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Indian Cooking Master Class

Award Winning Food Sorcery – Cookery School has gone live!

We hope you enjoyed your online cookery class as much as we did, all the recipes are below along with a reminder video of some of the dishes. If you have any questions for chef please do get in touch and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

The online class was located at the cookery school in Didsbury, Manchester and hosted on zoom. We host classes bespoke to groups, call us on 0161 706 0505 to find out more.

Chef’s Tip: The recipes are vegetarian, if you’d like to add any meat of fish feel free to do so. Prawns are a great addition or chicken works well with the Masala sauce.

Meal: Coconut Dhal with Spinach, Tomato Masala, Stuffed Paratha, Plain Paratha

Coconut Dhal with Spinach, Serves 2

This is a tasty lentil curry recipe using faster cooking Mong Dhal  it’s fragrant with spices for a satisfyingly easy, nutritious meal.

Ingredients – Serves 2

Dhal Spice Mix – teaspoon of each (dry powder) – ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric

  • . 2-3 Cardamom pods
  • . 200g Mong Dhal – this is one of the faster cooking Dhal, works really well and gives a creamy texture to your dish
  • . One Banana Shallot or Quarter of a medium onion – diced
  • . Half tablespoon Ghee (substitute with olive or coconut oil to make vegan)
  • . ¼ Block of Coconut Block (you could use quarter tin of coconut milk)
  • . Handful of spinach
  • . To garnish – crispy onions, chopped fresh coriander, finely diced red chilli

Method

  1. Place the dhal in a small pan add the cardamom pods, cover with water and bring to boil. 
  2. Once boiling reduce to a simmer, top up the water if its looking dry – dhal will absorb a lot of water and you shouldn’t need to drain this at the end of cooking….traditionally a thicker dhal was a sign of wealth!
  3. Test dhal after about 15 minutes, if it is starting to soften, add the coconut block, stir, leave simmering.

Prepare the spices. 

  1. Use a small frying pan on medium heat, add the ghee then the onion/ shallot
  2. Let the onion soften, then add the 4 spice powders
  3. Stir, and reduce heat.
  4. Test your dhal again, it should now be creamy and the dhal soft and broken down.  If it feels too thick, add water gradually to get the consistency you prefer.
  5. Take table spoon of the dhal and add to the spice pan, stir and then add this back into the dhal
  6. Stir and remove from heat.

To Serve

  • . Rinse hand full of baby spinach leaves under tap and crush in your hand.  Stir through the hot dhal mix.
  • . Plate into 2 bowls or one serving plate – add crispy onions, chopped coriander and chopped red chilli as a garnish.

Fresh Tomato Masala

This is a delicious sweet sauce, that works well as a dipping sauce for breads, or add a few prawns or chicken and have as a main dish.  You could make it into a chutney.

Ingredients – serves 2

  • . Masala Spice Mix – teaspoon of each (dry powder) – coriander, cumin, ginger, turmeric, cayenne, paprika (if you want a spicier blend, increase the cayenne and cumin)
  • . 4 fresh tomatoes – you could use a can of tomatoes, but it’s fun with the fresh!
  • . 1-2 tablespoons of caster sugar (to taste)
  • . Fresh lime juice – half a lime is probably enough, but again to taste
  • . 1 banana shallot or ¼ of an onion, finely diced

Method

  1. Ideally use a box grater to grate the tomatoes – discard the skin.  If you need to finely dice, you can.
  2. Heat frying pan on medium heat, add shallot and dry fry
  3. Add the spices, stir
  4. Add the grated tomato, stir
  5. Add the lime and sugar…taste and balance as required.

To Serve: Serve in a bowl, if you want to garnish, then sprinkle parsley or coriander on top.

Paratha – Plain and Stuffed

This will make 4 small breads, ideal for 2 people

Ingredients – Dough

  • . 100g atta flour (wholemeal  if you can’t get atta)
  • . 100g madia flour (plain  if you can’t get madia) – plus extra for dusting
  • . Water

Method

  1. In a large bowl, mix the 2 flours, then gradually add water, mixing with a spoon.  The mixture will come together in a ball, you are looking for a soft dough.  Then take the mixture in your hands and knead for about 5 minutes.
  2. Split into 4 balls of equal size and set aside.

Paratha – filling

  • . Paratha Spice Mix – teaspoon of each powder – coriander, cumin, ginger
  • . Fresh Green Chilli – finely diced
  • . Fresh Coriander – chopped
  • . 200g Tinned Peas (you can use defrosted frozen)
  • . 1 spring onion – chopped

Method

  1. In a bowl, smash up the peas with a spoon, mix all ingredients together

For the stuffed paratha:

  1. Sprinkle some flour on board or work surface
  2. Roll out 2 of your balls of dough until size of small saucer – if you don’t have a rolling pin, use wine bottle or can!
  3. Add tablespoon of your pea mix to the centre, fold sides over to enclose the mixture.   Flatten with your hand or with the rolling pin to about ½ centimetre thick – some of the filling may poke through – don’t worry!

For the plain paratha:

  1. Sprinkle some flour on board or work surface
  2. Roll out 2 of your balls of dough until size of small saucer – if you don’t have a rolling pin, use wine bottle or can!

To Cook

  1. Heat frying pan on medium heat, add the stuffed paratha and cook, there will be some charring on each side of the paratha.  Cook both sides for about 2 minutes
  2. For the plain paratha, repeat above…you want it to remain soft rather than crisp up. 
  3. Drizzle melted butter or ghee over the breads and serve

We hope you enjoyed the class!

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