanded into a full-on meal. Chaat is the Hindi name for the Indian snack foods that are frequently available when you're out and about in any major town. They usually have a fried, crispy element, partnered with something sharp and tangy, and so of course are delicious. Here's my version of a cheat's chickpea (channa) chaat (I win at alliteration). You could definitely make your own tamarind chutney and channa masala spice mix, but I don't know anyone who makes their own chaat masala, so think I've still a good level of authenticity!

This version is vegan, but you could add a bit of yogurt on top too, especially if you make your chickpeas uber-spicy. Or indeed use a non-dairy, plain yogurt and still keep it vegan.

Recipe (enough for 4 hearty snack-sized portions)

For the channa masala-
1 tin cooked chickpeas, ideally kala channa (around 400g)
1 small onion, finely sliced
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, squashed to a paste
2 fat garlic cloves, crushed
1 dried bay leaf
1 tblsp channa masala spice mix
0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional, as the spice mix should contain chilli too)
2 tsp sundried tomato puree
A little oil
A little water

I purchased the above from my local Indian supermarket, but the chutney and bhujia below were available from Tesco.

To make the channa masala heat a tablespoon or so of a plain oil in a pan, and when hot (but not smoking) tip in the onions and bay leaf. Stir and leave the onions to soften a bit. When they are lightly browned, add the ginger, garlic and chilli and cook for a few more minutes, before adding the spice mix. Give everything a good mix and leave to cook for a few more minutes until the spices lose their raw edge. Then add the tomato puree, and a little water to stop things sticking. Drain the cooked chickpeas and add to the pan, and simmer for 10-15 minutes (adding a little more water if needed, to make a thick 'gravy'). If you're using a ready made channa masala mix, it's unlikely you'll need any extra salt but do check.

Once the chickpeas are done, here's a list of things to generously sprinkle on top of each individual portion:
1 small red onion, finely chopped
Small chunk of cucumber (seeds removed), finely chopped
Several tblsp sev (thin chickpea noodles) or aloo bhujia
Several tsps chaat masala
Several tblsp tamarind chutney
A tblsp or 2 of yogurt (optional)


Chaat masala contains kala namak (black salt) which is quite sulphurous and can be an acquired taste, but somehow becomes quite addictive, quite quickly. This is an excellent accidentally vegan dish, which combines spice with fried, crunchy things- how could it not be delicious?

Kalakand- the easy way

I like to think that I'm on top of the latest food trends, even if I'm not that actually interested in many of them (donut burger anyone?). However Indian sweets cooked in a microwave, have somehow passed me by, despite being around for ages apparently. I first came across this method for making kalakand, an Indian milk-based sweet, on the rather excellent Bong Mom's Cookbook blog. I have to say that I was a little sceptical about the whole thing, but this was one of the simplest Indian sweets I have ever made. Admittedly, I am usually an Ambala girl rather than a stirring milk for ages person, but this is a recipe that came nowhere near testing my limited patience.

Kalakand are a little bit like burfi or Bengali sandesh, but with a softer texture and are more obviously milky; sort of like cottage cheese combined with fudge, though that makes them sound horrible (which they aren't). These kalakand were not too heavy or sweet, and were rich with cardamom. I followed the Bong Mom recipe pretty accurately, except that I didn't bother with the chocolate topping and just used chopped pistachios and almonds instead. I also added the crushed seeds from around 4 or 5 cardamom pods to the milk mix. Here are the ingredients with UK measurements.

Recipe (enough for 20 or so pieces)

500g ricotta cheese
1 x 397g tin, sweetened condensed milk
Seeds from 4-5 cardamom pods, crushed
Generous handful of almonds and pistachios, chopped

Firstly you'll need a suitable dish that can go in the microwave, and is relatively shallow, so your kalakand aren't too thick. I have a 1000 watt microwave, and after mixing all the ingredients except the nuts, I cooked the kalakand for five minutes at full power, followed by another five minutes, stirring well in between. If it looks like it's going to boil over at any point, stop microwaving and stir again. Then microwave in one minute bursts, until the mixture thickens, but is still a little moist on top. This is likely to take another five to seven minutes, so it will have been in the microwave for 15 to 17 minutes in total. This is obviously going to vary depending on the type of microwave you have. Once the kalakand is firm (but not totally dried out), sprinkle the nuts on top and press down slightly. Let the dish cool a bit and then chill in the fridge overnight. Take the kalakand out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to eat them, so they come up to room temperature, slice into bite size pieces, transfer onto a jazzy serving dish, and tuck in. Ideal with a nice cup of tea.

