Thosai - Urid Dahl Pancakes

I've been making Sri Lankan style Thosai since 2011 and I think I now finally have the secret AND the it's not a secret ingredient! When I first started making them they turned out fine, but then my frying pan died and I had to replace it. Of course the magic was in the pan. I figured that all I needed to do was to buy a cast iron "roti thatiya". I could not find one in Germany so when I was last in Sri Lanka I was determined to go and buy one.

I figured this would be very easy after all my mother has one (unfortunately when I last saw it it was split down the middle so I could not steal it off her!). So I trotted off to Kandy town and went to the store where I used to buy fancy household items when I last lived there. Oh lets see now... that would be over 20 years ago. To my despair I found that the much loved Abdul Rahims was no longer where it should have been. In fact there was nothing but an empty shop where it used to be. Come to think of it this does not mean that it does not exist anymore. It might just mean that it has moved. This thought did not occur to me at the time :(

Continuing down the road I dropped into every store that seemed likely to have such a pan. I was offered non-stick at every turn. And as all of you know, non-stick just doesn't cut it. At the last store I could think of I asked the sales man where I could get a cast iron roti thatiya and he pointed me in the direction of a store further down the street.

This store has literally everything (except perishable items) you could want. So I walked in and asked for a roti thatiya. A young gentleman walked up to me and told the sales person to get lost that he would help me (well not in those words, but his words would be boring). I was a bit worried because he didn't look like the other sales people i.e. he wasn't wearing the mandatory t-shirt. So I step back and whispered to the lady at the front desk "meya methana weda karanawada?" (does this guy work here?) to which the answer was "ow" (yes). So I relaxed and told him very politely that I wanted a "roti thatiya". The guy looked at me weird and asked me in English what I was looking for. At this point I got a bit embarrassed. The shop was very obviously owned by a Sri Lankan muslim. Most of the time they speak Sinhala (which is what I had been speaking up to now), but it could be that the sales person didn't understand me. But here is the hitch, what is the translation for a "roti thatiya"? I had absolutely no idea. So speaking in English I asked for a "roti thatiya". This did not go down well. So I said I wanted a pan to make roti. I thought this would help. But the guy did not know what roti were!! I was flabbergasted. How can any Sri Lankan, whatever race, not know what roti were. The term is used in all 3 commonly spoken languages. I guess I could have asked for "a flat cast iron pan which unlike a frying pan is in its entirety flat"!! My guess was he would not have understood that either. At this point, very fortunately, the owner of the shop materialized and very carefully, in English, told him exactly where to go and what to get. So here I was standing in a shop, speaking to the shop keeper in Sinhala, who was then shouting at the sales person in English to get the damn pan off the hook on the wall!

I gathered from the look on the shop keepers face that the sales person was a bit of a dud! But I walked out of the shop with a small cast iron roti thatiya wrapped up in newspaper and tied with a piece of string. I was the happiest person in Kandy (I'd like to say on Earth but I understand that that might be a bit of an exaggeration). And sorry for bothering you with this story when all you want is a recipe, but I just had to get it off my chest.

When I came back to Germany and my husband saw my roti thatiya he just kind of rolled his eyes and I can totally see where he was coming from. The top surface was rust coloured, the edges were painted with black paint that came off everywhere, and there were iron filings in the newspaper wrapping. I gave it a nice wash, and a polish (and ruined a new sponge in the process) and put it away, because I was no longer quite sure that this was going to work.

Well yesterday I was determined that it had been sitting in the basement for long enough. So I took it out and seasoned it and got ready to make some thosai. And the reason I get to share this with you today is because that rusty black thatiya turned out to make the best thosai ever! Not a single one had to be trashed due to sticking. I did trash the first one I made because I was hoping it would pick up all the minute iron filings that were left. But we all agreed that as long as it was actually iron we all needed a bit of extra iron in our diet!

Now to more interesting things.

Preparation time: min. 6.5 hours (includes min. 5 hours soaking time); makes approx. 25 

Ingredients:

2 cups	Urid dahl
1 tsp	Fenugreek seeds
5 cups	Water
50 g	Wheat flour
75 g	Rice flour
1 tsp	Salt
1 tbsp	Oil/ghee/butter
1/2 pinch	Turmeric
150 - 180 g	Red onions (optional)
1 sprig	Curry leaves, finely chopped (optional)
100 g	Ghee/butter (optional)

Method:

The urid dahl and the fenugreek seeds need to be soaked. This is what makes this recipe so time consuming. If you want to make the thosai for breakfast or lunch then you should put it to soak before you go to bed the night before. If you want it for dinner put it to soak as soon as you get up in the morning. With a bit of planning it can be simple enough.
However, just for all of you I wanted to figure out what is the minimum soaking time needed. I determined that if you soak it for 5 hours it should be enough but it won't be particularly bubbly.

