Authentic Indian Feast

STARTERS:

KAI DAL

a hearty black lentil preparation with historic roots in Mughal courts that normally takes four hours of cooking. It’s not low fat or quick to make, but it tastes really good. With a pressure cooker, at least it’s quicker – a mere 45 minutes in total. This black lentil ish isn’t all that good looking, but more than makes up for it with flavor and texture.

This recipe for kali dal would comfortably serve 4:

Ingredients:

250 gms urad dal, soaked overnight (*** see note below)
5 tsp ginger paste
5 tsp garlic paste
4 tsp tomato puree
1 tsp chilli powder
100 gm butter, salted
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Wash the urad lentils thoroughly after they’ve soaked overnight. Stick in the pressure cooker and bring to a boil with two pints of water, roughly reaching about two inches above the lentils.

Lower the flame so that it is still boiling gently. Add the ginger, garlic, tomato puree and chilli powder.

Now stick the lid on, click to shut and wait until the weight starts rotating and hissing. You have to lower the flame to a point where the weight just about keeps rotating and hissing from time to time. This means the pressure is right (listen to me… new born pressure cooker user!!).

Give it about 20 minutes. Then slowly release the steam by lifting the weight with a logn handled spoon. When all the steam escapes, you can take the lid off.

Because we didn’t use much water, the lentils will be cooked but quite dry. Add hot water to make it thick but runny in consistency, chuck in the butter and add salt to finish.

The dal is very tasty and very rich. Enjoy it with bread of some sort – nan, paratha or rotis.

***NOTE: Urad dal (Black lentils)
These resemble small black beans and have white interiors. Urad dal has a distinct earthy and thick way about it and is most famously used to make the North Indian Kali dal. Urad Dal can be found in many supermarkets and is often called turtle beans.
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PERFECT NAAN FOR BEGINNERS

Makes 4:

• 350 gm self-raising flour
• 200 ml soda water
• Half tsp Nigella (black onion) seeds
• 1 tsp sunflower oil
• Butter to serve
• 1 tsp salt

Procedure:

Heat the soda water in the microwave for a minute. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with a fine sieve. Add to it the salt and nigella seeds.

Then pour half the soda in and crumble the dough mixture. Slowly add in the rest of the soda water in and mix it into the flour with your hands.

When the soda is evenly incorporated into the flour, start punching it with your knuckles over and over again in a rolling motion.

If the dough feels sticky to the touch, you could add a teaspoon of flour to it. Ultimately, you will get a pliable dough and that spings back when you touch it.

Of course you could just do all of this with a dough hook.

Now, transfer it to a bowl greased with the oil. Cover it with a clean, wet cloth and leave to sit somewhere warm. If it’s cold, you could just stick it in the oven turned to its lowest setting.

After an hour, take the dough out and punch it well for two minutes. Then stick it back in the bowl under damp cloth.

Another hour later, preheat the oven to 230 degrees centigrade. When it’s hot, line a baking sheet with kitchen foil. Roll the dough with your hands into a long, thick sausage. Break it into four equal parts. Fashion each part into a quarter inch thick tear shape and place on the sheet.

Bake for about eight minutes. Then rub the golden brown top with butter until it melts all over and serve hot.

If making more, you could add the butter and leave to sit wrapped with a clean cloth or some kitchen foil. Serve hot and freeze some for later like I did.

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Hariyali Tikkis

Feeds 15-20:

• 1kg frozen spinach
• 1kg frozen peas
• 7 large white potatoes
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 3 inches ginger
• 40gm fresh coriander leaves
• 3 green finger chillies
• Salt to taste
• 3 tbsp oil

Procedure:

Cook the peas and spinach according to pack instructions or simmer in boiled water for 5 minutes each until soft. Peal, quarter and boil the potatoes until they fall apart when prodded with a fork.

Drain the spinach of water by squeezing it well in your hands. Then put all the vegetables in a large mixing bowl and leave to cool.

Next peel the ginger and mince with the green finger chillies. Chope up the coriander and add all three ingredients to the mixing bowl with the cornflour, and salt to your taste. Mash the whole lot together with your hands. Check for salt and add more if needed.

Stick this mixture in your fridge to cool and dry out until you’re ready to cook the Tikkis. When you are, preheat the grill to a high heat and line a baking sheet with kitchen foil. Take one tablespoon of oil and spread it evenly on the base of the tray.

Then make even-sized balls with the mixture, flatten them to shape 1.5 inch discs and place them on the tray leaving a small gap between each. Cook for 12 minutes on each side until the Tikkis are pale brown on both sides.

You need to be careful when flipping them over as they’ll be soft to the touch and hot. If they fall apart, just shape them again in the tray. Needless to say, you could just shallow fry them but this will take longer and use more oil.

Repeat with another batch until all the mixture is used up. As you leave them on a platter to cool, they will harden and hold together better.

I served these cold with Dhaniya Pudina chutney and they were a huge hit!

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ENTREES:

Baingan Bharta

Smokey Eggplant Mash.