Going vegan- week 3

So things continue to go well in vegan world. I've stuck with the Bircher muesli breakfast (toast with margarine just doesn't appeal that much), but have switched up the fruit I have with it. I've been a bit pressed for time, so I thought I'd look into a few ready made options for my work lunches. I was delighted to find that Waitrose do a whole range of packaged, salad-y things which are vegan. I think they are actually all labelled as vegetarian, but they don't have any dairy in them.

I added some extra cashew nuts to the Asian slaw, which was properly zesty and sharp, with loads of lime in the dressing, and ideal for the stupidly hot weather we've had recently. Lemon and coriander humus (or indeed houmous) is pretty much a classic now, and went perfectly with the roasted cauliflower salad. These are definitely two salads I will buy again (or try and replicate at home). Anyway, with the addition of some salad leaves, tomatoes, olives, and Ryvita, these three items dealt with my weekday lunch requirements.

For dinners in the week, I accidentally made way too much Indian food. To be honest, I don't think I've ever managed to make a small amount of 'desi khanna', so this was not that surprising. I made Bengali-style greens (but with no ghee) and a Bengali-style malai curry but with mushrooms, broccoli, and baby corn instead of prawns. I also increased the spicing a bit to compensate for lack of seafood, so added in 2 tsp of ground coriander, another of ground cumin, and 1 tsp of crushed chilli flakes (mostly due to running out of fresh chillis). This was served with quinoa cooked with Indian whole spices and cashew nuts, in the style of a pilau rice, and some poppadoms. As expected this was all delicious, and the quinoa worked really well with everything else as a rice-alike neutral grain.

Weekend eating involved the appearance of a now somewhat ubiquitous Linda McCartney product (sausage rolls this time, which are actually quite nice). I also made some quinoa and mushroom stuffed, roasted peppers, which were unexpectedly tasty too (despite not having any melted cheese on top), with the sweet pepper contrasting nicely with the savoury filling.

Roasted and stuffed peppers (I'd suggest half a pepper per person as a side dish)

2 peppers (ideally red or yellow)
1 small red onion, finely sliced
2  medium cloves garlic, crushed
Around 50-75g quinoa
5 or 6 chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
1 tblsp vegan herb cream cheese (optional)
5-6 basil leaves, torn
1 tsp Marigold vegetable bouillon powder
2-3 tblsp olive oil
Around 100ml water, or enough to cook the quinoa

Firstly the peppers- slice each one in half through it's stalk. Bring a pan of water to the boil, and then drop in the peppers. Reduce the heat a bit, and simmer for around 5-10 minutes, until the peppers are tender. Drain, pat dry, and then drizzle over a bit of olive oil. Make sure the sure the peppers are well coated in oil and then put them under a grill until they just start to char and blister a bit. Turn them at least once during the process. If you have functioning oven, you can just oil up the peppers and roast them in there on gas mark 6, but this will take around 30 minutes. While the peppers are cooking, gently fry the onion, garlic, and mushroom, in the rest of the oil. Once they've softened, add the quinoa, the bouillon powder, and hot water to cover. Simmer over a low heat for around 15 minutes, or until the quinoa is cooked, adding more water if needed. Stir in the basil leaves, and cream cheese, and spoon into the peppers. If you wanted some sort of topping I would suggest breadcrumbs, either fried in a pan first and sprinkled on top, or 'raw' drizzled with oil and then grilled.

I've also increased my snacking range, as lots of of savoury, crunchy stuff appears to be effortlessly vegan. I've never had plantain chips before, but they were excellent. And of course, it's hard to go wrong with rice crackers.

For some slightly more extravagant weekend dinners, I cooked an uber-spicy, vegan version of Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu (which has become a modern classic). Making this vegan, just means leaving out the butter, so pretty simple. I  also made quite a lot of cauliflower fried rice and a side of steamed pak choi with sesame oil. As a side note, I didn't bother blanching the cauliflower first this time (and won't bother again). I just sautéed it in a bit of oil and garlic in a non-stick pan, for a few minutes, tipped it out, cooked the other veg, and tipped it back in. This was all fantastic, and again one of those meals which I'd happily eat again, vegan or not.

So veganism so far is proving to be surprisingly delicious.

Cholar dal- Bengali-style lentils

Coming back from a trip to India always results in an immediate upsurge in the amount of Indian and Bengali food that I cook, so that's going to be reflected in the next few blog posts.

