Passport & Plate - Keralan dahl, aloo masala and chapatti
India | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Keralan coconut chutney
• 1 cup grated coconut
• 2 whole green chillies
• 4 shallots
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp salt
• Thumb-sized piece mango ginger
• Pinch of curry leaves
Malayalam dahl
• 1 cup chana dahl
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and whole
• 2 green chillies, halved lengthways
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Pinch turmeric
Aloo masala
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 4 sliced shallots
• Small handful of curry leaves
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• Thumb-sized piece ginger, sliced
• Pinch turmeric
• 2 large baking potatoes, boiled, peeled and chopped into cubes
• 3 tomatoes, chopped (optional)
Chapattis
• 2 cups wheat flour
• Salt to taste
To serve: lime pickle, curry leaves, dried red chillies
How to prepare this recipe• Begin by making the dahl. Put all ingredients into a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour (to be finished off just before serving).
• Prepare the coconut chutney by blending all the ingredients together in a blender.
• Make your chapatti dough by mixing the flour with enough water to combine into a soft dough. Roll out into small circles (around 15cm in diameter).
• For the aloo masala, heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan. When it’s hot, add the mustard seeds and fry until they begin to crackle. At this point add the cumin seeds, shortly followed by the onion and curry leaves.
• Fry together for five minutes until the onion is soft, then add the chillies and ginger. Heat until soft, then add turmeric.
• Finish by adding the potatoes, crushing them gently with the back of a wooden spoon. Blend with spices and add tomatoes if using them. Heat through for several minutes until the potatoes are well-coated with the masala (add a splash of water if they stick to the base of the pan).
• Meanwhile, heat a separate frying pan on a medium flame and add a teaspoon of ghee. When it’s hot, fry the chapattis one by one, turning them once after a couple of minutes when bubbles start to appear on the surface. Add extra ghee when the pan gets dry.
• To finish off the dahl and chutney, quickly heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a frying pan. Add a handful of curry leaves, a pinch of salt, a generous teaspoon of mustard seeds and two dried red chillies (snapped in half). Fry for about 30 seconds until fragrant and stir into the dahl and chutney.
The story behind this recipeThe train from Mumbai markedly slowed its pace as it approached Kerala, where life is decidedly calmer. Even the chai is milkier, milder, less abrupt on the tongue. India’s tea varies regionally and I’d come to read it as a metaphor for each new destination, sampling a steaming, spiced cup at each dusty bus stop and chaotic rail station.
In Kochi I fell totally, hopelessly, in love. Not with a man, or India itself (that had happened in Delhi over my first 50-rupee roadside thali) – but with Keralan parotta bread. I gorged unreservedly on this half-pancake, half-flatbread of layered, stretchy dough, fried on a sizzling hot plate and dipped in breakfast sambar.
Then I discovered the masala dosa and again my world was turned upside down. South India was nourishing my soul as it was awakening my tastebuds to new realms of flavour. Each day, as I sat down to eat in neon-lit canteens all over Kochi, my heartstrings grew more attached to the culinary core that entwines each disparate limb of this nation in transition. I couldn’t bear to leave India without first seeking out its beating gastronomic heart. And so I found myself welcomed into a family home in Ernakulam, and taught the art of preparing a traditional meal.
I squeezed into the stainless-steel kitchen, prickling with perspiration from the heat, my nostrils filling with the heady scents of fresh curry leaves and ground spices. My host spent a morning confiding in me her most personal secrets: those of countless generations of women that had cooked up the sustenance and soul of family life before her.
We made masala dosa, dahl, chapattis and chutneys, whilst her pet puppy bounded around our ankles (I later learnt that he was completely deaf and felt mildly silly for having cooed over him unwittingly for four hours). Within a week I had left India, and the first thing I did on my return was cook this very meal for my own family – reunited over age-old recipes that have nourished south Indian families for centuries.