Wash the urid dahl a couple of times in cold water. You don't need to wash it until the water is clear. In fact I believe that a bit of that starch could be helpful. Drain it and place it in a large bowl with 5 cups of water and the fenugreek seeds. Let it stand for a minimum of 5 hours.

I like to add fried onions and curry leaves to my thosai. It makes them a bit more exotic. If you want to add them to yours slice your onions and curry leaves very fine and fry them in a tablespoon of oil over high heat for about 5 minutes or until they are caramelized. To prevent burning you need to stir them all the time. This whole process will add on about 15 minutes to your prep time. Other things that you might add include brown mustard seeds and finely chopped green chilies (these should be added raw).

Once the dahl and fenugreek seeds have been soaked they need to be processed. I do mine in small batches with my Indian Sumeet food processor. A heavy duty liquidizer or food processor should work too. The water that you used to soak the dahl is also part of the mix, so don't throw it away! Grind or blend until you have a nice smooth paste.

Add the rice and wheat flours and then the salt. I put these together with the dahl into the blender so that I don't have any lumps. Stir in a tiny pinch of turmeric. This will give your thosai a slightly golden tinge (which will do nothing to the taste but do wonders for your next insta post!).

Without turmeric made in a frying pan

If you read the rave above you will now know that for the perfect thosai you need to have a thatiya or a well seasoned cast iron frying pan. Non-stick frying pans don't work very well because the batter does not stick to the pan, thus it's impossible to spread the batter. 

Heat your pan over medium-high heat. You can test if it is hot enough by dropping a drop of batter in the pan. If it sizzles and ... you'll know that it is hot enough.  Put 1/2 tsp. of ghee/butter in the pan and using a paper towel or piece of clean cloth wipe it over the whole surface. Then pour in 2 tbsp. of the batter into the middle of the pan. You may need to adjust the amount depending on how thin you can get your pancakes and how large your pan is. Using the back of a spoon and starting at the middle of the pan, spread the batter across the surface using circular motions until there is no batter left to spread.

If you want to put extra ghee or butter on your thosai do this once the batter is no longer liquid. If you have a thatiya you can do this with a regular knife. If you are using a frying pan it might be a good idea to melt the butter and apply it with a brush.

You can turn the pancake as soon as the bottom has become golden brown. The best way to remove it from the pan is to pass a metal spatula (like the ones we all use for icing a cake) under it, but this only works if you have a thatiya! Cook it on the second side for 20 seconds.

Stack the done thosai on a plate. This will keep them warm for longer. Serve warm.

Thosai can be eaten with any Sri Lankan or Indian curry. Our favourites are potato masala, chickpea curry and red lentil curry.

Stuffed with potato masala and served with mango chutney

Channa Masala (chickpeas) with spinach

So one of my daughters was on a class trip and my husband was away on business so I agreed to inviting two of my little ones friends over to spend the night. I was a glutton for punishment! But better a full house than an empty one. At some point in the afternoon I realized that I had not planned dinner and that I did not want to go out shopping for fresh vegetables. No fear, I figured, a pot of dahl always goes down well, except, of course, when you are out of lentils!! Luckily the pantry was not bare and I found a couple of cans of chickpeas. So I put on a simple meal of chickpeas and rice. It was such a hit (there were not enough left overs for a second meal!) that I reproduced it last night for the rest of the family (and wrote down the recipe to share).

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4 if served alone with rice 

Ingredients:

1 (75 g)	Onions, chopped
1/2 tbsp. (4 cloves)	Garlic pulp
1/2 tbsp.	Finely chopped ginger
50 g	Butter (or ghee)
1 tbsp.	Ground corriander
2 tsp	Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp.	Chili power (or to taste)
1 tsp.	Tumeric
2 tsp.	Ground cumin
1 tbsp.	Amchur or lemon juice
14 oz	Canned tomatoes (or use fresh ones)
480 g	Cooked chickpeas (= 1 large can of chickpeas)
150g	Frozen spinach
2 tsp.	Garam masala
1/2 tsp.	Salt

Method:

The method is relatively simple and I'm guessing if you are not being neat and pretty and taking photographs that you can probably put this together in less than an hour. The big time consumer is letting it simmer at the end for 30 minutes, but this gives you time to make other delicious things (and if nothing else at least your rice).