As I child I pretty much detested all forms of dal, and especially the patla, thin dals my mother made with giant pieces of ginger in them. Luckily for me I discovered cholar dal at some point. Cholar dal is somehow quite 'meaty' in taste, and rich with ghee and coconut. It's often a 'celebration dal' served at wedding meals, but is also great with plain rice and a papar/poppadom. Anyway, here's the sort of loose recipe that I use, but as ever with Indian food do feel to adjust the flavours (within reason) if you want.

Recipe (easily enough for 4-6 depending on what else you're eating):

Around 250g cholar dal lentils (Natco are a good brand for this)
Around 500ml water

1.5 tblsp ghee
1-2 small bay leaves
3-4 cardamom pods, split
2-3 small pieces Indian cinnamon/cassia bark
2 tblsp fresh coconut, chopped into small pieces
1-2 large, whole, dried Indian red chillis
0.5 tsp turmeric
0.5 tsp salt (or to taste)

Firstly, cook the dal with plenty of water until it is completely tender and cooked through. I do this on a very low simmer on the hob, and it takes around 30-40 minutes, starting with around double the volume of water to lentils. This should all be absorbed by the time the dal is cooked through, but keep an eye on it and make sure you top up the water if needed and give it the occasional stir to stop it sticking on the bottom of your pan. If you're proficient with pressure cookers, you'll probably be able to reduce this step to 10-15 minutes. Whichever way you do things, you should end up with quite a thick (but still  liquid) mixture, which you can leave to the side to cool.

To season the boiled lentils, warm the ghee in a small pan and add all the whole spices and pieces of coconut. Cook gently until the coconut is slightly browned. Once everything is lightly toasted, add in the turmeric and cook for another minute to coat everything in the yellow powder, and then tip it all into the pan of lentils. Add the salt, and stir the lentils and the flavourings together. If the dal is getting a bit too thick then add a bit of extra water, and check the seasoning, while you you warm it over a gentle heat. Serve with rice, saag, and something fried, or whatever else you fancy really.

Hello 2014!

I've been a little quiet on the blogging front recently- I attribute it to being in India last month, general hectic-ness around the Christmas break, and laziness.
Anyway here is a quick photo update on my recent eatings.

Kolkata involved a lot of family meals, a wedding, and copious visits to mishti dokans. This led to me experiencing the chocolate sandesh via Balaram Mullick for the first time- and I declare it to be surprisingly good.

Christmas dinner involved a highly indulgent Indian meal, with some Bengali and north Indian standards- saag, cholar dahl, prawn biriyani (which turned into more of a pilao rice really), tandoori-style salmon, and paneer tikka. New year went heavy on the seafood, and light on the crazy partying.

Anyway, here's to 2014 and whatever it might bring!

Saag- Bengali-style spring greens

I guess going to Kolkata recently has made me think about cooking Bengali food a bit more regularly. So here's something that's pretty easy to make, but is rather delicious. Bengali vegetable dishes don't tend to include garlic, but this recipe for spring greens is an exception. The greens are braised with garlic and kalo jeera (black onion seeds) until soft and very tender, and then finished off with a bit of ghee. It's an ideal side dish to go with other Indian food, but I suspect it would be quite nice with a bit of poached fish too.

Recipe (enough for 4-6 as a side dish):

2-3 heads of spring greens, around 500g, washed and shredded
4-5 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
2-3 heaped tsps kalo jeera/black onion seeds
1-2 Indian green chillis (optional)
1 generous tblsp ghee
1-2 tblsp sunflower (or another plain) oil
1 tsp salt (or adjust to taste)

Heat the oil in a large, wide-bottomed pan, and when it's warm put in the black onion seeds. Swirl them around a bit, and as the oil gets hotter they'll start to spit and pop. This should only take a minute or so, and when they start doing this add the garlic. Turn down the heat if necessary, as the garlic shouldn't really brown much. After another minute put the greens in and give everything a really good stir to make sure that the garlic and kalo jeera aren't all stuck on the bottom of the pan. Pierce the whole green chillis a couple of times, so that they release their flavour but hardly any heat, and add them to the greens with the salt. Give everything another good stir, turn the heat down low, put a lid on, and allow the greens to cook for at least 15 minutes. The residual water left on the leaves from washing them should create some steam which will help cook them, but stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the pan. When the greens are completely cooked, add the ghee and stir it through to coat all the leaves. This is one of those times when you don't want your vegetables to have any bite to them, and the greens should be cooked all the way through with the stalks easily falling apart. The saag won't look that exciting but the generous amounts of garlic and ghee do a very good job of pepping up these otherwise rather boring vegetables. Serve with rice and dahl, (or something else).

