Indian Supperclub - a 3 course feast - date announced!

I've announced a date for my supperclub, and booking is open! It's been a long time in the planning and I'm so pleased to be able to bring you a taste of authentic Gujarati cuisine.

If you've not eaten for a while I suggest you get a snack as this post will make you hungry.

My first supperclub is on Saturday 22nd February in a beautiful spot just outside Cambridge, I'll be cooking a very traditional Gujarati meal - crisp samosas spiced with cumin and chilli to start, a range of veggie curries with rotli (chapati), rice and accompaniments finishing with a sweet tooth's dream of a dessert. The menu...

Mela Supperclub, 22nd February
foodmela.co.uk

Welcome Drink: Nimbu Pani (sweet lime drink)

Starter: Pea & Potato Samosas with green chilli chutney

Mains: Chana Masala, Toor Daal, Venghan Bateta (Potato & Aubergine)
Rotli, Rice, Kadhi (spiced yoghurt sauce), Raita and Pickle

Dessert: Gulab Jambu (doughnut like dumplings in cardamom syrup) 

with Jack's Mango Sorbet & Cumin Gelato

~ 
Masala Chai & Cardamom Shortbread

Places are limited, I've still a few spots left - email me deepa@foodmela.co.uk to book a place.
£32 pp and you can BYOB, there will also be plenty of nimbu pani to go around plus water and juice.

Read more here, and get a little sneak peek into my new blog: www.foodmela.co.uk 

See you there, come with an empty stomach! :)

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Samosas from Scratch

I love samosas - they are the best Indian snack food but sadly, as popular as they are, they are rarely good. A good samosa should be crispy on the inside and soft and delicately spiced in the middle. The crispy pastry is made from rotli/chapati dough (not filo) with added salt and lemon juice - the dough discs are half cooked before being filled, folded and fried. The traditional Gujarati filling is a potato and pea with garlic, ginger, onion, chilli and turmeric. Coriander seed and cumin is also added.The other common filling you'll find (in meat eating areas) is minced lamb - flavoured in the same way and sometimes with clove and cinnamon.

Allow yourself a few hours in the kitchen, samosas have several steps to them and they are perfect if you want to spend a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen. Each step is quite straightforward - as long as you take your time you'll be ok.

Pea & Potato Samosas - makes 15 samosas, easily doubled

Step 1 - Pastry dough

150g chapati flour or plain flour
optional 2 teaspoons of fine semolina (my addition for crispier samosas)
4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
boiling water - approx 125ml

Rub together the flour, semolina and oil, til it is all combined. Add in the salt and lemon juice and mix with a fork. Add in half of the water and stir with a fork, add the other half and mix again with the fork. As it starts to come together get in with your hands and knead into a soft but not sticky dough.

Divide into balls, approximately the size of a lime and then roll each out in to a circle. You want the pastry to be fairly thin, about 2mm. Save a couple of small pieces of pastry, to test the temperature of the oil later (or you can use a cube of bread or potato).

Heat a non stick frying pan, or tava, til it is very hot, then turn down to a medium heat.
You can roll out all your pastry circles and lay them out and cook one after another, or roll as you cook - it depends if you can keep an eye on both!

Cook the circles for 30 seconds minute on each side, just enough to lightly colour them. You want the dough to be half cooked, so they are easy to fill and also to fry later. Stack up on a plate as you cook them. Cover with a clean, damp tea towel as you make the filling.

Step 2 - Pea & Potato

3 medium potatoes, diced
100g frozen peas, defrosted
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced or finely chopped
1/4 green chilli, chopped finely
1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
oil
1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon of coriander seed, crushed
1/4 teaspoon of tumeric
pinch of salt

Fry the onion til translucent, then add the garlic and ginger and fry for 30 seconds. Add the potato and stir well - then add in the chilli and the spices along with a pinch of salt. Fry for a few minutes on a medium-high heat, stirring all the time. Then add a splash of water, and cover. Reduce heat to medium/low and cook with the cover on for about 4 minutes. Remove the cover, stir, simmer for a few minutes if you need to reduce the water a little. Switch off the heat, stir in the peas, and leave to cool.

