RICE FLOUR COCONUT MILK INSTANT PANCAKE

This Eid-Al-Adha / Hari Raya Hazi Day, I wish to share a very simple, main dish or a snack idea that can go with any stews; vegetables, egg and meat or with any chutney or sauce of your choice. I am fond of Indian Pancakes & Crepes, except dosa crepes. I specially love appam, never did try it in my kitchen. The pancake recipe I am going to share today with you is done on the lines of appam. I have to practice a lot and with patience to perfect an appam. I also fear that long process of fermenting rice and lentil paste. What is funny is I used to prepare idli the very traditional way when the son was this little; even some decent, homely, less crisp dosas. These two were among his regular lunch box items.  It is now I fear that 8-12 hours of fermenting process. I even forgot to do that decent dosa. I think, I will resume the traditional idli-dosa batter making process from next month. Until then, try this instantly made batter with packaged coconut milk, ready made rice flour to prepare some awesomely tasty salty pancakes RICEFLOUR COCONUT MILK INSTANT PANCAKE.

Not only I am growing old but every organ of mine is. Yesterday night, we had mutton and until now I could not digest it. I think instead of having four big pieces, I must limit it to two pieces. The problem has some mental connection too. If people sabotage me with pictures of fish I tremendously love in the day time, there is a possibility I may not have the meat as lovingly in the dinner time. I am almost fifty years now and I have to change my food habits; I have seen I am more comfortable with minced mutton, it cooks faster. I would not mind to say every two weeks, cooking mutton for over two hours is not worthy enough. The vendors here wants you to buy the full front leg and not portions. Four members eating about two kilograms of red meat in a week is not the right thing to do. We are not the extreme kinds who would survive on salads and soups either. It feels simple meals of "dal, maach, torkari, ekta shaak ba bhaja" should be enough for us "fifty-ish" people at home. 

From now onwards, you will get more of simple affairs in my kitchen. Who would I cook for? I used to for our growing up boy, the man hardly fancy food. He can even do without dal, but I must do it, imagine myself having it sitting with my boy. I believe when he visits home on vacations, he would want mumma to cook dal for him. If I sit to express my emotional ups and downs I am experiencing at this time, I may not be able to finish the post any sooner. Let us instead share this vegetarian, Indian Pancake recipe RICE FLOUR COCONUT MILK INSTANT PANCAKE done with an instantly made batter.

INGREDIENTS : 

COCONUT MILK : 200 ML [I USED COCONUT POWDER 100 GM]
RICE FLOUR : 11/2 COFFEE MUG
FRUIT SALT : 11/2 to 2 TBSP [I ALWAYS USE ENO]
SALT : 1/2 TSP
WATER : IF ONLY REQUIRED
COCONUT OIL : 1/2 TSP [YOU CAN USE BUTTER, GHEE OR PLAIN OIL INSTEAD]

PROCEDURE :

Take the rice flour & salt in a wide mouthed bowl and mix well.

I used packeted coconut powder, so dissolved it in warm water and had beaten pretty well.

We would add it to the rice flour little by little and mix well. 

We would add little more coconut milk or water if required. The consistency of the batter need not be too paste like, never runny. We need to beat very well to make it lump free.

Thereafter, we are to keep it covered for about 45 minutes. Let us open the  cover and add the fruit salt to it. Mix very well and keep aside for 4-5 minutes.

Heat a fry pan on stove top very well. Add few drops of coconut oil or ghee and spread well, in fact wipe the pan with a moist piece of cloth. This makes your pan ready for the next 10-11 of the pancakes to be made.

Take a round, big, deep spoon to take the batter and gently put at the centre of the pan. Lightly spread with the back of your spoon. Add 1/2 tsp of the coconut oil or ghee from the top. Keep for sometime and take off. Its ready to be served hot.

                        

I served it with a dry chicken curry, coriander-yogurt chutney and a mustard paste-green chilli-raw mango sauce I have already blogged about. 