Eating in Kolkata

So I started this year in India, specifically in Kolkata (or Calcutta). As I was mainly seeing family, most of my meals were home-cooked, and so this post isn't going to be great for eating out recommendations (for that I always consult one of the best Indian food blogs around). Anyway, I did manage to consume an awful lot of mishti (Bengali sweets), discovered that food court eating can actually be pretty good, and had a regular intake of chanachur and other snacks.

Here are some pictures and a few words.

 

Not a handy snack for the taxi driver, but limes and chillis for good luck and to ward off the evil eye.

 

Many, many mishti- shondesh, roshogolla, and mishti doi.

More shondesh. Same basic recipe, but they come in many shapes and sizes.

The counter at a branch of Balaram Mullick- an excellent Bengali sweet shop, though the service was somewhat sketchy.

 

This was the year I had my first experience of eating in some shopping mall food courts. After some (a lot) of skepticism, I was pretty impressed. There were lots of counters for north and south Indian, Indian-Chinese and European food. Everything we ate was cooked to order and rather tasty. Above are some masala dosas from the mini food court that is randomly located in the Spencers supermarket in South City Mall. There's also a Flurry's concession there that did a rather good chocolate cake. Below is my chola bhatura from the food court in the City Centre mall in Salt Lake. The bhatura were more like giant luchis, but that's not in itself a bad thing.

 And also from City Centre was this plate of true fusion food- paneer hakka chow mein. Kolkata has always been keen on its Indo-Chinese food, and I really liked this slightly more sanitised (and veggie) version.

This was also the first year that I saw supermarkets becoming a bit more than a novelty destination, but markets like Gariahat still seemed very popular. When they say it's a wet fish market, they are not joking. I'm still not sure what I was stepping in but it was worth it for the super-fresh fish.

Golda chingri from the market above- these are giant fresh water prawns, which I cooked with green beans.

There aren't that many Indian vegetables that you can't also get in the UK now, but the fruit I've yet to see are these custard apples. These ones were huge and filled with a delicious custard-y goop that you have to  scoop out with your fingers.

Some excellent Bengali home cooking- koroishutir kochuri and aloo dum, a pea-stuffed fried bread with potato curry.

Snacks galore! These were mainly of the crisp variety (always of interest to me) but often with masala flavourings.

I liked this sign- it provides essential information on where the snack vendors are located (as well as the toy shop). 

So Kolkata was rather good for eating. The highlight though was probably the spectacular lunch cooked by my auntie (Joya mashi), which for some reason I forgot to take a picture of. Her idea of a simple lunch of cauliflower bhaji, fried fish, fish curry, prawn curry, dhoka dalna lentil cakes, rice, and tomato chutney, was pretty amazing and not one that I'll forget soon.

Paneer korma

I cook a fair amount of Indian food, but have yet to find a way to photograph most of it in a way that makes it look terribly appetising. Thus the above picture, that shows something vaguely yellow in a gloopy sauce. But don't let that put you off, as this Shahi-style paneer korma is really rather delicious and quite quick to make.
Shahi-style Indian food usually uses ground nuts and cream, so is pretty indulgent, but as the nights draw in I feel that a little indulgence is no bad thing. So here's my version of some classic Indian comfort food.

Recipe (enough for 2 as a main course):

One block of paneer (c.250g)
1 small onion
A thumb-sized piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 dried bay leaf
0.5 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
0.5 tsp salt (or enough to season)
0.5 tblsp tomato purée
1-2 tblsp ground almonds
Around 50ml double cream
1-2 tblsp plain oil
A few tbslp of water, if needed

Firstly chop up the paneer into small-ish cubes, and sprinkle over the turmeric until the paneer is reasonably well coated. Heat the oil in a flat bottomed pan, and when it's hot carefully place the paneer and any extra turmeric in. Cook the paneer for a few minutes on each side until it's lightly browned and golden, with a bit of a 'crust'. When it's done, take the paneer out and set to one side. Make a paste from the onion, ginger and garlic (by mechanical means for convenience). The smoother it is the smoother your finished sauce will be, but as you can see from the photo above it's not essential. Fry the paste in the remaining oil in the pan for a few minutes, along with the bay leaf and chilli. If the pan is too dry, add a little extra oil. Put in all the ground spices, and carry on cooking for a few more minutes before adding the ground almonds. Once these are lightly toasted, put in the tomato purée  and if needed pour in a little water to create a thick paste. Once everything has been heated through for a few more minutes, add the cream and salt to season. Mix well to form a thick sauce, and then put the paneer cubes back in the pan to heat through. You can adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding more cream (or water) if you want too.