Step 3 - Folding and Filling

Flour and cold water for glue.
Teaspoon
Large plate for your finished samosas

Make a glue by combining about 2 tablespoons of flour with half that amount of water, adjust til you get a thick but spreadable glue.

How to Fold a Samosa:

Dab glue on to the straight sides of the samosa wrapper, fill with potato filling and then glue the top closed. Check for gaps and dab some glue on to the point and squeeze closed.

At this stage, if you'd like to save the samosas for another time, you can freeze them on a baking tray - once frozen put into a freezer bag. Defrost fully before you come to fry them.

Step 4 - Frying

300ml vegetable oil
medium large saucepan

Add vegetable oil to a medium saucepan and heat on a high heat for a few minutes, then turn down to medium. Test the temperature by adding a small piece of pastry to the oil, if it bubbles and rises to the surface within 10 - 15 seconds the oil is done.

Add about 4-5 samosas to the pan and fry for around 4-5 minutes til deep golden colour. Turn them every minute or so to ensure they cook evenly. Too high heat will cause the pastry to burn and not cook through, a medium high heat will ensure they stay crisp but not oily and cook throughout. Once done, remove and drain on kitchen paper.

Baked Version: I also tried baking some, which turned out nicely, not as flaky but still crispy and crunchy - and of course a little healthier. Brush with oil and bake on a tray in a medium oven for 20 minutes, turning half way through. 

I really hope you make these, you won't be disappointed! I've got 10 of them stashed away in the freezer, a smart move as the first batch disappeared in minutes.

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A Very Indian Afternoon Tea

I’m holding my very first food event! After lots of talking, thinking and encouragement from the lovely people who make up the Cambridge food blogger ‘scene’ (not sure I like that word but it fits) I have decided to hold two events celebrating Indian food.

First up I’m starting with afternoon tea, which seems like the natural first event for me, someone with such a sweet tooth. After that I will be holding a supperclub where I’ll be cooking up an all vegetarian Gujarati feasts for around 15 guests.

 Indian Afternoon Tea – Sunday 4th August, 3pm – 5pm  - a few places left
A central Cambridge location, not far from the rail station 

 The much loved British afternoon tea but with an Indian / Gujarati twist. Savoury nibbles (think Indian street food) to begin, sweet treats, a masala chai cake (pictured) and of course tea!
 £19 per person
To book places for the afternoon tea email me at deepa@lazygiraffe.com with the number of places you'd like, I'll then send you a PayPal invoice for the tickets. 

Gujarati Supperclub – no date as yet but it will be late August / early September. 
I’m still scouting around for the perfect venue, plus perfecting a stack of perfectly round rotli (chapatti). 

I’m really excited to be bringing you my ideas for these two events, I’ve had a lot of fun planning the menus for both and I really hope my guests will be wowed. Email me if you’d like to book or for more details. See you in August!

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Bhel Puri

Hands down, bhel puri is my favourite savoury thing to eat. Closely followed by pani puri and then from a completely different culture - macaroni and cheese.

Bhel Puri is a type of Chaat - which is simply savoury snacks sold at the roadside all over India, but many associate them with cities like Mumbai and Delhi. I love the origin of the word chaat.

From Wikipedia "The word derives from Hindi cāṭ चाट (tasting, a delicacy), from cāṭnā चाटना (to lick), from Prakrit caṭṭei चट्टेइ (to devour with relish, eat noisily)."

You can also buy (or make yourself) chaat masala which is made up of amchoor (dried mango) powder, black salt, coriander, ginger, salt, pepper, asafoedita and chilli powder. This is used in all kinds of chaat to easily season, plus it tastes great! Add it to your next chickpea curry.