Okay, for the green chutney; blend together washed fresh coriander sprigs, peeled garlic cloves, green chillies. Add it to the beaten, plain yogurt and mix well. Add a tea spoon of dry mango powder and mix well. Serve it chilled.

I can say you will enjoy doing and having the Indian style rice flour & coconut milk pancakes.

FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT

I felt either I share this frozen dessert recipe today or I shall wait for few more more months for a next year to come. Anyway, mango season got over in most of the countries. I am a bit of a selfish in this matter. We get mango more or less throughout the year in this island and when it is mango I hardly follow any advice with regards to seasonal eating. I have to buy if the price range & quality suit me, feed the family and eat it too. I do not look for the Bengali or the Indian variety either; before eating, I just see if they are fresh, ripe and sweet. I like frozen fresh fruit & yogurt combinations, may be more than ice-creams these days. Bottles of creams going into the ice-creams do not give me comfort. If I buy a frozen fruit yogurt for 2:50 Sing$, I also get to consume the unnecessary emulsifier, artificial colorant, preservatives. Moreover, a 100ml cup does not seem enough to me. Is not it easier to prepare them at home? This time, I made a gluten-free, sugar-free, frozen yogurt with ripe mango puree, honey, litchi pulp, fresh mint, plain yogurt; named the vegetarian delight FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT. Leaving the freezing part, everything else takes half-an-hour to gather and get done.

There is a series of events this month revolving our lives; Eid, Rakhi Poornima, the National Day Celebration here in the island and the Independence Day Celebration there in India, Janmashtami too. I have everything recorded inside and would share friendly recipes that all of us can sit together and enjoy. Most of the D-Day shares will  be vegetarian cooked in my kitchen. In any celebration, no one's plate should remain empty, I have to put something on your plate. What I cannot do is a series of appropriate shares for a fortnight revolving around the occasion; I am not an organised person and extremely moody. I cannot guarantee what would be my next action. Anyway, I believe my food shares are decent and after a long, descriptive blog post about a non-vegetarian stuffed snack; I should go ahead with a easy going, extremely yum, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free frozen dessert recipe FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT.

It again started raining. This year it feels there is too much of rain as compared to what is natural. The associated strong wind also is causing damage to my greens. I am literally craving for longer period of sunshines. But such a cool, cloudy weather is good for long walks and I am planning to walk down to the old neighbourhood after finishing off with the blog post. I am planning to cut my hair short not wanting to colour my greys anymore. To get an even grey look, the hair has to get short; hair studios here told no amount of bleach can get me an artificial salt & pepper look. I may bob it shoulder length. Before that, some chapatis have to be done to pack the man's lunch box with chicken, his snack box will have a blushing red & yellow pear and homemade ladoo. For the son's breakfast, I may do a quick, chocolate mug cake in microwave. Cristine would make both their lunch; "porota, omelette, aloo bhaja". Mumma will have her lunch outside, it can be a Yong Tao Fong; she cannot be at home before 3-3:30 pm probably. Thereafter, I may start with a new novel after over a month. Our life course is as simple as this.

INGREDIENTS :

FRESH RIPE MANGO : 2 STANDARD SIZED
PLAIN YOGURT : 200-250 GM
HONEY : 4 TBSP
FRESH MINT LEAF : 10-12
FRESH LITCHI PULP : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP FULL

PROCEDURE :

Wash the mangoes well, discard the root ends and peel off the skins. Squeeze the pulp as much as possible. If there is space in the surrounding, add the seed to the soil.

Take the mango pulp and the washed mint leaves in a blender. 

Blend it at high for a minute to get a smooth puree.

Take the yogurt and honey in a bowl and beat well with a spoon or a hand beater.

Add the mango-fresh mint puree and beat again to incorporate everything well.

Pour the content on to a clean container. Peel off the skins of each of the litchi after washing. Take out the pulp and discard the seeds. Again, throw the seeds in the soil around.