Serve with some plain boiled rice and steamed vegetables to balance out the richness of the cheese and cream.

Chingri malai curry or Bengali-style prawns with coconut

I don't cook masses of Bengali food, but with the traditional festival of Durga Puja looming, I thought I'd dig out this classic. Chingri malai curry (or indeed malaikari), is a very simple dish combining prawns, whole spices and the rather un-typical Bengali ingredient of coconut milk. Some reading tells me that the word 'malai' probably derives from Malay, and this explains the use of coconut milk too. Like many Indian recipes, there are lots of versions of this around, so this is my one.

Recipe (enough for two as a main dish):
Around 250g raw prawns (shell off, and de-veined)
1 small red onion
1 fat clove of garlic
A thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 tsp turmeric
4-5 green cardamon pods, split
1 large, dried bay leaf
1-2 pieces of cinnamon or cassia bark
1-2 green, Indian finger chillis, pierced a few times
1 tsp ground coriander
2-3 tblsp sunflower oil
Around 100g coconut cream
Around 100ml hot water
1-2 tsp salt for seasoning


Mix the prawns with the turmeric and a teaspoon of salt, and put in the fridge for an hour or so. If you're not going to cook the prawns until much later, leave out the salt. While the prawns are busy turning yellow, make a paste from the onions, garlic and ginger. It's definitely easiest to do this in a food processor, but a pestle and mortar would do the job too. Take the prawns out of the fridge 10 minutes or so before you want to start cooking, and add the salt (if you haven't earlier).
Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan, and when it's hot (but not smoking) add the prawns. Cook for a couple of minutes, until they are lightly coloured but not fully cooked through. Take the prawns out of the pan, add another tablespoon of oil (if needed) and add all the whole spices. Turn the heat down, so that they are just gently sizzling. After a couple of minutes put the ground coriander, chillies and onion paste in. As they soften, add the water to the coconut cream to create coconut milk which is the thickness of single cream. You may need to adjust the amount of water or coconut cream to achieve this. When the spices and paste have cooked for a good 10 minutes or so, put the coconut in and simmer for around 5 minutes to create a sauce. Put the prawns back in, add a little salt, and simmer again for 5 minutes until the prawns are fully cooked.

You should have a rich, thick coconut gravy which is subtly spiced and still tender prawns. Serve with plain, boiled rice, and let out a small sigh of satisfaction once you've finished eating.

Dishoom, London, UK

One of the slightly annoying things about not being based in London is that I hear of lots of great sounding places opening there, but it takes me an age to get round to going to them. To be fair I'm only a 45-ish minute train ride away from Zone 1, but the idea of travelling down just to get some lunch seems a little over the top even for me. So when a good friend suggested a catch up in the big smoke, I immediately thought of where we could go to eat (as well as being delighted I'd be seeing her soon obviously).

I heard a lot about Dishoom and their 'Bombay cafe' concept, when it first opened. The idea immediately appealed, I added it to my list of places to go, and a mere twenty-two months later I've finally made it! I've only been to Bombay once but the interior of Dishoom did seem quite evocative of some of the small restaurants we went to (mainly because of the ceiling fans and loose cabling). The menu is mainly made up of lots of smaller savoury dishes, which I quite like as it makes it easier to taste a range of things, as well as lots of types of chai and lassi.

I ordered a tikka paneer, which came nicely charred (rather than burnt) and skate cheeks koliwada. I hadn't even realised that skate had cheeks, let alone that they were edible, so I was quite keen to try these. What arrived was a generous portion of fishy nuggets in a properly spicy coating, and an accompanying tamarind dip. I really liked the heat and spices in this dish, which didn't overwhelm the fish at all. And it worked really well with the coriander chutney that was provided too. To balance out the protein, I also had a fresh and zingy 'slaw and a roomali roti which was soft and pliant, just as I had hoped it would be.

To finish things off, we ordered a couple of malai kulfis, (which came on sticks). The kulfi was rich and creamy, with a hint of cardamon, and the perfect size for fulfilling a pudding craving. All of this along with some soft drinks, a lassi, and a paneer roll for my friend only came to around £40 (including service). I think this would be excellent value anywhere, but especially so in central London.

So overall, Dishoom really lived up to expectations for me and I would be very happy to go back again. It offers a few interesting and different dishes, the chance to eat Indian food in a slightly more casual setting, a nice atmosphere, and some of the nicest kulfi I've had for ages. My only minor gripe was that a combination of Indian-style piped music and a packed room, meant that it was quite loud and a bit difficult to hear what the staff, and indeed my friend, were saying. However, I guess it did contribute to an authentic Bombay atmosphere, and as I have started complaining about pensions and the weather, it may also indicate that I am getting a bit old.