Bhel puri offers everything - it is a Gujarati snack made popular in Mumbai by migrants to the city-  it's crispy, crunchy, soft, sweet, savoury, spicy and sharp. The base is a mixture of puffed rice (mamra) and fried chickpea noodles (sev) which is then topped with chopped onion, sometimes tomato, boiled spicy potato (often with chaat masala), mint chilli coriander chutney and tamarind chutney. You mix it all together and eat it up immediately whilst it is still crunchy. Fancier versions I've had, at Dishoom for example, also contain pomegranate or diced mango.

As I've said, it is traditionally a snack, but if you love it like I do, it's more than ok to eat three portions and call it dinner. You'll find sev, mamra and tamarind in most Indian grocers and also very large branches of the main supermarkets. If not The Asian Cookshop has everything you'll need, and their delivery charges aren't too dear.

Tamarind can be bought in a large scary looking block, which needs to be soaked and then passed through a sieve, it is a bit of work but you can freeze the resulting paste and take out as needed. You can also buy jars of tamarind paste in most supermarkets, but it often has added ingredients.

Bhel Puri Serves 2 generously for dinner, 4 for a snack 

 200g sev
200g mamra puffed rice
 ½ onion, diced finely then soaked in water
 2 medium sized potatoes diced and boiled
¼ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp chaat masala salt (boil til soft, drain, cool and then add seasoning and spices) 
2 tomatoes, diced

 Green Chutney 
15 mint leaves
large bunch of coriander
¼ tsp garam masala
¼ tsp cumin ½ cm ginger salt
¼ green chilli (or more to your taste!)
4 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
scant 1 tsp sugar 

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor - you want a thin sauce, a bit like salsa.

Tamarind Chutney 
1 tablespoon of tamarind paste
1 ¼ tsp caster sugar
pinch of garam masala
5 tablespoons of water
pinch of salt

Add all the ingredients to a saucepan and simmer over a medium high heat til boiling. Turn down and then simmer gently for 5-10 minutes til it thickens to just a little thinner than ketchup.

To Serve
When serving put all your separate ingredients in to bowls and then let diners make their own bhel puri by piling up ingredients and chutneys to taste in a bowl.


I'll be serving bhel puri plus plenty of other yummy things at my upcoming Gujarati Supperclub in Cambridge in August, dates to be announced soon - sign up to the mailing list here. 

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Gujarati Kadhi - Yoghurt 'Sauce'

It is very hard to describe what kadhi exactly it, it is basically a yoghurt and gram flour based sauce/soup/gravy for rice. You can also add it to dry curry dishes, like potato. I blogged Kitchri a little while ago, a soothing lentil rice dish gently spiced with turmeric and garlic - kadhi is the best companion for kitchri. You can also have kadhi with plain boiled basmati rice.

Kitri and Kadhi is wonderful when you are sick, it is simple, soothing and comforting - I think it has medicinal qualities similar to chicken soup! I got it together to make this on a weekend when we were both ill with a horrible cold virus thing that caught as at the end of a long winter, it is very easy to make and gentle on a tummy that has been punished by too many Hall's Soothers and Paracetmol pills.

Gujarati Kadhi
makes 4 portions, keeps well in the fridge for a few days

250ml natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons of gram flour / chickpea flour
about 1cm of grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp sugar
750ml cold water
salt
coriander

for tempering:
1-2 dried red chillies - depending on how hot you want it
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
vegetable or sunflower oil


1. Whisk together the yoghurt, chickpeas, ginger, water in a bowl.
2. Heat the oil and add all the tempering ingredients once the oil is hot.  When the mustard seeds begin to pop add in the yoghurt mixture and then water and salt.
3. Bring to the boil, be careful it doesn't bubble over the top. Then let simmer gently for about 5 minutes, whisking occasionally to stop any lumps.
4. Taste and season again if you need to, and then add the fresh coriander.