Arrange the litchi pieces on top of the mango puree.

Cover it with a tight lid and freeze at least for 5-6 hours before serving.

CHICKEN SAMOSA / SHINGARA / CHICKEN STUFFED SNACK

Doing a minced chicken & potato filled savoury snack was in the wish list for long. Back in India there is a practice of making meat filled chicken & mutton samosa / shingara which might had been a colonial influence. I mean was meat samosa being influenced by meat patty? No local shops usually sell it. Because we had been very very middle class and I did not even know anything about club culture or the food hunts in Park Street, I did not know if Flury's sold meat samosas besides sandwiches & patties or not. The institute I attended during my teens was within a protected area which housed a clubhouse that sold mutton shingara / samosa. I used to get those hot from the wok around 4 pm on some days, these days I surely had marked in the calendar to remind the mother next month; "mani, its one month already; when can we get again?" Once the confectioners like Tulika, Monginis, Kathleen opened their doors in the nook & corner of the Kolkata neighbourhood, pastries & patties became easily available to us middle class Bengalis.

I first entered Flury's after marriage, till date I am not comfortable spending that amount on a piece of cake or on a teatime fair. Does that mean I do not respect history, tradition? Not really, I am just conditioned that way. We always preferred buying patties & pastries from Nahoum's; go home, change clothes, take shower, sit under the fan and eat; eat for the next two days. The very rustic father did not have any interest about meat filled patty also, he was so contained with his "tiffin" with mango, banana, jackfruit, milk and beaten rice, popped rice, chapati or puffed rice. Why haven't I blogged about his favourite "kathal kheer" as yet? I fear the jackfruit variety we get here may not get us much of juice / nectar whatever. Before I decide on it, let me share a non-vegetarian savoury snack recipe CHICKEN SAMOSA / SHINGARA / CHICKEN STUFFED SNACK which we can do with whatever ingredients are available in the kitchen considering there might be 250-300 gm of minced chicken lying in the corner of our freezer all the time.

Though the local confectioners then in Kolkata got meat patties and savouries to the doorstep of the middle class Bengalis, we were not allowed them on a regular basis; for health reasons and also because of both our parents' extreme control on finance. We did not even have electric oven at home, so no question of our mother trying fish & meat patties at home. Fulkopir Shingara was what she would make during winters; egg & meat filled paratha rolls were a regular at home. Monthly few times, we did get samosa / shingara, rolls from outside, my most coveted ones still remains to be meat & fish cutlets; I love those in Kolkata. But you must know the right shops to buy them, else you fail to find decent amount of meat & fish in them. With food adulteration rampant in India, if one has the ability, they should avoid eating meat & fish from anywhere & everywhere.

For the present me, quality is a big concern. Hygiene was always a concern in the family; after a decade of stay in this island, this concern has multiplied. I have taken the mother's route, what she was in her hay days and try my hands on different kinds of sweets & savoury snacks, bread & rice dishes. I already have two Bengali and a mutton samosa / shingara / stuffed savoury snack recipe in the blog if I am not wrong. Let me add this new one, a non-vegetarian fried savoury snack recipe with a filling made of chicken & potato, spices CHICKEN SAMOSA / SHINGARA / CHICKEN STUFFED SNACK. Below is how we had it last Friday, that is my plate, we still have some to fry.

