Masala Dosa with Coconut Chutney

A few years ago I fell in love with dosa, a superthin crispy shell filled with spiced deliciousness.....

But I never even dreamt of attempting it. 

Then I saw Simon on The Cook and the Chef create the amazing Masala Dosa and before we knew it the ingredients were on my shopping list.

It is not a recipe for the faint hearted as it is essentially three days prior soaking rice and urid dal then blending and fermenting, then repeating the process.

The filling though is easy, precook some potatoes and lentils.

Bring your mustard seeds to a pop.

Add sliced onions.

Then add ginger, chilli, tamarind, turmeric and curry leaves.

Followed by your potatoes and lentils.

Fry with a little water for about fifteen minutes, then season with garam masala and salt.

Now this is the tricky bit, add a little of the rice/urid dal batter to a pan and spread out with the base of the ladle.

Mine is too thick, it took a few attempts to even get this and it doesn't even compare to a true dosa! 

But flavour wise it was not too bad.

Once it is crispy, fill with your potato curry and serve.

Accompaniments are a must with dosa and this coconut chutney made from coconut (I used frozen), ginger, lemon juice and mint was so refreshing.

Overall we loved it but I think next time we'll go down the street and order it :)

The Best Barbecued Turkish Lamb Sandwich with Spiced Pumpkin

Recently I purchased this recipe book of Peter Evans who has worked with the Heart Foundation to bring us his favourite recipes.

So far I have cooked half a dozen recipes and I am very impressed. 

They are simple, tasty and healthy.

Please do consider adding this book to your collection.

Pumpkin is roasted and then mashed with caraway, cumin, garlic, chilli and lemon.

The lamb backstrap is lightly seasoned, we added a little sumac too, and cooked on a hot barbecue.

Toast some delicious fresh turkish bread.

Slice up your lamb.

Tempt the dog with the best meat you have ever tasted.

And assemble your sandwich with natural yoghurt, grated carrot, fresh mint and rocket leaves.

It was seriously good, we savoured every bite.

Perfect for longer daylight, warmer weather and dinners enjoyed outside.

Butter Chicken with Okra

Recently I discovered this recipe on Dani Venn's blog for Indian Butter Chicken. 

With its promise of authenticity, as the recipe was learnt in India I knew I had to try it.

The chicken is marinated with garlic, ginger, chilli and lemon juice for a couple of hours.

A paste is prepared by cooking cashews, water, milk and red onion and then pureed.

The sauce begins with cooking the whole spices, then adding fresh ripe tomatoes, water and ground spices.

I decided to add some okra to my curry, so I sliced it up and added to the sauce until tender.

I then picked out all the okra and whole spices (yes a little tedious!) and blended the sauce until smooth.

Meanwhile the marinade is drained off the chicken, and yoghurt, more ginger and garlic, and other spices added to coat the chicken.

Cook the chicken on the bbq to intensify the flavours (traditionally a tandoor is used).

The sauce goes back in the pan with some extra spices and combine some (or in my case all - it tasted so good) of the cashew puree.

The chicken and okra are then added to the sauce, along with salt, crushed fenugreek leaves and honey.

It was amazing.

The sauce tasted beautifully spiced, the okra was melt in your mouth tender, and the charred chicken was just perfect.

(There were plenty of jealous tastebuds whilst enjoying the leftovers at work the next day).

I will definitely be cooking this one again.

Zumbo honey comb-over

I finally decided to have a go at making one of Adriano Zumbo's creations.

As you flick through the pages of his book there are so many wacky, wonderful and delicious looking sweets.

I mainly chose this one because I had the ingredients (well most of them) and I do love honeycomb.

Really it is a straight forward cake, right? a cake rolled with buttercream covered in a glaze then topped with some honeycomb.

But as you make your way though the recipe it does get a bit more complicated. 

You start with the glaze which requires a 'neutral glaze' that you must prepare first.

It also requires ingredients such as gelatin leaves (I used powdered), pectin (I used jam setter - yes really) and liquid glucose (left it out).

Not surprisingly my glaze was not perfect, but it still tasted good.

The honey comb is poured into a shoe box to cool, seriously that is what Zumbo recommends!

A decent chunk is broken off, chopped finely and folded through the buttercream.

The buttercream also requires preparation of creme patisserie, and it contains almond meal which I found odd but actually it tasted great.

I loved the spiced cake which was made mainly of honey that is whipped with butter.

It is coated with coconut then rolled up with the delicious buttercream.

The glaze is then poured over the cake and decorated with honeycomb.

The aroma of this honey cake was heavenly, and it tasted beautiful, very sweet.

The best part - sharing it with friends under fairy lights.

Princess Merida Disney Brave Cake (Lemon White Chocolate Mud with Raspberries, Fluffy Frosting and Lemon filled Macarons)

I know I've shared in the past how much I love the blogging community but I just wanted to say it again. You all inspire me so much and this cake is a reflection of this. 

So a special thank you to Angie Lives to Eat for the idea of a lemon chocolate mud cake, and to One Bite More for the suggestion of fluffy meringue frosting.

I really wanted to make this cake delicious as well as beautiful enough for my daughter to love it, and I managed to do both!

So it all began with macaron baking. As always my batches were varied some perfect, some not so perfect!

I baked 6 layers of white chocolate mud cake made with a good amount of lemon juice and lemon zest, then topped with a few frozen raspberries.

The macarons were filled with a lemon classic egg yolk buttercream.

How cute were my teeny weeny ones!

I layered the cakes with a raspberry white chocolate butter icing then cut the cake to shape.

The fluffy meringue frosting then covered her up.

The macarons which had firmed up in the fridge were then attached.

We had a beautiful day for Miss Evie's birthday in the park.

And the cake went down a treat.