Channa masala - dairy free and delicious!

One of the main benefits of living in India was of course picking up top tips on how to make a good curry. Before we left for Bangalore, I had eaten channa masala from an English curry house, but it was buttery and the spices harsh. I've since realised that harsh spices are uncooked ones, and a good channa masala can be dairy free and gorgeous!
In case you're wondering, channa is my old favourite, chickpeas! Known a garbanzo beans in the US, this fabulous pulse is so worth incorporating into your diet wherever you can as they are incredible little nuggets of nutrition. For a start, they are a great source of protein, not complete as the essential amino acid histadine is missing, but when combined with wholegrain rice or flour pack a serious protein punch. On top of that, they have loads of fibre, so not only help to keep you full for long, but can aid in reducing cholesterol levels as well as promote a healthy gut.
Chickpeas are also a great source of folate, particularly important for women of child-bearing age, iron, phosphorous, zinc and manganese, which is essential for energy production in the body. They are low in fat but still have essential fatty acids and contain other nutritional necessities such as potassium, vitamin C, calcium and other B vitamins to name a few.
From a financial point of view, chickpeas are also pretty cheap, certainly as a protein source (much more affordable than meat!!).  Canned are more convenient than dried, although this convenience carries a cost; financially they are more, environmentally there's the can and nutritionally up to 45% of the folate is lost in the canning process. But then sometimes there's just not time to soak and cook, even with a pressure cooker at hand!!!
My channa masala recipe is not really traditional, as it contains more than just chickpeas, tomatoes and spices. As my family will always tell you, I like to add in some extra veg in everything, especially something green!!
So top tips for cooking this channa masala are:
* blend the onion, garlic and ginger into a puree before cooking - this gives a smooth sauce and reduces the amount of oil you need and reduces the chance of burning
* add the spices once the onion mix is cooked, stirring well for a minute to help them cook
* add the chickpeas near the end so they don't over cook - the flavour is in the sauce, not the pulses
* use your nose as well as your tongue to tell when the spices are cooked - the pungent, harsh aroma softens when cooked.
So that's about it - here's the recipe. The spice amounts are a guideline only - use less or more depending on how flavoursome you like your curry. Serve with brown basmati rice or wholemeal roti and enjoy!
Channa masala

1 onion roughly cut
3 cloves garlic
1-2 inch cube fresh ginger
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 chilli diced - red or green, its up to you
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt
2 carrots cut into small chunks
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400g tin chickpeas or 1 cup soaked and cooked
spinach or chard, chopped
Put the onion, garlic and ginger into a food processor and whizz until finely chopped/pureed. It becomes pretty smooth and watery. Then heat the oil or water in a pan and add the whole seeds, stirring occasionally. Once they start to pop, reduce the heat and add the onion mixture, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn. Cook for about five minutes until the fluid starts to reduce, then stir in the other ground spices and salt (I use about 1/2 teaspoon) and cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add the chilli and carrot, covering them with the mixture, then pour in the tinned tomatoes, mixing well, adding a little water to wash out the tin. Your mixture should be a thick stew, not too watery but not too dry. Once boiling, reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so. Taste to check the flavour and if the harshness has gone, add the chickpeas and cook for 5 minutes, then add the chard or spinach and cook for a couple of minutes more. The curry should now taste rich and delicious, so serve it up and enjoy!

Dal or lentil - it's a name thing

Before I came to India, I thought lentils were either red, puy and occasionally green, and that dal was a soupy kind of spicy dish. Then I went shopping in the local supermarket and discovered a whole array of "dal" with different names, some of those being the same product but hailing from a different part of India and called by the local name.

Just to make it even more confusing, whole lentils tend to be called "gram", a generic name for pulses, so includes chickpeas and other dried peas I hadn't come across before - cow pea and horse gram, both of which are really tasty (I have a great little easy cow pea dish I'll share with you soon). Once the pulse is split, and it's outer coating shed, the gram becomes a dal, or a lentil, in the right form for cooking dal. Confused? Me too!
I've worked out there are four main 'dals':
yellow dal, or yellow split peas as I knew them in the UK, or toor/tuvar dal in Hindi. This is split pigeon pea and used most commonly for your standard dal
mung dal which comes from the mung bean, a pale green lentil that has a real earthy look to it. Mung beans are a deep green when whole but paler and flecked with white when split
masoor dal, or red split lentils, the one I am most familiar with
urad dal, which comes from black gram, but is white when split. This is most common in South India and usually soaked and ground to make dosas and idlis, iconic breakfast items.
Whatever the name or colour, dals are really healthy, a tiny powerhouse of nutritious goodies, packed with protein, fibre, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and a whole array of B vitamins. Dal is made up of 20-30% protein, better than most meat products but without the saturated fat and cholesterol. It is not, however, a complete protein in the same way as meat. Pulses are low in the essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein) methionine and cysteine. So they should be eaten with another food which is high in these missing amino acids. Traditionally, dal is eaten with rice or some form of bread - chapati, roti etc. Whole rice and whole wheat are high in both methionine and cysteine, but low in lysine, another essential amino acid. Pulses just happen to be teaming with lysine and so dal and rice or chapati is the perfect dish!
Due to their high dietary fibre content, dal/lentils are very good for your bowels, but do have a reputation for creating rather a lot of wind - urad dal is the worst offender apparently, and mung the least and is often given to convalescents as it's easy on the digestion.  I always buy organic dals which are really widely available here, and only a few rupees more than the non-organic version.
The key to a good tasty dal is the tempering - the seeds and spices that are fried separately and then added at the end. If you want a low fat dish, go easy on the oil otherwise it will become loaded with fat. Ghee is often used for the tempering, which gives it a distinctive flavour but is pretty high in fat. Theoretically, ghee is non-dairy, but I'm not convinced so avoid using it at home. I've tried various different recipes since I've been in India, some more successful than others (dal and the pressure cooker just don't seem to work for me!). This is my favourite - big fat juicy tomatoes are the key to this dish!