I keep eating around in the island, get outside food too but restaurant hopping on a regular basis is not my cuppa. I will not do that. I have ample time to try my hands on things that are within my limit. In fact, I make things simpler bringing them down to my level of convenience, hence seldom I get to use the authentic tag to my food. About this snack; the shapes are not exactly like the store bought. I shaped only one or two, Cristine did the rest. All the other jobs with regards to it is done by me but that shaping part is very important. I had to keep Cristine's contribution on record. This morning, there was practically no job for us. Believing in zero waste, I used all of the stale rice to prepare a potato-egg rice and packed the man's lunch box. His snack box has swiss roll and a ladoo made by me, I know it's rakhi poornima around. My brother can get happy with a meat samosa, not all who are celebrating, I have to balance the varied needs. Our lunch would be paratha / porota / flat bread; the son gets mutton on the side, I will have the bitter gourd bhaji, Cristine shall decide her's. Yesterday, for lunch I had got chicken chop meal for the men, I had "double dimer omelette & fried kangkong rice"; all the three of us had "doi maach" meal for dinner. Cristine again does not eat with us on Sundays.

It feels good to have used up the rice by morning; although the senior prefers his rice freshly cooked, never messy over cooked rice unless it is "fena bhaat" served.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHICKEN & POTATO FILLING :

MINCED CHICKEN : 250-300 GM
POTATO : 2-3 MEDIUM SIZED
GARLIC PASTE : 1 TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 1 TBSP
SLICED ONION : 11/2 MEDIUM TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1 TBSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP
GARAM MASALA POWDER : 2 TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 2 TSP
CHAT MASALA : 1 TSP
CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP
CORIANDER SEED : 1/2 TSP
LEMON JUICE : 2 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DOUGH :

REFINED FLOUR : 2 COFFEE MUG
NIGELLA SEED : 1 TSP
SALT : 1/2 TSP
OIL : 3 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FRIED SAVOURY SNACK / SAMOSA / SHINGARA :

THE COOKED FILLING
THE KNEADED DOUGH
OIL TO DEEP FRY


PROCEDURE :

We have marinated the washed and drained minced chicken with a little of salt, turmeric, lemon juice and kept aside covered for an hour.

What I do most of the time with regards to boiling potato is; wash & prick each with a fork; take them on a microwave proof plate and microwave at high for 4-5 minutes, say for those 3 potatoes, I used this time.

We will peel and mash the boiled potatoes with some salt once they are cold. You can use any method to boil them.

We have heated 3 tbsp oil in a wok and tempered it with the cumin and coriander seeds. We have pressed the seeds with the back of our ladle. 

We have added the ginger-garlic paste and fried for 2-3 minutes.

We have added the washed sliced onions & chopped green chillies and added to the wok.

We have cooked them until golden brown and added the minced chicken with the marination; folded in well and thereafter added the turmeric+cumin+coriander+red chilli powders.

We have folded in well and cover cooked for 7-8 minutes at minimal heat.

We have opened the cover, added the boiled potato and chaat masala, dry mango powder.

We have folded in very well and stir cooked the entire thing for 5 minutes at low heat. We have added the garam masala powder and some salt if only required and stir cooked for a minute or two.

We have transferred the prepared chicken & potato filling on to a plate.

For the dough, we have taken the flour, nigella seeds and salt together and mixed well.

We have added 3 tbsp of oil and rubbed well for 2-3 minutes.

Now adding water little by little; we have kneaded the flour mix to a firm, smooth dough.

We have kept it covered for 15-20 minutes, opened cover and kneaded again for 2 minutes.

We tore off small portions and smoothened each between our palms. We have rolled each onto small roundels and cut half with a cake knife.

We have applied some water at the corners and folded to join from the straight line side.

We have filled the pocket with the stuffing; and pressed the open ends to close.

I did one, Cristine shaped the rest.

Once done, we refrigerated it for an hour or two. We took them out just before frying.

We have heated the oil in a wok just little and never let it get too hot. We have added a few uncooked snacks / samosa / shingara at a time so that they can move around and we do not have a problem  turning them over. You can see the oil is mildly hot.

Once done, we will keep them onto tissue papers.

It was still hot and crisp after 20 minutes of frying them only because of the right temperature of the oil and the right technique of frying. This is what I have learnt over the years.

I served it with tamarind sauce, Thai Chilli sauce and the salad with Vietnamese lemon grass salad dressing.