Tadka Daal (using yellow split lentils or masoor daal)

So I posted a picture of a plate of food a few days ago on Instagram, and I was asked to upload a recipe for the tadka daal that was on the picture. So here goes. It is a bog standard tadka daal, and one I cook exactly the same, always.

For this, I used:

1 cup/220g masoor daal/yellow split lentils
¾ medium onion finely sliced
1 tsp. turmeric powder
3 bay leaves
2 small cinnamon sticks
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. oil

For tadka (tempering):

2 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. cumin seeds
Pinch of asafoetida (optional)
¼ medium onion, finely sliced
5/6 large dried whole red chillies
8 cloves garlic, finely sliced

Coriander to garnish

N.B. I used a non-stick wok because I have found that the lentils cook much quicker, and also I do not need to mash the lentils afterwards. Also, until your lentils have cooked, do NOT stir with any kind of spoon.

Wash your lentils until the water runs clear. This should take about 5 – 6 water changes.

In a wok, put in your lentils and about 2 litres of water. Add your onions, turmeric powder, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, salt and oil and put on to a low – medium heat. I covered my wok and cooked on this heat for exactly 30 minutes. But please be careful as the lentils can boil and go over the sides of your pan.

After 30 minutes, my lentils were fully cooked so I stirred the lentils to incorporate all the ingredients well, and removed the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks. I added 1 cup/250ml of water to loosen the daal and left on the low heat while I made my tadka.

In a small pan, heat the oil, and then add mustard seeds. Once the seeds start spluttering, add the cumin seeds, asafoetida and onions and cook for 2 minutes. Then add your chillies and garlic and cook until garlic has browned. Slowly add this tadka to the daal (be careful as the daal will splutter). Taste to check the salt, and add more if necessary. Stir well and garnish with coriander.

Et voila! Eat with basmati rice, naan, paratha or as I usually like it, with soft boiled eggs. Hmmm, delish!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥

Gulab Jamuns

With Eid-ul-Adha approaching in a few days, I thought to include a few recipes for mithai or mishit that we all enjoy. I am starting off with Gulab jamun's; small milk balls in a rose water infused syrup, delicious eaten hot with vanilla ice cream. Yum! Now you can cheat a little bit if you haven't much time by getting a Git's Gulab Jamun packet and just adding milk, or you can try to make them completely from scratch and watch people's reactions when you say it is not from a packet mix!

For my Gulab jamun's, I used:

1 cup/225g milk powder
¼ cup/70g self-raising flour
½ tbsp. coarse semolina
½ tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. ground cardamoms
200ml warm milk
Oil to deep fry

For the syrup:
2 cups/500g sugar
3 cups/850ml water
A capful of rose water

In a bowl, take your milk powder and sieve in your self-raising flour. Add your coarse semolina, sugar and ground cardamoms and mix all the dry ingredients well. Make a well in the centre, and slowly add your milk little by little. You may not need all the milk. Mix the ingredients until you get a soft dough. Leave to rest for 5 minutes.

During this time, in a large saucepan, add your sugar, water and rosewater and out on a medium heat. This should reach boiling, then turn off the heat and leave it.

After 5 minutes, put the oil for frying on to heat. Again put it on a low heat. Then taking some cold oil on both hands, take a small pinch of dough mixture and roll between your palms into a ball. Do this for all the dough, until you have no more dough left. Depending on what size you make them, you should have about 30 medium balls, or about 20 larger balls. Do not make them too big as the insides will not cook when frying.

Drop one ball into the oil. It should stay at the bottom and rise up slowly. If it comes up too quickly, the oil is too hot. The colour of the dough should also not change immediately. If it does, again the oil is too hot. Allow the jamun’s to fry slowly, and they should roll over in the oil by themselves. If they do not, then do help them along!

Once browned, take out on a kitchen towel and allow to cool off completely. Once cooled, heat up the sugar syrup for a minute, and then put on low heat. Add the Gulab jamun’s to the syrup and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. After that time has elapsed, turn off the heat. Garnish with flaked almonds if you wish.

Et voila. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥

Quarkballchen (German cheese doughnuts)

Now if you’ve ever been to the German Market in Birmingham leading up to the Christmas period, you may have smelt the heavenly fragrance of a doughnut permeating the air. I remember when I was working for the Blood Service, our offices used to be just above where these doughnuts were frying, and I couldn’t wait for my break to go and get these sweet morsels of deliciousness. And one was never enough! These beauties are called quarkballchen's and they are not your average doughnuts. After 4 years of trying to look for a valid recipe, I found one, in German would you believe. Thank Allah for Google Translate, because without it, I never would have got this recipe!

