These kebabs are made with thick, creamy yogurt that’s been hung for 24 hours, paneer, fresh mint, coriander, ginger and chilli – hardly health food but when a lettuce-wrapped kebab with crunchy veggies and sweet onion sauce tastes this fresh, you won’t care. I promise.

The Dhai Ke Kebabs themselves have a golden, crunchy exterior from a combination of breadcrumbs and semolina – the audible ‘crunch’ when you bite into it is SO satisfying. The inside is soft, surprisingly light and lemony with the freshness of mint, coriander and a touch of ginger. The delicate combo of flavours will dance on your palate as if you were partaking in a groom’s dhol procession at an Indian wedding, midsummer.

Inspired by the rich, spicy Mughlai feasts of kings and queens in Medieval India, this alternative take on Dhai Ke Kebabs is definitely a far cry from how they would have been eaten in ornate palaces. They would have probably made up part of a larger feast of biryani, slow-cooked curries laden with dried fruits and cream and fluffy tandoor-cooked bread – all served on a lavish dining table decked with the finest gold dinnerware.

Well I’m no Mughlai rani.

While the essence of indulgence remains with the Dhai Ke Kebabs, the rest of the dish is light, fresh, crunchy and colourful. Perfect for modern-day feasting and our busy lifestyles.

This is one of those dishes that was made for sharing. Crown your table with all the different components; Dhai Ke Kebabs, lettuce leaves, sliced carrots, cucumbers, sweet onion drizzle, toasted cashews, pomegranate, mint leaves, coriander and a few bottles of cold beer and you’re good to go. Assemble as you eat. That way, you can add more or less of whatever you like. The only problem you might have is fitting everything into the one lettuce wrap.

Word of advice… Eat with your hands – cutlery will only slow you down.

This is one of the most mouth watering dishes you can cook when you’re craving something fresh, inspired and just that little bit different from the usual veggie burgers or falafel.

Dhai Ke Kebab Lettuce Wraps with Sweet Onion Drizzle
Serves 6-8

For the Dhai Ke Kebabs:

350g hung yoghurt (try using Greek yoghurt, hung in a cheesecloth for 24 hours)
220g crumbled paneer
100g fresh breadcrumbs
4 fresh chillies, chopped finely
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
2 tbsp dry-roasted chickpeas, ground (daria)
1 tsp cracked black pepper
½ tsp ground coriander seeds
Juice ½ lemon
Salt to taste

For the kebab coating:
100ml milk
100g fresh breadcrumbs
30g coarse semolina

Oil to deep fry

To serve:
2 heads Cos lettuce, leaves separated
Pomegranate seeds
1 cucumber, sliced finely
4 carrots, sliced finely
Handful toasted cashews
Fresh coriander
Fresh mint

For the sweet onion drizzle:
180g brown sugar
80ml apple cider vinegar
1 red onion, chopped finely
2 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp sesame oil
2 red chillies
1 tsp English mustard
1 tsp ground fennel seeds
½ tsp salt
2 tsp cornflour dissolved in 2 tbsp cold water

Method

1. First, make the sweet onion drizzle. Combine all the ingredients except the fennel seeds and cornflour in a pan. Stir to combine and bring to the boil. Simmer, stirring often for 20 minutes until slightly thick and syrupy. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth. Return to the head and stir in the ground fennel seeds and cornflour. Stir until thick, adding a little bit of water if necessary. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. You should have a sticky-sweet and spicy sauce.

2. To make the kebabs, combine all the ingredients apart from the coating ingredients in a large bowl and combine. You should have a dough-like consistency. Knead it for a minute.

3. Make golf ball-sized balls and shape the kebabs as you wish – you can do little slider-type tikki shapes or longer kofta-style kebabs. I did both just to mix it up a bit. Place onto baking sheets.

4. Combine the breadcrumbs and semolina for the coating. Roll each kebab into the coating and arrange on the baking tray. Once you’ve done them all, briefly dip each one into a bowl of milk and back into the coating mix. This will ensure your coating is substantial for a crispy outside.

5. Arrange each one on a baking tray and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.

6. Fill a pan with enough oil to deep fry the kebabs. Heat to 160C. You could bake them with a spray of oil but they won’t be as crispy, evenly brown or delicious. Deep fry them – I promise you it’s worth it.

7. Remove the kebabs from the freezer and fry three or four at a time, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Overcrowding the pan will result in the temperature of the oil dropping. Nobody wants greasy kebabs.

8. Fry until golden all over. Drain the kebabs on a plate lined with kitchen paper. Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes. You could also freeze them for baking later.

9. Place all the filling ingredients on a platter and serve in the middle of the table, allowing everybody to dig in and build their own lettuce wraps.

Enjoy watching everyone fight over the Dhai Ke Kebabs.

Love Sanjana

The post Dhai Ke Kebab Lettuce Wraps with Sweet Onion Drizzle appeared first on Sanjana.Feasts.

With Indian street food vendors popping up all over the UK, selling everything from Kati Rolls to Pau Bhaji, and Masala Dosa to Samosas, we’re becoming accustomed to having delicious Indian street food on tap… and we want it fast. Not only that; but it better be damn perfect too. Believe it or not, but I’ve heard students in King’s Cross complain there’s far too much tadka on top of their dosa chutney and ajwain in their samosa pastry. We’ve become a nation of Indian street food connoisseurs and it’s bloody brilliant.