Dishoom
12 Upper St Martin's Lane
London WC2H 9FB

Tandoori-style salmon

I'm not really sure why I've never made this before. I like salmon, I like salmon with lots of Indian spices, but somehow it has never occurred to me to try and make a tandoori-style version. Until last week! I've learnt my lesson after my previous ready made paste disappointment, and made my own marinade, which was actually perfectly straightforward. I marinated the fish for a couple of hours, and then cooked it under a hot grill. It wasn't exactly the heat levels of a tandoor, but I did end up with a few nice charred bits with the rest of the fish staying succulent.

Recipe (enough for 2 as a main meal):

4 salmon fillets with skin left on
2 spring onions
1 inch-ish, thumb-sized piece of ginger
3 fat cloves of garlic
2 small green chillis
4 tablespoons of full fat Greek yoghurt
Juice of half a large lemon
4 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
1.5 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika (or Kashmiri red chilli powder if you can find it)
0.5 tsp salt
A couple of grinds of black pepper
A few tsps of sunflower oil

Blitz up (or pound) the spring onion, ginger, garlic, and chilli into a paste and tip into a bowl with all the other ingredients except the oil. Mix it all well and pour over the salmon so that all its surfaces are covered. Leave to marinade in the fridge for around 4-5 hours, so basically if I want to have this for dinner I'd try to get it in the marinade by lunchtime. Take the salmon out of the fridge around 30mins before you want to actually cook it, so that it comes up to room temperature. Then heat up your grill, put the salmon fillets on a tray. Spread any remaining marinade in a thin layer over the fish, and lightly brush each fillet with a little oil and sprinkle a bit of extra salt over too. Cook the salmon for around 7-8mins on each side depending on how hot you can get your grill and how thick the pieces are. The fish should have a few dark charred bits, but be just cooked through in the centre.
And that's it really. I serve this with some plain rice, green vegetables, and maybe a raita of some sort. The acidity of the lemon and yoghurt contrasts with the richness of the salmon, and this is such a robust fish it's great with loads of spices. And if you can get all the preparation done in advance this really can be a super-simple and speedy dinner.

Bengali-style egg curry or dim er torkari

So here's some real Indian home-style cooking, which is perfectly suited to the recent chilly weather we've been having. This curry is one of my mother's original speedy dinner dishes that I've been eating for several decades now, and is essentially made with store cupboard ingredients. There are versions of this egg curry from all over India, and I'm not exactly certain that this one is particularly Bengali. But as the person who cooked it is, that's what I've called it.

The dish basically comprises some hard boiled eggs in a tomato-based gravy, and for me is the epitome of hearty and warming. It is also pretty quick to make, especially if you have you eggs boiled and ready beforehand.

Recipe (enough for four as side dish):

4 hard boiled eggs, shelled and cooled
Around 1 tblsp plain flour
1.5 tsp turmeric
2 tblsp oil
1 medium onion, finely sliced
3 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
1 green chilli, pierces several times with the tip of a knife
Small thumb-sized piece of ginger, crushed to a paste
Around 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tsp tomato puree
A dried bay leaf
0.5 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
0.5 tsp salt
3-4 tblsp fresh, or frozen and defrosted peas
About half a mug of water

Start by halving the boiled eggs, and lightly dusting them with the plain flour. Heat up a tablespoon or so of the oil (ideally in a non-stick pan) until its hot but not smoking, and carefully place in the egg halves in. Sprinkle over half a teaspoon on the turmeric, and when the eggs are lightly browned on one side turn them over until the other side matches. The turmeric means that the eggs should be golden by this point, and when they are take them out of the oil, and put to one side.
I should say that this 'frying the eggs' stage is optional, but I do find that it adds a slight crispy texture that I really like. But if you can't be bothered then just start with the below.
Put the rest of the oil in the pan and heat, before adding the bay leaf and the onions. Once the onions have started to soften, add all the ground spices including the rest of the turmeric. Stir well and then add the chilli, ginger and garlic. Cook this over a medium heat for a few minutes. Next throw in the tomatoes, and continue to cook until they've softened. Then add the tomato puree and enough water to create a thick gravy. Once it's gently bubbling put the eggs back in, tip in the peas and season with salt. Let this cook for few more minutes until the eggs and peas have heated through.