I used:

250g Quark
75g Caster Sugar
2 free range medium eggs
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste (the recipe calls for one pack vanilla sugar, but I couldn’t find any so used an extremely good quality paste)
250g plain flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon powder (optional)
Pinch of salt
Oil for deep frying
Caster sugar for dusting
1 tsp. cinnamon powder for dusting (optional)

In a bowl, put in your Quark, caster sugar, eggs and vanilla paste and beat well with an electric whisk (I used my food processor because my whisk paddles were at my mum’s, but whisking is much better).

In another bowl, sieve your flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder and pinch of salt and mix well. Taking a heaped tablespoon at a time, add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and whisk well. Once all your ingredients are mixed well, it should create a very thick batter.

Heat up your oil, but keep it on a low heat. Approximately 165 degrees if you have a thermometer. You want your doughnuts to fry slowly to ensure the insides are well cooked, and this should take about 7 minutes.

Once oil is heated, using an ice cream scoop (or spoon if you don’t have a scoop), take dollops of batter and slowly put it in the oil to fry. Don’t overcrowd the oil otherwise the oil temperature will decrease and your doughnuts will take up too much oil.

Once they are of a golden brown colour, take out of the oil and drain on a kitchen towel.

During this time, put some caster sugar and cinnamon powder on a plate, then take the hot doughnut and dust liberally with the sugar mixture. Repeat this for all the doughnuts. Eat them while they are still warm!

If you do ever get the chance to go the German Market to try the quarkballchen's, I suggest you do! Because you will get hooked!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥

Garlic Saag

As you may know from previous posts, I do love a side dish, and one of them has to be a saag baazi. I have learnt this dish from my mum, and she has always kept it fairly simple with no powdered spices, but lots of green chillies, dried chillies, and the most important ingredient, garlic. This dish has an abundance of garlic, which is my preference, but obviously if you prefer less, you can add less garlic.

To make this dish, I used:

3 tbsp. oil
A bulb of garlic, chopped
3 medium onions, finely chopped
6 green chillies
Salt to taste
320g spinach, finely chopped (I used 2 bags of baby spinach)
4-5 small dried bird’s eye chillies to garnish

In a frying pan, add your oil and ¾ of your chopped garlic and fry until brown. After browning, add your onions, chillies and salt to taste. Remember that your spinach will reduce by half volume, so add less salt accordingly. You can always add salt afterwards.

Fry the onions until the onions are extremely soft, but not mashed. This took me about 15-20 minutes on a low-medium heat, covered.

After the onions have softened, add your chopped spinach and cook for about 10 minutes. You will not need to add any water as the spinach will release water, but do keep an eye on the flame, and stir regularly so not to burn the spinach.

After 10 minutes or so, your spinach should be cooked. Turn off the heat, garnish with the bird’s eye chillies and the remainder of the garlic.

That’s it! A very quick, and simple recipe, and when eaten with just plain ol’ basmati rice, well, I do love green bhaat.

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥

Homemade Naga Donner

I saw this method of making homemade donner meat on a web page somewhere, and considering that donner meat is a family favourite, I thought I would try this at home. In the event that you want to make a quick snack for friends, or even for yourself, this is something you can make on very short notice. All you would need in your fridge is a chicken salami (this can be kept in the fridge for months unopened). The other ingredients are usually ones you would have at home anyway!

For this you need:

1 small chicken salami roll (I use the one WITHOUT olives)
1-2 tablespoons oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
5 green chillies
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. mixed curry powder
1/2 tsp. cumin powder
1/2 tsp. Mr Naga (optional)
Handful chopped coriander

Firstly, using a potato peeler, slice the salami roll into thin strips. Continue until you get to the middle, and then slice thinly using a knife. Keep to one side.

In a frying pan, add your oil and garlic and fry until brown. Then add your onions, chillies and salt and fry until soft. You don't want to break onions down, they should remain whole.

After 7-10 minutes, add your powdered spices and mix well. Put in a little water at this point to stop your spices sticking and stir fry for another 5 minutes. Then add your donner slices and stir fry for about 5 minutes. If you are adding Mr. Naga, add it at after the donner has been cooking for 5 minutes. If not, then take donner off the heat and garnish with coriander.

And that's it! Eat with pitta bread or naan, salad and your choice of sauces.

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