Gluten Free Roti Dough
Gluten free roti (Chapati) Dough
Makes one portion sufficient for 6 rotis or 6 paranthas
Preparation time: 5 minutes. Resting time: 15 minutes
Suitable for: Vegetarians Vegans (use a vegetable oil instead of ghee or butter in the recipe) and those on a gluten free diet.
Ingredients:
200g gluten free chapati flour (I use Eurostar Food Gluten Free flour)
1 tablespoon of plant based milk
40 - 60ml water (more if necessary)
Method:
Add the milk to the flour in a bowl and mix until combined
Pour a small amount of water to the flour at a time to form a pliable dough.
Knead for a few minutes until the dough feels smooth, dipping your fingers in the water to add additional water if needed.
Cover the bowl with cling film and allow it to rest for 15 minutes or so.
Use as required.
Roti (Chapati) Dough
Makes one portion sufficient for 6 - 7 rotis; 6 - 8 aloo paranthas
Preparation time: 5 minutes. Resting time: 15 minutes
Suitable for: Vegetarians Vegans (use a vegetable oil instead of ghee or butter in the recipe)
Ingredients:
200g chapati flour (I use white or medium chapati flour. Wholemeal chapati flour is also available)
1 tablespoon milk, optional
100 ml water
Method:
Add the milk, if using, to the flour in a bowl and mix until combined
Pour a small amount of water to the flour at a time to form a pliable dough.
Knead for a few minutes until the dough feels smooth, dipping your fingers in the water to add additional water if needed.
Cover the bowl with cling film and allow it to rest for 15 minutes or so.
Use as required.
Batter for Vegetable Fritters
Makes 20
Preparation time: 15 minutes.
Suitable for: Vegetarians, Vegans and those on a gluten free diet
Ingredients:
150g gram flour
150ml cold water
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 green chillies, chopped finely
1½ level teaspoons of salt
¼ teaspoon of turmeric
¼ teaspoon of garam masala
1 finely sliced spring onion, including the green parts (optional)
½ teaspoon amchoor (dried mango powder) or 2 teaspoons lemon/lime, optional
Method:
Batter:
Sieve the gram flour into a bowl
Add the water and whisk to form a smooth thick batter
Add the garlic, chillies, turmeric, salt and garam masala and mix thoroughly.
Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
Paneer
Makes 340g
Preparation time: 20 minutes Draining/Weighing Down Time: 50 minutes
Suitable for: Vegetarians and those on a Gluten-Free diet
Use to make such dishes as Saag Paneer, Mutter Paneer, Ras Malai, Paneer Pakoras, Chutney ‘Sandwich’ Paneer Pakoras, Ras Malai
NB: Paneer cubes for the curries and paneer pakoras should be roughly 15 - 20mm thick (height) but they should be about 30mm thick for the sandwich pakoras to allow for slicing in half horizontally to form the sandwich.
Ingredients:
2 litres of whole milk (I use organic whole milk)
3½ tablespoons of lemon juice (1 lemon) OR ½ teaspoon of citric acid
Method:
Rinse a heavy based saucepan with water to prevent the milk solids from sticking to the bottom
Pour the milk into the pan and bring to the boil on fairly high heat
Turn off the heat the as soon as the milk begins to reach boiling point otherwise it will boil over.
Add the lemon juice and stir continuously until the curd separates from the whey
Turn the heat back on onto a slow/medium setting and allow to come just up to boiling point.
Turn off heat and drain the contents through a metal sieve over a large bowl - the whey can be used for making cakes, biscuits or discarded
Rinse the curd with cold water.
Leave the curd in the sieve over the bowl for 20 minutes to drain off any excess whey/water.
Transfer the drained curd into a bowl and knead for a couple of minutes until it forms a thick cream like texture
Spread a piece of linen over a dry clean chopping board. Form a soft rough ball with the kneaded curd.
Place in the centre of the linen, flatten to about 15cm in diameter.
Wrap the linen around this flattened curd.
Place the linen wrapped curd in the centre of a clean absorbent tea towel and wrap the tea towel around the linen containing the curd.
Place a heavy weight over the wrapped curd - these could be tins of pulses, tins of tomatoes in a flat bottomed pan.
Leave to let the excess whey drain out of the curd for half an hour.
Unwrap the paneer and use as desired.
Tarka (Main Curry Base)
This yummy base is essential to most of my curry recipes.
Video: Ale Armijos
Serves: variable - dependant upon each recipe
Preparation time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 30 minute.
Suitable for: Vegetarians, vegans (use vegetable oil instead of ghee/butter) and those on a gluten free diet
It is important to take the time to make the Tarka. The Tarka is at the heart of all the curries on this website.
Quantities of each ingredient may differ depending on the curry of choice and in some curries, some ingredients may be omitted and others added.
See each individual recipe for variations to these ingredients.
Ingredients:
Photos: Ale Armijos
Vegetable oil, ghee or butter depending on recipe
Cumin seeds
Whole cloves
Onion(s)
Tinned chopped tomatoes or fresh tomatoes skinned and chopped roughly
Chillies (green finger), chopped finely
Salt
Haldi (turmeric)
Garam masala
Garlic, crushed
Fresh ginger, peeled and grated finely
Method:
Heat the oil (butter or ghee) on medium heat until fairly hot (be careful with butter/ghee as these have lower smoking points). Add the cumin seeds and cloves and stir until they splutter (virtually immediately)
Turn the heat down to low/medium, add the onions and fry gently stirring occasionally until they soften.
Add the tomatoes, salt, turmeric, chillies, garlic, ginger stir. Continue to cook gently, ‘mashing’ the tomatoes until a paste like consistency forms. I use a potato masher.
Add the garam masala, stir and cook for a further minute or so or until oil oozes out of the paste when a wooden spoon is dragged along the base of the pan and there you have it, that all important base for all North Central Indian curries...