Since the first part of this recipe is cooked pretty fast, and because I didn't want to burn anything, I got most things ready before melting my butter. I had two piles. One of chopped onions, garlic and ginger

and one with all the spices

There are heaps and heaps of spices here because I made two cans of chickpeas i.e. I doubled the recipe. Here is everything except the salt and the garam masala. Once I had these two piles set up I put the butter in a heavy bottomed pan and melted it over medium heat. Then added the onions, garlic and ginger, increased the heat, and cooked them until they were soft.

You should stir them every now and then so that they are evenly cooked, but in between there should be enough time to crack open the canned tomatoes and roughly chop them. I first made this with fresh tomatoes and it came out fine. It's just a bit less... well ... tomatoey! 

Once those onions are done it is time to add the spices. I again reduced the heat because I did not want to burn the spices and over a low heat cooked them for 1-2 minutes. Keep stirring them so that they don't burn. Then in go the tomatoes and their juices. Now I put this up to around medium and heated it through. 

While this was happening I drained off the chickpeas and then added them to the pot and gave it a really good stir. On went the lid and I allowed it to simmer while I put together our now favourite potato masala and some rice. After 15 minutes of simmering I added the frozen spinach. I am sure you can use fresh spinach as well but I would cook it and drain the water first (else the masala will become watery). 

Continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Add the garam masala and salt to taste and enjoy!

Paneer Tikka Masala

When we lived in San Francisco this was one of our favourite dishes at our favourite Indian place "Naan and Curry". We were introduced to this, then hole in the wall restaurant, by a American colleague of mine whose wife was Indian. We were quite amazed at how bad the place looked but after eating there, well, we never went anywhere else (for Indian food that is). The food was amazingly good, amazingly cheap and there was free chai, as much as you could possibly drink.
Since that first visit the restaurant branched out and we were lucky enough to have a large branch open up a few blocks from where we lived. So we would dress up our kids in yellow, orange or red attire and walk down the street to get our naan and curry fix. The dress was very important given that there was so much turmeric (note that there is none in the recipe below but the tomato will do the trick) in everything, that the kids ate with their hands, there were no booster seats and our kids were under 4 years old! Any mistake with the dress code meant that piece of clothing was destroyed for life.
Once we moved to Germany we found that not only was there no Nann and Curry (which we fully expected) but there was no decent Indian food. We finally found one that had decent food but the price has gone up by so much that the only decently priced item on the menu is "suicide water", which is just a fancy word for tap water (price 0 Euro). There was no option but to start cooking Indian food at home. After much research and much tweaking I settled on this recipe.
There is one problem though. My kids do not like the taste of the paneer that we get in Germany. We substitute with feta made from cows milk, which is a much cheaper option than paneer so everyone is happy.

Preparation time: 40 minutes (can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen); Serves 4 

Ingredients:

1 tbsp.	Butter or ghee
2	Cloves of garlic, minced
1	Chili, minced (optional)
2 tsp.	Ground coriander
1 tsp.	Ground cumin

1 tsp.	Chili powder
1 tsp.	Garam masala
1/2 tsp.	Salt
8 fl.oz.	Tomato puree
1 cup	Whipping cream
1/4 cup	Cilantro, chopped
200 g	Paneer (or feta or tofu or anything you like!)

Method:

This is a majorly simple recipe it just takes a while because the longer you cook it the better it tastes! So first melt the butter over medium high heat. Once the butter is melted add the garlic and chili and fry them until they become fragrant (usually a few seconds). Then add the coriander, cumin, chili, garam masala and salt and continue to fry stirring all the time. Do this also until fragrant. Do not burn the spices! Talking about fragrant, be aware that after you fry all this stuff you are going to have to air your kitchen really well to get rid of the lingering spice smell. 

Now add all the tomato puree, stir and cook on low heat for 15 minutes. I actually don't use tomato puree but something called "Tomatenmark" it is very highly concentrated tomato and comes in a tube as a paste. I put around 2 - 3 fl. oz of this and make up the rest with water. How much I put depends on which particular brand I am using because they all claim different concentrations.

Now add the whipping cream (or full cream or heavy whipping cream) and bring to the boil again. Reduce the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes. I don't have any photos after this stage because I turned off the cooker and ran out of the house to pick someone up. Instructions were then sent via Whatsapp as to how to heat up the dinner. 

Finally add the cheese and the coriander leaves, heat everything through and serve with any type of bread or rice. 

I have found that the sauce re-heats and freezes very well but the cheese doesn't. So what I do is I make a double batch of gravy and only put in the amount of cheese that can be consumed in one meal. The left over gravy can then be reheated and new cheese put in. 

Left overs from the next day!

Enjoy!