September Daring Cooks' Challenge

The September 2009 Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Debyi from The Healhy Vegan Kitchen. Her choice was the Indian Dosas from the refresh cookbook by Ruth Tal.

Requirements: Must be free of animal products, and also 99% oil free, using only what you need to keep the dosas from sticking.

Here is her adaptation of their recipe, my comments in red:

Indian Dosas

This recipe comes in 3 parts, the dosas, the filling and the sauce. It does take awhile to make, but the filling and sauce can be made ahead and frozen if need be.

Dosa Pancakes

1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)

½ tsp (2½ gm) salt½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder

½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder

½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)

¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water

cooking spray, if needed

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

It is virtually impossible to buy spelt flour here in Brasil. And it is a shame but GF flour is not that easy either. So I had to think of other ingredients I could use. After a research at the supermarket, I decided to try replacing spelt flour with Quinua or flax seed flour. my first attempt was with quinua. Although the dough and the pancakes looked very beautiful and easy to work with, it tasted unexpectedly bitter and disgusting.

The second try was with flax seed flour. Another kind of a disaster, but still a disaster. This time the dough tasted delicious but there were no way to fry it. Anytime I've tried to bring them to the heat, it sarted to bubble away, forming big holes on the batter.

A fellow member of DK, Audax Artifex, suggested I try a recipe of rice/ lentil dough but I found it a little bit complicated. Studing the subject, I found this recipe at an amazing book writen by a brasilian archaeologist. "Arqueologias Culinárias da India" by Fernanda Camargo-Moro. I think I could translate as Culinary Archaeology of India. It's just rice, Urad-dal, water and salt. Simple and easy. And tasty!

2 cups rice

1 cup urad-dal (lentil)

1/4 teaspoon brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Soak the rice and the urad-dal separately one night long. The next day, drain the water and blend them together with the salt and the brown sugar. Add water until you get something similar to pancakes dough.

I must confess I used ghee to fry my pancakes. It was far more tasteful this way. I've started using olive oil, but it is REALLY not the same thing!

Dosa Filling - Curried Garbanzo Filling

5 cloves garlic

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)

2 medium hot banana chilies, minced

2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground

1 TBSP (8gm) oregano

1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)

1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric

4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)

½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste
Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally. Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

As my daughters don't like anything hot, i've replaced hot banana chillies for those ones.
Besides that, I've changed nothing else. I've cooked the chick peas and processed it.

Dosa Toppings
1batch Coconut Curry Sauce
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut

¼ cucumber, sliced

Coconut Curry Sauce

This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though.
1 onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic

½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground

¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)

3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder

3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour) - this time flax seed flour worked succesfully

3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth

2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk

3 large tomatoes, diced
Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute. Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally. Let it simmer for half an hour.

I'd like to thank Debyi very much for this challenge. It teached me a lot of Indian and Vegan cuisines, let me try new tastes and train my skills.

Tomorrow, the Portuguese Version on Laboratório Gastronômico .