You can add some cubed, cooked potatoes to this too which makes it more of a main dish, or perhaps increase the number of eggs per person. Otherwise serve with rice and something else (I made a cabbage dish with ginger and cumin which you can just see peaking through in the picture above). Also feel free to adjust the spicing according to taste. I remember this egg curry as quite a mild dish, but if you fancy more of a kick chop up the chilli and fry it with the onions rather than keeping it whole. If you prefer things mild, don't accidentally bite into the whole chilli (I speak from experience).

Shahi-style prawn and langoustine curry

I wasn't really sure what to call this Indian dish. I think of shahi-style food as originating from the Mughal empire in India, usually made with ground nuts or cream (or both), and therefore very indulgent. It's not the type of food my parents would normally cook, and as Bengalis they'd probably just describe it as North Indian. Other UK residents may think of it as a korma. But etymology aside, this is great Indian dish for a autumn night. It is gently spiced, but rich and full of flavour. I made it with prawns and langoustines, but you could easily make a vegetarian version instead (or indeed a chicken one).

Recipe (enough for 4):

250g shell-on cooked langoustine tails
200g large cooked prawns
Fat thumb-sized piece of ginger, ground to a paste
3 fat cloves of garlic, ground to a paste
1 large dried bay leaf
2 little finger-sized pieces of cinnamon
3 cardamon pods, split
1 whole green chilli, pricked a few times with the tip of a knife
2 level tsp ground coriander
1 level tsp ground cumin
1 level tsp garam masala
0.5 tsp turmeric
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Around 3 tblsp sunflower oil
Around 4 tblsp ground almonds
Around 200ml double cream

Put the oil into your pan, and heat gently (make sure you have enough oil to cover the base of the pan). When it's warm but definitely not smoking hot add in the whole spices- the bay leaf, cinnamon and cardamon pods. Give them a good stir, and after a minute add the ginger, garlic and chilli. Everything should be sizzling but not sticking, so turn down the heat if you need to. After another couple of minutes put in all the ground spices, and stir well. You should be smelling some nice aromas by this point. Next, lower the heat and then add the ground almonds and cook for a few minutes until they are lightly toasted. Put in the cooked seafood at this point, mix everything well and then pour in the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and gently simmer for a few minutes until the prawns and langoustines are heated through.

So what you should end up with is a rich nutty gravy, that is flavoured with both whole and ground spices. The whole chilli provides flavour rather than heat, but this dish is as a far from bland as you can get. Using langoustines in this dish made a nice change from prawns (props to the Tesco freezer cabinet), and I thought they were much more flavourful too. I served this with some rice and my go to Indian classic of spinach and paneer with methi. Poppadom optional.

Anita's dill and mint raitha crisps

So in the search for further snack innovation I stumbled across these crisps by Anita's a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if there really is a little ethnic auntie (Anita) behind it all as claimed, or whether this is just clever marketing, but the unique feature of this brand is its range of Indian flavours.
Their offerings are made up of chicken tikka, mango and lime chutney, achaari paneer, and a dill and mint raitha variety which I tried recently. And I have to say I was very impressed. A bit like the Hairy Bikers coconut prawn crisps, this is a flavour that sounds a bit wrong to combine with fried potatoes but actually works. The herb flavours are not too strong, but still distinguishable, and the yoghurt element of the raitha comes through too. Overall this leads to quite a fresh tasting crisp, with the raitha flavour cutting through any oiliness from the potato.

I'm looking forward to sampling some of the other flavours (all of them except the chicken tikka variety are vegetarian). And though I still a remain a stout (in all senses) advocate of the plain salted crisp, I think I will be adding these to my list of acceptable alternatives.

Anita's Dill and Mint Raitha Crisps
I rate them 8/10
Cost: Around £1.70 for a 150g bag

Indian-style carrots with mustard

This is one of my mum's recipes which uses a very typical Bengali ingredient- mustard, and in this case ground whole black mustard seeds. It makes a perfect side dish to go with Indian food, and is pungent with mustard and garlic with a little carrot-y sweetness. For me it's an ideal way to use up a carrot glut, so just scale this recipe up (or down) as required.
You should be able to find whole black mustard seeds in any Indian grocery shop, and then grind them yourself. I use an electric coffee grinder for this, just don't expect to be able to use it for coffee beans too.

