Dry beetroot coconut curry

I was thinking about India. Probably the best meal I had in ~3 months there was a thali at a place overlooking a temple bathing tank, in Varkala (Kerala). All the places along the beach were very touristy and the food not very veg and not very interesting, so we had ended up walking inland in search of something more exciting. The place was small and simple; we sat on a palm-roofed terrace watching a family of feral cats play around our feet. Eventually they brought this amazing thali, with very coconutty, South Indian, interesting curries. The one I remember so clearly was a dry curry of shredded beetroot and shredded coconut - beautiful, full of earthy sweetness and texture, and so unlike anything I'd eaten before.

I thought I'd try and recreate it with our latest haul of CSA beetroot. The fridge was starting to look bare after a few weeks of soup and using up, and those beets were almost the last thing to get through. Actually, I think what reminded me of that place / that thali was making my favourite dry cabbage curry the other day - it is similar in spicing and texture and use of coconut to what I remember of the beetroot one. So I thought I'd try something a bit like it - definitely using shredded coconut, curry leaves and mustard seed... I ended up using this recipe, as it sounded much like my memory.

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped into large chunks
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
~1/2 tbsp water
1-2 tbsp coconut oil
3 curry leaves
1 tsp chana dal (aka yellow split peas; increase to 1 tbsp if you don't have urad dal)
1 tbsp urad dal (subbed mung beans but this wasn't awesome - make sure to use shelled dal)
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1-2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion, finely sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 medium-large beetroot, grated
~1/3 cup dried shredded coconut (unsweetened; fresh probably better if you can get it)
salt

Put the ginger, garlic and water in a blender and pulse until it becomes a paste - add just enough water to make it work / become paste.

Heat the oil in a good-sized frying pan. Add the curry leaves, chana dal, urad dal (if using), mustard seeds, cumin seeds and chilli flakes and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the onion and the garlic-ginger paste. Once the onion is translucent, add in the turmeric and the grated beetroot. Stir-fry until beets are almost dry then add in the coconut and mix. Taste and add salt to taste. Turn off the heat.


We ate with brown rice, sprinkled with chopped fresh coriander, with a splash of vinegar and some coconut cream on the side. yummmm. S thought it could have been more coconutty - I guess you could add more shredded coconut or some coconut cream - but I was pretty happy with it.

Note, I am actually growing to love turmeric - I'd always thought of it as mainly a colouring agent, but while the colour is definitely fantastic the smell and flavour are wonderful too.

Curried cabbage and coconut

Got a big white cabbage that needed eating fast from last week's Alvin farmshare. Turned over a few ideas in my head: perhaps Polish style stuffed leaves (had been talking about these with my labmate who made them with his Polish-descended mother recently)? Or pickled? But then the idea of a dry, yellow curry with coconut came into my head and seemed so delicious I couldn't drop it.

I more-or-less followed this recipe, because it seemed to be quite straightforward and almost exactly what I had in mind - even including curry leaves, which I bought a bag of a month or so ago and had been storing in the freezer until an opportunity to cook them arose.

3 tbsp safflower oil (or other non-flavoured, high temp cooking oil)
1/4 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 heaping tsp mung dal, urad dal or small yellow lentils
1-2 small green chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
10-20 fresh curry leaves (used 11)
1 small onion, finely sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 a medium white cabbage (approx 1 lb), cored and shredded
1 piece fresh ginger, 1-inch long, peeled and chopped or cut into matchsticks
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp finely grated fresh coconut or grated dried coconut

Heat the oil in a large, tall saucepan over med-high heat. When it’s hot and shimmery add the mustard seeds. When they have almost all popped (30 sec or so), remove the pan from the heat, then turn down to medium, put pan back on, add cumin, dal, chilli, curry leaves, and saute until everything looks lightly golden (~ 45 sec). Add the onion and cook, stirring, until it’s soft and limp but does not change colour: two to four minutes. Add the turmeric and stir well to mix. Add the cabbage, ginger and salt, and mix thoroughly. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, slightly translucent, tender, still crunchy but not mushy: about seven minutes. Add the coconut, and mix well. Taste for salt. Let sit for at least 5 min before eating.


This is really delicious, and makes a beautiful pan of yellow shreds studded with brown seeds and dal. The curry leaves lend a very particular aroma and flavour which I like, and the combined dal, cooked cabbage and coconut make a wonderful set of contrasting textures. Yum.

Best Indian restaurant in Greater Boston?

It's taken a while, but we have at last found a really good Indian restaurant in Boston.  Well, it's in Somerville, near Union Square.  Increasingly, a lot of my favourite things are around Union Square.  There are nice music venues, a great farmer's market on Saturdays, it's close to my aerial studio, lots of our friends live round there...

Dosa Temple was recommended by my colleague Kishore, who is originally from Hyderabad.  We were talking about Indian food one day and I developed a real hankering for some.  So the next time S and I were on the hunt for a snack we stopped at Dosa Temple.  It is pure vegetarian, no booze, the interior looks and feels like places we ate at in India -from the wipe-down booths to the Bollywood music videos.