Serve with kitchri or plain basmati rice.
The traditional way to serve it is in a small cup and let each person add the kadhi to their rice as they eat. I sometimes like to drown my rice in it, but at other times add a little to make it drier, it all depends!

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Kitchri - Yellow Lentil Rice (Gujarati Recipe)

I'm probably not selling this recipe very well in the title, but it is a really nice rice dish - eaten a lot in Gujarati homes but there are various versions from other parts of India too. It is dead cheap to make, soothing and simple, so good for poorly tummies, which there are plenty of during this long drawn out winter. It is made up of basmati rice cooked with yellow mung dal along with a little garlic, salt and turmeric simmered in the water.

It goes with 'kadhi' which is a yoghurt based spiced 'soup' (for want of a better word) which is poured liberally over the rice. You can also eat it with a thin dal soup (again for want of a better word) or have it alongside any 'curry' with sauce.

And if you are under the weather just eat it warm on it's own or with a dollop of plain yoghurt. It is also ridiculously easy to make.

You'll find yellow split lentils in larger supermarkets (I found a bag in Morrison's!), Indian supermarkets and possibly larger health food stores. And, randomly, on eBay. Normal lentils won't work for this as they are too big, also these split lentils don't need soaking, you can use them straight away.

Kitchri
Serves 4

200g basmati rice
200g yellow split lentils
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 clove of garlic
Sunflower or mild olive oil
Boling water

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and then add in the rice and lentils and stir fry for a few minutes.
Then add in the garlic, salt and turmeric and stir fry for another minute.
Add the boiling water.
Bring to the boil and then simmer on a medium heat til the water is nearly all absorbed.
Turn down to the lowest heat, place some foil directly on top of the rice, put the lid on the pan and leave for 5 minutes to cook.
Remove the foil, check it is cooked through, fluff with a fork and then put lid back on til you are ready to serve with dal, kadhi or any sauce'curry' .

I'll be blogging dal soup and kadhi soon, so watch this space :)

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Chai Masala Biscuits

Whilst making a cup of masala chai the other week I was thinking what a good idea it would be to put some of the masala into a batch of biscuit/cookie dough. I've made spiced cookies before, with a bit of ginger or cinnamon, and the punchy chai masala would probably work just as well. And I am pleased to say it did!

The masala mix is made up of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, ground ginger and nutmeg, I bought some back from India, you can either buy some from your nearest Indian supermarket, grind your own or use the individual spices in the cookie mix. Some larger Tesco stores might even stock it now too.

I used a basic cookie dough from BBC Good Food, which if you read my blog regularly you'll know is a site I use a lot, there are tons of recipes on there and their baking section contains lots of classic recipes - basic sponges, shortcrust pastry, fruit cakes, mince pies. Good stuff.

The biscuits are quite like shortbread, and the masala gives a nice little warmth. If you are a hardcore dunker (well done) I would suggest making them 1.5cm thick instead of 1cm as below.

Chai Masala Biscuits
adapted from BBC Good Food

Makes about 30 cookies, maybe more.I froze half the dough (wrapped in cling film and then put in a sandwich bag), my standard behaviour when making biscuits or cookies - so that I have a stash for when I really crave them.

250g softened unsalted butter
140g sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp of vanilla extract
295g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
5g chai masala or mixed spices

Optional:
50g chocolate melted with 5g butter (to keep it shiny) for dipping
Extra sugar and chai masala for sprinkling on before baking / onto the chocolate

Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 5 / Fan 180 / Electric 190 
Cream together your butter and sugar til combined well and nice and fluffy.
Add in the egg yolk and the vanilla extract and mix in well.
Sift in your flour and masala, mix in - you'll need to get in with your hands here and knead to a dough. 
Add a tiny bit of water at a time if it seems a little dry.
Knead very briefly to a soft dough, wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes.