Recipe (enough for loads)
1kg carrots (grated)
Around 3-4 tsp ground black mustard seeds
3 medium cloves garlic (crushed)
Small bunch corriander (roughly chopped)
1 medium green chilli
Around 1-2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt (or enough to season to taste)

Put the oil in large pan, and heat until hot but not smoking and add in the carrots. Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add in the ground mustard. You basically want enough mustard so you can see the little grains against the carrot, as in the picture. Give everything a good stir, add in the garlic, pierce the chilli a few times and then add this in too. Piercing the chilli means you should get the flavour from it but not too much heat. Cover the pan and leave to cook for around ten to fifteen minutes or until the carrots are almost tender. Then add in the corriander and salt, stir and cook for another five minutes or so, by which time the carrots should be fully cooked through. Serve with dhal and rice or some Indian breads, or indeed anything that is likely to go with carrots and mustard.

Addendum: Following on-going conversations, my mother says that she also uses a couple of teaspoons of kalo jeera/black onion seeds in this dish- frying them in the oil at the start before the carrot goes in. However, I cook it without and it's still lovely. She also adds that if you are a serious mustard fan, you could also add some shorshe tel or mustard oil. It's pretty potent stuff though, so exercise caution!

Carrot (gajar) halwa

Halwa, or indeed halva and around a dozen or so other variations, seems to mean many things to many people. As Wikipedia states it can be be made of semolina, sesame, nuts, lentils or yams. However when I think of the Indian dessert halwa, I think of carrots. Carrot halwa is an unctuous and creamy mix of lightly spiced sweet carrot, fruit and nuts. I guess it's the Indian equivalent of carrot cake.
I was reminded recently that I've not had halwa for absolutely ages and as I had a large bag of carrots that needed to be used, this seemed the obvious solution. There are loads of recipes for carrot halwa with lots of variations on the exact ingredients, but the key ones are milk, sugar and carrots. This is what I've seen my mum using.

Recipe (easily enough for six):
1 kg carrots, peeled and finely grated
1 tbsp butter
Around 300ml full fat milk
Around 6 tbsp sugar
Around 6 cardamom pods, split to remove seeds
2 tbsp raisins
1 tbsp chopped pistachio nuts
0.5 tbsp flaked almonds

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed or non-stick saucepan, and fry the carrots over a medium heat. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and crush in a pestle and mortar (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). After around 10 minutes add the milk, raisins and crushed cardamom, turn the heat down and leave to simmer for about 45 minutes stirring occasionally. Once most of the milk has evaporated add the sugar and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or so. Do taste at this stage and add more sugar if it's not sweet enough. If it's looking too dry or in danger of sticking to the saucepan add a little more milk. What you should have is a thick but moist mix of cardamom scented carrot. When you're happy with the taste stir in the nuts, saving some of the almonds to garnish if you want.
I like this served while it's still warm with some cream or ice cream, but it's perfectly nice at room temperature too.

Calcutta-style egg rolls

As my family is from the West Bengal region of India (state capital Calcutta/Kolkata) this is an area I've visited a few times over the course of many years. Calcutta is pretty famous for its street food- not that I'd know much about that though as my parents concerns for the often less than sanitary conditions in which street stalls operate limited our consumption of these delights. However there were a few times when the hygiene police relaxed their (probably sensible) policy and a few treats sneaked through. The one I remember most vividly are egg rolls- a sort of thin, flat bread, with an omlette layer attached to it, with lots of chilli and red onions. This was all rolled up, wrapped in greaseproof paper and eaten hot off the griddle. They must have been good as the last time I had one was about twenty years ago and I still remember them.
The bread element is very light and stretchy, and I've no idea how it's made. But the closest thing I've found to it are the Shana parathas I've blogged about recently. So for a super-speedy egg roll supper all you'll need are:

Recipe (enough for one hungry person)
2 ready make parathas such as the Shana brand
2 eggs
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 medium green chilli, finely sliced with seeds removed if you prefer things mild
Salt and pepper to season
Couple of teaspoons of sunflower oil or similar

First cook the parathas fully and set aside. Beat the eggs well, season, and stir in the onion and chilli. Put a teaspoon or so of oil into a frying pan and heat it as much as you would if making an omlette. Once hot enough, pour in half the egg mix and wait about 10 seconds until it starts to set. While it's still liquid on top, push the paratha into the egg until the heat 'fuses' them. Turn the heat down, and then once the egg layer is cooked, flip the paratha so that the bread layer warms up and any overspill egg is cooked through as well. Repeat with the second paratha and the rest of the beaten egg. Roll up with the egg layer inside, and and scoff while hot. Eat with some salad if you are so inclined.

NB I'm sure that the egg rolls I ate had the onion and chilli cooked with the egg, but you can also not bother cooking them and just put them in at the rolling up stage (apparently).