On our first visit I had a masala dosa, which was so massive it looked like a paper dosa (American portion sizes?  I dread to think what their paper dosa looks like), but was really good and crisp in all the right places, with decent coconut chutney and sambal.  I also had some tomato rasam, which was rich with tamarind and really hit the spot (portion was quite tiny, in contrast to the massive dosa).  We shared some gobi fritters, with tamarind and coriander chutneys for dunking, which was wonderful (although we were hungry for sure after a day at the beach).  And S had this dish that I've never seen before, apparently some kind of savoury veggie curry crossed with bread pudding.  He liked it, I was too busy with my dosa to eat much of it.

This place beats out all the other Indian places I've tried in Boston for authenticity, range of the menu, and tastiness (Punjabi Dhaba, Kebab Factory, Dosa Factory, Grain of Salt...).  None of those are bad, Dosa Temple is just really, really good.  I can't wait to go back and continue eating my way through the menu.

Pancake Day! Dosa and normal pancakes

I love pancake day - one of my favourite annual foodfests...  I had eggless pancakes in India so was pretty confident they'd work out...  And seem to be in the mood for Indian food at the moment (perhaps compensating since Jilly is there now). Both these recipes are the result of some Googling: dosa.

Rava dosa

1 cup semolina / rava
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp coriander leaves
few curry leaves (optional)
1/2-1 finely chopped green chilli
salt to taste
water - 3 cups (approx)
veg oil as required

Whisk together all the ingredients (except oil) and leave the batter to stand for half an hour to an hour.  It should thicken up a bit as the rava swells.

When ready it should be a good pouring consistency.  Heat a frying pan on high until it sizzles when water splashed.  Reduce to medium heat.  Pour a ladle of well-mixed batter around the outside and then fill in the middle.  Pour 1-2 tsp oil in drops around the edge of the dosa.  Increase heat to a medium flame and cook for 3min.  Increase flame to high and cook for ~2min.  Flip and cook another 30sec.  Dosa done.

We ate these with dry yellow potatoes.  It was super tasty and really tasted like dosa we've eaten out / in India - soooo good!

Pancakes (British style)

(makes about 20)

225ml fake milk
225ml water
6oz / 175ml plain flour
2 tbsp chickpea flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp veg oil
pinch of salt
additional oil for frying

Whisk all the ingredients except the oil for frying together.  Heat a little oil in a frying pan and then pour in a ladle of batter, tipping the pan to spread it out thin.  Cook for about 3 min on the first side, flip and cook a minute or so on the other side.

They were really good too!  We couldn't figure out the point of animal products in pancakes at all...  We ate them variously with maple syrup and fresh blueberries, lemon and sugar (classic - can't go a pancake day without one of those), and blueberry jam.

Happy pancake day!

Sunday cooking: baingan achaari; potato apple latkes

Often seem to end up on a big cooking mission one day at the weekend, after rediscovering or buying lots of fruit and veg and realising it needs cooking...  Today involved 1) aubergines and 2) red-skinned potatoes

Baingan achaari (aubergine curry)

This was one of my favourites when I lived at home. Shireen introduced me to it, and it originates from Madhur Jaffrey (but has been adapted along the way).

2.5cm cube fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
6 large cloves garlic
55ml water
800g aubergines
350ml veg oil
1 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp kalonji (nigella)
1/2 tsp cumin seed
350g tomatoes peeled and finely chopped (or 1 tin)
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/3 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt

Cut aubergine into wedges 2cm thick / 4-5cm long.  Rub with oil and put on oiled baking sheet in a hot oven (~400F / 250C) for 30min.  When done put in a colander to drain.

Meanwhile blend garlic, ginger and water to make a smooth paste.

Put ~3tbsp of oil in a large high-sided frying pan on medium heat. Add fennel, kalonji, cumin and gently darken (few sec).  Add tomatoes, garlic/ginger paste, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, salt.  Bubble until thickens to a paste.

Add the cooked aubergine and stir gently.  Cook 5 min, cover and cook 5 more min.

This is delicious. Ate it with jasmine rice (with cloves and whole cardamom in cooking water), fresh coriander on top is also good.


Potato apple latkes

Adapted from a recent recipe on the guardian webpage.

500g red salad potatoes
1 small onion
1 crisp apple (Braeburn or Cox's Orange Pippin), cored but unpeeled
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 1 tbsp water)
30g plain flour
2 tsp poppyseeds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Groundnut or vegetable oil, for frying

Grate the potatoes, onion and apple. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible (in a mesh colander). Transfer to a bowl and add the lemon juice, flax egg, flour and poppyseeds. Season and mix.

Heat ~1cm oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Form the latke mixture into pancakes about 4cm in diameter and drop them into the oil. Cook for about four minutes a side, until cooked through and golden brown. Put the cooked latkes on kitchen paper to absorb oil.


The latkes were a faff, I don't know if I'll bother again - lots of grating (incl my thumbnail a wee bit), smelly frying and oily end product. They tasted quite nice - crispy fried potato and onion on the outside, waxy cooked on the inside, with little taste hits of poppyseed now and again (didn't really notice the apple). S liked them. We ate them with sweet chili or wholegrain mustard, the recipe suggested horseradish cream (2 tbsp fresh horseradish, finely grated, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice, ½ tsp caster sugar, 150ml crème fraîche, pinch of salt) - need a bit of heat and moisture. Maybe sometime in the future when I have a food processor I'll make latkes...