Roll out to about 1cm thick and cut into whatever shape you fancy, with a knife or cutters.
Lay on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. You can put them reasonably close together as they don't spread too much during baking.
Sprinkling the biscuits with a little chai masala mixed with sugar before baking gives a nice crunch when they are baked.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes in the centre of the oven.
They can go from not cooked to brown in 30 seconds so keep an eye during the first batch, your oven may behave differently. 

Cool on a wire rack, you can either now eat them or dip them in melted chocolate and leave to set. 
I couldn't stop fiddling around with them and sprinkled the unset chocolate with a little chai sugar for extra spiciness.

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Masala Chai

Whilst I was in India the tea I drank was almost exclusively masala chai, I did try some 'English tea' out there but they use buffalo milk rather than cow's milk which gives the tea a strange taste, something a good dose of masala gets rid of. So it was masala chai from then on.

First of all a rant word about the word chai. It really bugs me when I see someone talking about 'chai tea' - what you are essentially saying there is 'tea tea' because the word chai means tea. Chai doesn't refer to the fact that it is spiced tea, but chai means tea. Simple as that. Hence why you call it masala chai because it is tea spiced. This also applies to lentil dahl. Dahl means lentil so lentil dahl is lentil lentil.  Glad I got that off my chest.

Masala chai is drunk everyday by most Indians, I tend to drink it occasionally  maybe once a week. I particularly like it when it is a very cold day or I am feeling a bit under the weather - sweet, spicy hot tea is the best thing for these situations.

It takes longer to make than an average cup of tea but it is so worth the time. Normally it is not recommended to boil tea or use boiling water on tea, but here you boil it twice - once with masala and then once after adding milk. This way the spices really get into the tea and the tea brews quite strongly to compete with the spices. You don't necessarily have to use a really good quality loose tea here either, the contents of a couple of teabags will do!

You can buy tea masala in most good Indian grocers, I have found one place online, or you could try making it yourself. It is a mix of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, ground ginger and nutmeg - this recipe is pretty good.

I made this last weekend with the lovely Miss Sue Flay, who was very keen to learn how to make proper masala chai. We served it in a teapot with dainty little tea cups, but masala chai is equally at home in a big mug, or the traditional way - in a tall glass. We indulged in a yummy baked mocha alaska and rich chocolate truffles made by Miss Sue Flay.

Masala Chai
makes 3 tea cups or 2 mugs

You need:
Medium sized saucepan
Strainer
Teapot (optional, you can serve straight from the pan)

2 tea cups full of cold water
2 tablespoons of black tea
2 teaspoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of chai masala
1/2 tea cup full of semi skimmed or whole milk

Add the water, tea, sugar and chai masala to the pan. Bring to the boil on a high heat. Once the tea is boiling vigorously, after about 5 minutes, add in your milk. Turn the heat down slightly and wait for it to boil again, be careful at this stage as it can boil over the side of the pan really quickly! When the milk boils to the top (about 2-3 minutes), remove from the heat, strain into your cup - or leave unstrained and serve in a teapot.

Sometimes you'll get a skin on your tea as the tea cools, just remove this with a spoon and it is ready to drink.

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India

Well, I'm back from what was probably the trip of a lifetime. Before going I was excited but also nervous, having never been to India before, or even a 'non Western' country before either. India was many things, crazy, hot, interesting, funny and fun , beautiful, varied, dusty and just plain full on. And of course the food was great.

Unlike most of my holidays this was not totally centered around the food - I didn't have any places jotted down in a notebook that I had researched online - I left it up to my parents and whatever and wherever we happened upon on the day. It was quite nice to go with the flow.

We spent 3 days in the crowded city of Mumbai - visiting the sights, taking tea at the famous Taj Mahal Hotel, shopping in the super sleek malls and also the higgeldy piggeldy street markets. The pollution and the crowds were hard to handle and crossing the road is plain terrifying.

Our hotel did brilliant breakfasts - things like Idli Sambar (above) and Batata Vada for breakfast along with big bowls of juicy papaya and super fresh watermelon juice to wash it all down. We ate mostly in the hotel restaurant - paneer in buttery spicy sauces, tandoori naan breads - crispy and soft all at once, black dahl and vegetable koftas.