Feeds 4:

• 2 large aubergines/eggplants
• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
• 4 cloves garlic, 1 inch ginger minced
• Half tbsp each of mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds
• 1 green finger chilli, chopped
• Half inch turmeric powder
• Half inch chilli powder
• 4 sprigs of fresh coriander
• Salt to taste

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 200 Degrees Centigrade. Wash and make two deep gashes on each aubergine. Place them on a baking tray and bake for half an hour.

In the meantime, heat the oil over a high flame. When hot add the seeds and as they sizzle up, add the onions, ginger and garlic.

When the whole mixture is golden brown, add the tomatoes, yogurt, chopped green chilli and masala powders. Keep stirring until the masala is well mixed together. Lower the heat and simmer for five minutes while you take the aubergines out of the oven and peel them carefully with a sharp knife.

The skin should just fall off the aubergines. Now, cut the head off and throw them into the masala, raise the flame to high again and stir viciously with a wooden spoon mashing the aubergines well as you go along.

Add salt to taste and serve with the fresh coriander and some toasted pitta bread.

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SUCCULENT TANDOORI CHICKEN:

Serves 8:

Ingredients:

• 8 Chicken leg & thigh portions
• 16 garlic cloves (pureed)
• 5 inches ginger (pureed)
• 5 tsp coriander seeds
• 3 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 2 tbsp meat tenderizer (i.e. Adolph’s)
• 3 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (crushedbetween your palms)
• 3 tsp chilli powder (more if you like it Hot!)
• 350gm plain yogurt (Greek Style or drained)
• Juice of 1 1/2 to 2 lemons
• 1 1/2 tsp red food coloring (optional)
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil (ghee if you can find it)
• Salt to taste

Procedure:

Skin the chicken, make two sideways slits – on the thigh and on the leg – and place in a rectangular dish.

Peel the ginger, garlic and whizz into a smooth paste with the whole seeds and half the yogurt in a food processor. Add the rest of the yogurt, the chilli powder, meat tenderiser, fenugreek, coloring and salt to the food processor bowl and mix well.

Important: Check it for salt. You want this marinade to be overpowering in every way – salty, spicy, bitter – because the BBQ will soften the taste.

Now, smother the chicken leg and thigh portions with this marinade making sure every one of them is well coated. Then chill until you’re ready for the BBQ. I left it overnight but a few hours will be plenty.

When it’s on the tandoor or BBQ, mix the oil and lime juice together and baste the chicken portions twice during cooking. They will take a good half an hour to be ready, but make sure you open one up and check that the chicken juices run clear (not pink) before feeding people!

Tandoori chicken is perfect just on it’s own. But feel free to serve it with a mixed salad and some hot naan or stuffed paranthas/rotis. A garlic chutney is a wonderful condiment with tandoori chicken.

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SIDES:

Aloo kadhi

Cubes of new potatoes cooked in a light, spicy yogurt and gram flour curry.

This recipe feeds 4 and maybe more:

• 2 cups natural low fat yogurt (about 500 gm)
• 1 cup cold water
• Half cup gram flour
• 500 gm small new potatoes, quartered
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 sprigs of curry leaves
• Half tsp chilli powder
• 1.5 teaspoon turmeric powder
• Quarter tsp asafoetida (hing)
• Half tsp fennel seeds
• 1 whole red chilli
• Half tsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil

Procedure:

Bring the potatoes to boil in a large pan of cold water. When you can insert a fork through them with a little bit of effort, drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the yogurt, water and gram flour together. You want to whisk it well so that there are no little lumps in the gram flour. I find the quickest way to do this is to whisk the mixture for a minute and then run it through a sieve, into the pan containing the potatoes.

Bring the oil to heat in a small frying pan over a high flame. When it is hot add the asafoetida. As it sizzles up add the whole chilli, then mustard seeds, fennel seeds and finally the curry leaves, chilli powder, turmeric powder and sugar.

Take the pan off the flame in two minutes and mix it into the potato and yogurt mixture.

When you are ready to eat, place the potato curry pan over a medium heat and stir slowly until the yogurt is heated through and you can’t taste the raw gram flour. This takes about 10 minutes. If the yogurt starts splitting, take the pan off the flame and lower the heat slightly.

Finish by adding salt to taste and enjoy for days.

DESSERT:

Vanilla and Rose Firni

So here’s something sweet to say hurrah! A delicious Vanilla and Rose Firni ahead of Eid-Ul-Fitr. This flavoured ground rice desert has a wonderful light and cooling way about it. Perfect for new beginnings in every way.
Feeds 2:

• 50gm rice flour
• Half pint whole milk
• Half inch vanilla pod, ground or half tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp rose water
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 4-5 crushed pistachios

In a small pot, pour the cold milk. Stir in the rice flour, sugar and vanilla.

On a low flame whisk the mixture viciously until it thickens and forms the consistency of thick yogurt. If it starts forming lumps, take the pot off the flame and get stuck in with a wooden spoon.

Whe you have a smooth mixture, stir in the rose water. Spread a big dollop of the mixture onto a flat saucer, decorate with the crushed pistachios and chill before serving.