Re-creating street food classics like these Bombay Sandwiches at home is so simple. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s a sandwich. But not just any sandwich. Traditional Bombay sandwiches consist of two pieces of bread with slices of boiled potato, mint and coriander chutney, onions, cucumber and tomatoes on sliced white bread, I’ve taken it a step further by adding a slice of flavour-packed toast slathered in green pistachio chutney to the middle, grilled paneer (because why the hell not), sliced gherkins (because I can’t deal with warm cucumbers, sorry) and then griddled the whole thing. It’s quite a mouthful but I reckon that’s the beauty of it.

I’ve never met another Indian who hasn’t used up leftover potato curry in toasted sandwiches the next day – it’s a no brainer. I like to think of it as the ultimate ‘Dad meal’. Quick, easy and perfect with green chutney on the inside or for dipping on the outside. Of course, a slice of cheese is optional but for me, that isn’t even worth thinking about.

Trust me when I tell you this is three layers of awesome you don’t want to miss out on.

Best Ever Bombay Sandwiches
Makes 2 sandwiches

6 slices bloomer bread – whole wheat or white
2 large potatoes, boiled, peeled and sliced thinly
2 x 60g paneer slices, try to cut them wide
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
4 large pickled gherkins, thinly sliced
60g grated Cheddar
1 large avocado, sliced (optional)
Melted butter, for brushing the outsides of the bread

For the Coriander, Mint and Pistachio Chutney:

100g coriander
30g mint
2 small green chillies
6 shelled, unsalted pistachios
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
½ tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
50ml groundnut oil

Method

1. Blitz all the ingredients for the chutney in a blender until smooth. Add a drop of water if necessary. The chutney should be the consistency of pesto.

2. Toast two slices of bread. Griddle the paneer on both sides.

3. Butter the outside of the bread and place buttered-side-down on a cold griddle. Spread some of the chutney on the top, lay over potato slices, red onions, tomatoes gherkins and a little bit of Cheddar.

4. Spread green chutney over both sides of one of the slices of toast. Place on top of your sandwich and repeat the layering process, this time adding the paneer. Take the final bread slice and spread green chutney on the inside and place chutney-side-down on the sandwich. Butter the outside of the top slice.

5. Repeat to make the other sandwich.

6. Griddle on both sides until golden, about 5 minutes.

Serve with crisps or masala chips, chai, limeade or beer and prepare to take the biggest bite of your life.

Love Sanjana

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The Mr isn’t a fan of desserts. I’ll often spend hours in the kitchen trying to perfect eggless and vegan cakes, cheesecakes, cookies and brownies. Yet no matter how happy I am with how one might have turned out (which, I’ll be honest, doesn’t happen often), he still won’t touch it. Unless it’s mint chocolate.

I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like ice cream. That changed when I met my husband. I’ll be honest, I thought it was super weird. The one exception to his no-ice-cream rule is mint chocolate, it has to be totally frozen (soft serve is never an option), topped with strawberry syrup and hazelnuts.

Just. So. Weird.

So here I am. It’s Valentine’s Day – which for the record, I think is a load of old bollocks. We don’t do presents and ridiculous extravagant gestures – we never have and never will. However, it isn’t very often he doesn’t work weekends so when we get the chance to spend time together, we make the most of it. Why do people need to ‘prove’ to the world they love each other on one day of the year? Usually it’s for the benefit of their Facebook ‘friends’. People should treat their other halves with love and kindness every day. Full stop.

Okay, that’s my little rant over.

This is one of those weekends where we’re both home so we decided to spend the day cooking. I love it when we do this.

Our ultimate menu of Paneer Butter Masala, Garlic and Coriander Naan, Gujarati Kachumbar and these Eggless Mint Chocolate Fondants and Fennel Seed Crème Fraîche is complete. The latter because it’s the only dessert he’ll eat.

I’ve been working on this recipe for a long time and now I’m finally ready to share it. The ingredients required are very different from a conventional chocolate fondant but the result is spectacular. A combination of things including baking powder, milk powder and cornflour work to do the job of eggs in my recipe. The batter recipe is perfect and provided you follow all the rules (because making chocolate fondants, a.k.a Moelleux au Chocolat ain’t a joke), they’ll be crisp on the outside and gooey in the middle.

Once baked for just 10 minutes, they need to be turned out and served immediately. If they’re not, they’ll carry on cooking and the middles will be light and fluffy rather than having the lava-like centre you really want.

Mr Patel, this one’s for you… but not because it’s Valentine’s Day.

Eggless Mint Chocolate Fondants & Fennel Seed Crème Fraîche
(serves 6)

Ingredients

200g sweetened condensed milk
100g sour cream
80g melted butter
200g melted mint chocolate (use one with at least 70% cocoa solids – I like Green & Blacks)
2 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp cornflour
5 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 bag Mint Aero Bubbles (these are great melters)

For the Fennel Seed Crème Fraîche:

200g crème fraîche
1 tsp toasted fennel seeds, ground

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

2. Grease 6 dariole moulds and place a disc of greaseproof paper in the base of each.

3. In a stand mixer, combine the sour cream, condensed milk, melted mint chocolate and melted butter until smooth and light.

4. Add in the milk powder and continue to whip until fluffy.

5. Next, add in the flour, cornflour, and baking powder.

6. Beat until just incorporated – do not overmix.

7. Fill the moulds to just under half way. Pop in two (or three) Mint Aero Bubbles and cover with more batter. The moulds should be filled ¾ of the way up. Repeat for the next 5.

8. Place all of the fondants on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes exactly.

9. Remove from the oven and immediately turn out onto a plate.

10. For the Fennel Seed Crème Fraîche, whip 200g Crème Fraîche with 1 tsp freshly-ground fennel seeds. Serve alongside the fondants for a lovely, fresh balance against the rich chocolate + a hint of spice.

The perfect way to round off any Indian meal.

Love Sanjana

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