Achari Masala

So today I have decided to share with you the recipe of an Indian staple seasoning. This can be used across a variety of dishes and techniques and makes a fantastic marinade. Time to let you in on a little secret ;) there is a recipe coming up soon that will use this ‘masala’. It would be a perfect Sunday family meal. I guarantee! Also it is sure to be a change from the Sunday style roast and veggies the Western world is so accustomed to.

Some of these ingredients might be difficult to find in Ostrava/Czech (though not impossible)

If you are feeling lazy you can always call KROP and order yourself some of this homemade flavor bomb.

INGREDIENTS

Mustard seeds………………………………   2tbsp

Cumin seeds…………………………………  2tbsp

Nigella seeds (kalaunji)……………………   2tbsp

Fennel seeds………………………………    2tbsp

Fenugreek seeds………………………        2tsp

Carom seeds (ajwain)……………………    1tsp

Whole red chilies (dried)*………………       75gms

Dry mango powder (amchoor)…………     2tsp(optional)

This set of ingredients yields around 50 - 75 grams approximately depending on the chili we add.

METHOD-

Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned above with the exception of dried red chillies. You must roast them until the aroma of the spices is released. The red chillies must get dry roasted in a separate pan.

Let the roasted spices and chilies sit in a bowl (at this stage it is okay for them to rest together) until it comes down to room temperature.

Grind these roasted ingredients into a coarse or fine powder depending on your requirement. For instance, chunky bits of spice would be great when using this as a marinade for a bbq.

  

The spice mixture is ready to use across a variety of gravies, roasts and grills.

Store the unused spice powder in an airtight container.

*I used chili paprika and sladky (non spicy) chili in equal quantity.

You can adjust the quantity of each chili according to your desired spice level

Dosa:-)

Dear Friends,

After my last posting on chicken wings, I want to take you to a completely different and unique dish called Dosa. Its familiar and most liked food by any Indians in the universe irrespective of where he lives and from where his origin in India.
That is Dosas.... for you friends:-).

Its more or less like the pancakes my Czech friends make but with entirely different ingredients and taste.


It is a healthy food as its gluten free and moreover as the batter is fermented overnight it is probiotic, and as we add fenugreek seeds(pískavice řecké seno semena) in it, it is diabetic friendly too:-).



Its the staple breakfast in south Indian household apart from Idlis....Why only breakfast. We can have this at any part of the day. The name dosa tickles your taste buds and crave you to eat. You cannot wait till its prepared, and when you start eating you cannot stop. Its not an exaggeration!!!!!.

Usually its served with sambhar and chutney of your choice - coconut,onion and tomato, coriander and mint and so on.......

We can have a variety of dosas like masala dosas,cut dosas,cheese dosas,onion uttappam.......And the list is endless:-).



Basically it contains bolied or parboiled rice with normal long grain rice ,black lentils and about a tea spoon of fenugreek seeds.

We soak the rice and lentils with fenugreek seeds separately for a minimum of 5-6 hrs.
Then we grind the lentil and rice separately to a fine paste and mix it well by adding adequate salt.

Then we ferment the batter overnight.

The proportion for the dosa batter is

Parboiled or bolied rice                      - 3 cups
Sos long grain rice or normal rice      -1 cup
Skinned whole black lentils                -3/4 cup
Fenugreek seeds                                -1/2 tspn
Salt  as required

We use a special wet grinders with stones and this grinder will be there in almost all the south Indian house holds.I have one at my home in Ostrava too:-).

But never mind,you can always grind them in a  mixer.

And the batter after fermenting overnight will look like this:-).

The same batter can be used for preparing idlis too.

Now take a non stick pan and pour the batter in circle and apply little oil on the sides of the dosas and once its cooked remove it from the pan and serve it with chutney and sambar.

Here you go to understand how to spread the batter.

Bon appetit:-)