After that we left for Navsari in Gujarat, which is where my extended family live. There was plenty of visiting family but we also did a lot of shopping in the many sari shops and jewellery shops. Here we ate with our family - lots of vegetarian food - plenty of dahl bhatt, kadhi and vegetable rice and 'curry' made with the freshest vegetables. Everyone in the smaller towns shop one meal at at time in the local market, getting their vegetables in the afternoon and cooking them a few hours later in the evening. As much as I appreciate the convenience of a supermarket for people like me who work all day, it is nice to see people eating food that is fresh and local.

We were also introduced to the concept of Chinese Bhel Puri (crispy fried noodles, little spring onion and soy koftas with crunchy vegetables) and Manchurian Paneer at a local hotel restaurant - Chinese food is really popular in India and something I want to recreate soon. Breakfast was always a masala chai, sometimes with some toast and sometimes with some fruit, normally a 'chiku' which is a soft sort of fibrous sweet fruit- very hard to describe how it tastes. I didn't like most of the fruit in India, the textures are so different compared to what we are used to over here - but I did like the little chikus we bought.

Kulfi is a big thing in India, ice cream basically, and there are lots of flavours in the ice cream shops in you find in India. We stopped in once place in Navsari - the flavours above are pistachio mango and at the back Paan Masala - which is the flavour of the tobacco filled leaves that people chew after a meal. At the back is the famous milky drink, Faluda - made with mango. 

After 5 days in the small town of Navsari we left to travel the rest of Gujarat and the north of India. We visited Virpur, Somnath and then down to the beach at Diu. This took a couple of days just in one state, India is such a huge country, it is mind boggling. Diu was a nice relaxed beach resort, I remember we had a great spinach chicken dish in the hotel restaurant.

After this we left to go further north into Rajasthan - we stopped a night at Udaipur in a beautiful hotel made mainly out of marble.

Then onto Jaipur - the pink city - which was my favourite city of the visit. We visited the Amber Fort up in the hills - built for Raja Man Singh in the 1600s - it is high up in the mountains above Jaipur (the view from the top is the photo above). The views are amazing and the place itself is awesome, I can't think about how they built such an impressive place in that time period in that location. The pink part of the city is beautiful, the vegetable dye is so vibrant and they still use the same methods to this day to preserve the pink city. Jaipur is famous for its textiles, we visited several textile shops and I bought a lovely quilt to take home with me. Food highlights were less impressive than the rest of the holiday- we ate in KFC eating curry crunch chicken!

Next we went onto Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. All the things that can be said have been said about the Taj Mahal - it is truly a beautiful building and so well preserved, our guide told us the story behind it and I've heard it many times but it is still a great story. Oh and the bit about the King cutting off the hands of the builders is a myth, he didn't do that.

After Agra we headed to Delhi for a whistlestop tour of the city. We visited the recently built Akshardan Mandir - a Swaminaryan temple made from marble, completed in 2005. Then we drove around the city and saw India Gate, the parliament buildings. We visited the house Gandhi stayed in and where he was assasinated, along with Rajghat park which is where the memorials for Mahatma Gandi, Indira Gandhi and Rajhiv Gandi are.

After Delhi we started on the long journey back to Navsari, stopping in Jaipur over night. This is when you really realise how big the country is, it takes about 6 hours to get from Delhi to Jaipur and then another 15 hours from Jaipur to Navsari again. Crazy. We were tired.

Our last few days were spent in Navsari staying in a swanky hotel which did excellent breakfasts. My favourite was the Poori Bhaji which is potato curry with big crispy pooris. I had this on the day that the cold I'd caught (I know) was at its worse and it totally fed my cold like a boss. This is on my 'to cook' list too. Parathas also featured at breakfast time, and also good old toast for when we needed something plain to break up all the spice. We had more family meals too.