Dal fry/Tarka Dal
1 cup of red split lentils, rinsed well and drained
1 finely chopped onion
2 x juicy tomatoes
1 -2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp tumeric
salt
oil
salt
(lemon juice)
For the tempering:
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1-2 dried red chilli or 1 fresh green chilli
2 inch piece ginger, julienned
pinch of hing (asafoetida)
handful curry leaves
fresh coriander for garnishing
First, heat the oil and fry the onion and salt for a few minutes then add the garlic and keep stirring until it's lightly brown. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Add the lentils and turmeric, heat through and add 3 cups (ish) of water - if you want a thicker dal, add less than 3. Cook on a low heat for 20-25 minutes until the lentils are soft and mushy. In a separate pan, heat a little more oil and add the cumin and mustard seeds. Once they start to pop, add all the other ingredients except the coriander and cook for a few minutes. Tip the tempering into the cooked lentils, mix together and simmer for a couple of minutes, adding a squeeze of lemon juice to help make the proteins more available, garnish with the coriander and serve with cooked brown rice or some whole wheat chapatis.

Cocoloco

I love coconut. My love affair with that wonderful deep, sweet flavour started with my first Bounty bar and has continued ever since. In the days when I consumed milk, I would always chose coconut ice cream or frappe, or anything coconut flavoured, unless strawberry was on offer. Living in South India is ideal for me as coconuts are everywhere! It's a key ingredient in local dishes, and of course it's dairy free.

Coconut, and coconut trees, have so many different uses. According to The Coconut Research Centre, about one third of the world's population rely on coconut to some extent for food or income. The insides of coconuts are used in cooking, for health and skincare, but the shell, leaves and wood from the tree all have different uses too. The compound I live in has a whole area dotted with trees which provide lovely shady areas and a batch of highly sought after nuts. Some even grow in peoples garden, which can actually be quite hazardous as if the nuts fall before they can be harvested, they will damage your roof and certainly your head if one lands on you. There are many internet claims that falling coconuts kill 10 times more people a year than sharks (150) but I don't think there are any solid statistics.

According to legend, coconuts, or coco nucifera, were given their name by 15^th century explorers. The brown fibrous outer shell with three indentations were said to remind them of a monkey’s face (coco). Nucifera means “milk bearing”.  The mature nut is protected by a dense fibrous husk, 2-3 cms thick, which can be quite challenging to open up. There are machines which will open your nut and remove the meat inside, but I prefer to use the unusual kitchen tools of hammer and screwdriver or smash them outside onto the paving - great stress remover!

In India, coconut is consumed at two different stages of maturity - tender coconuts, young green nuts that are sold by street vendors for the water inside, and the mature, brown husk covered nut that are more familiar in Western countries, often found on the coconut shy at a summer fete. It's the meat from the mature nut that is used to make coconut milk - the milk doesn't come from the fluid inside but the flesh, or meat, which is scraped out, ground and then strained to extract the white fluid. Due to its fat content, when put in the fridge, the milk separates with a thinner milk lying underneath and a top layer of cream. 
If you can't get your hands on a tin of coconut milk, or prefer to make your own fresh, it's really easy. All you need break open a coconut and remove the flesh with a sharp knife - a thin brown layer of husk will come out too but that's ok. Grind some of the meat - fill the grinder about half full. When all finely chopped up, add half a cup of warm water and grind again until the coconut is all mixed up with the water. Pass this through a fine sieve or muslin cloth (or fine weave tea towel) and squeeze out as much milk as you can. Put the fibre back into the grinder and add a bit more water and repeat the process, just to get as much milk out as possible. Once fully squeezed, discard the fibre - you could use it for a facial scrub I guess (not tried that out tho').

Coconut meat, and therefore the milk, does have quite a high fat content (27g per 100g), but it's a mixture of saturated, mono-unsaturated and omega 6 fatty acids. There is no cholesterol though, as this is only found in animal fats. Fat in coconut is in the form of medium chain fatty acids; these are easier to break down and can actually help reduce cholesterol levels. Lauric acid is the main fatty acid in the chain, a fantastic immune booster and an anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial agent.

Coconut meat is also great for the digestion as it’s high in fibre and can help reduce constipation, flatulence and stomach ulcers and can help stabilise blood sugar levels. It’s also a natural source of iodine and therefore can help support thyroid function as well as protect the body against cancer, osteoporosis and pancreatic disorders.

You can buy dried coconut milk powder but beware if you have a milk allergy as most of the brands I have seen also contain dried dairy milk. The freeze drying process would also knock out most of the nutritional benefits as well, so I would avoid those if at all possible. Wholefood and raw food diets advocate using fresh ground coconut as a fat or oil replacement as you can all the benefits, including the fibre, without needing to add extra oil. Try this South East Asian style salad and see what you think, although not if you have a peanut allergy!

Cucumber salad with peanuts and coconut (serves 4 big portions)
1 -2 cucumbers, depending where you live - one long English style or 2 shorter Indian style
3-4 tablespoons fresh grated coconut
3-4 tablespoons roasted peanuts (unsalted) crushed
juice 1/2 lime
salt to taste
finely chopped green chillis - depending on how hot you like it
dash of jaggery, or raw brown sugar
chopped fresh coriander
Mix all the ingredients except coriander together, adjusting the sugar, lime and salt to taste and garnish with the coriander.
Enjoy!