Overall the trip was great, it was tiring and I felt a long way from home at times but it was also a brilliant experience. I want to recreate so many of the meals we ate over there - I've already made Dum Aloo and Pav Bhaji which I'll be posting on here soon, along with making the effort to make rotlis more often than I normally do too. The colours, saris, silks and designs in India are giving me lots of jewellery inspiration too.

I've got lots more pictures on my Flickr stream, not just food ones too!

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Gujarati Recipe Series - Essential Spices

Any good Indian cook will have a 'dabba' (tin) of spices essential for making pretty much any curry from their region. My Mum gave me this tin when I moved out of home to go to university - unfortunately I wasn't a very good cook then (to put it kindly) so it didn't get used until years later when I got interested in cooking.

These are the spices that are used most often, there are also some others which you'll find in other tins - things like a few cloves, asafodeita, dried chillies, ground cumin instead of cumin seed. Black mustard seeds are one of my favourite ingredients and I use it in things other than Indian cooking, they are quite different to yellow mustard seeds, if your supermarket doesn't have them try your local Asian grocer or health food shop.

If you want to buy your own tin you can also find them in Asian grocers or have a snoop on ebay, there are lots on there! Once you've got all your spices, remember to replenish them every few months otherwise they tend to go stale and lose their punch.

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Gujarati Recipe Series - Handvo, Savoury Cake

This post marks the first in my series of Gujarati recipes! This is something I've been meaning to start for a long time and I have been encouraged by many of my twitter followers to do so too. I think it is pretty fitting to start off with a cake, but this time a savoury, spicy vegetable cake.

Handvo, or Andvo, is made from chickpea and semolina flour with carrots, peas, onion and sweetcorn, chili and ginger inside with a crispy top with mustard seeds on top. We always used to eat this on Saturday nights, with other snacky food like samosas - although it is a pretty filling meal in its own right.

Handvo
Makes one 18 x 6 cm dish (though will work in slightly bigger or smaller dishes)
You need to start this the day before you want to eat it. 
My cups are American cups, teacups also work well.

Part 1 - the day before
Ingredients
1 cup of coarse semolina flour
1 cup of chickpea (gram) flour
1 tsp of grated fresh ginger
1 - 2 green chillies (to taste)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cup of natural yoghurt (my Mum said the cheaper the better as you want a nice tangy yoghurt!)
2 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil
warm water - about 1/2 - 1 cup

Mix together all the ingredients except the water, add the water gradually to loosen the mixture til it is the texture of cake batter. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight (or up to 24 hours) when you want to use it remove from the fridge and bring to room temperature.

Part 2 - the next day
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder 
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbsp of frozen peas
2 tbsp of frozen or fresh sweetcorn
1 medium carrot, finely diced

Add all of the vegetables to the 'cake' mixture plus the baking powder, stir briefly (don't overwork the mix) to combine. Preheat your oven to 180c / gas mark 4. Grease and line your dish and pour in the mixture.

Mustard Topping
1 tsp of black mustard seeds (the yellow ones don't really work as well, try your local asian grocer or health food shop for black mustard seeds)
3 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil

With your mixture ready in your dish and your oven heated up. Heat the oil in a high sided saucepan on a med/high hob. Put in the mustard seeds and quickly cover the saucepan with a lid. Allow the mustard seeds to pop for about 30 seconds. Turn off and remove from the heat and allow it to cool for about 1 minute. Then pour the oil and mustard seed mixture over the cake mixture in the dish.

Bake for 45 mins - 1 hour in your preheated oven. You want the top to be quite brown, possibly looking a little overdone (I erred on the side of caution here so mine is a bit paler than it should be). 

Handvo is supposed to be served hot so slice up as soon as it comes out of the oven, it is best served with a dollop of good old tomato ketchup! It is also great cold the next day

Am hoping to return soon with more Gujarati recipes, I've got lots of things I'd like to make next. I hope you might make this, its a great recipe to try if you like baking cakes.

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