Week 6: Fenori (Savoury)

I struggled to find an aamchi dish with the letter F. The English version of Rasachandrika has fritters of various kinds as dishes, but in aamchi those are in all probability called something else. Plus, I wanted to try something different! So, the 'Fenori' has made an entry. Okay, technically speaking, it is spelt 'Phenori', but in Devanagiri script 'Ph' could pass as an 'F' in pronunciation (with apologies to all the language experts), and so I guess I could just about get away with calling it an "F" dish !

Fenori/Phenori is a multi-layered, flaky, crisp and crunchy pastry. It can be made savoury or sweet. The sweet version is fried (usually in ghee) and then either dipped in sugar syrup, or dusted with powdered sugar, or both! Much as I have a sweet tooth, I was more tempted by the savoury version - I'm always on the lookout for more 'anytime' snacks. The savoury version can be fried in oil, and not in ghee.

Although I do not recall the mention of fenoris as a child, on devouring those that I did make, I was taken back to my childhood in Kenya, where I spent eight years! They tasted very similar to the Gujarati 'farsi puri' - that I had plenty of whilst there.

While reading online, it seems the fenori is used interchangeably with "chiroti" in some cuisines but in the Rasachandrika "Chirote or Lakhote" is a completely separate dish. The difference seems to be the texture and number of layers.

I have to say I was quite daunted by the nine steps of making fenoris when I first read the recipe in the Rasachandrika, unlike the usual 3-5 steps for most other recipes. I also wondered how I would get the neat layers and round shape. However, now having made them, it really isn't that difficult quite fun to make. Mine turned out quite crisp and round-ish (I'm still working on that!). To start with, I halved the ingredients and so ended up with about 12 fenoris, but they disappeared within an hour, which goes to show they were a success! Some were slightly overdone, and I need to be work on my frying skills, but they were tasty nonetheless.

Ingredients

1.5 cups flour

3 tbsps coconut oil (Use ghee if not doing a vegan recipe)

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp rice flour

1 tsp turmeric powder or haldi

2 tsp red chilli powder (depends on how spicy you want it)

1 tsp cumin/jeera powder

1 tsp salt

Method

1. Make a dough with the flour, 2 tbsp coconut oil, chilli powder, turmeric/haldi powder, cumin/jeera powder, water and salt. Note: The Rasachandrika makes no mention of using water here but clearly you need water to make the dough. The trick is to first mix the salt, red chilli powder, jeera powder, and turmeric with the flour, and then rub the oil into the flour to resemble bread crumbs (such that the flour is well coated with it). Then gradually add small amounts of water to bring it all together into a dough. If you don't rub the oil into the flour, or/and too much water at once it will result in a chapati-like dough, and the fenoris will not come out crisp. Once the dough is brought together, you need some patience to knead and pound it to make it pliable. Lightly oiling your palms will help with that. Luckily, I had made some pizza dough the day before and so had plenty of practice!

2. Divide the dough into 12 equal balls. Roll these into chapati like round shapes.

3. Make a little mixture with 1 tbsp coconut oil and the rice flour. Take a chapati and smear it with a little of the oil and rice flour mixture. Place a second chapati on the first one but a little lower. Now smear the second one with the mixture, and place the third chapati, again a little lower than the second one. Arrange all the 12 chapatis like this. Press down firmly to ensure all fit tightly.

4. Starting with the last chapati, roll them all upwards into a tight roll and tuck in the edges at the two sides inwards.

5. Cut the roll into thin slices.

6. Roll each piece into a thick puri.

7. Deep fry the puris in oil on a medium fire, until crisp and golden brown.

That is it! A perfect tea time snack and needs no accompaniment!

Note: If you haven't got ready made rice flour, just grind some rice in a mixer grinder into a fine powder. But, don't be clumsy like me and drop the mixer jar. so that all of it falls on the floor! Thankfully I had taken some out to display my ingredients and was able to use that (Don't worry, I didn't use the flour from the floor!). It was a good lesson for me - not to overcrowd my kitchen worktop, and to keep the lid of the mixer jar tightly shut.

Week 5: Eriyappe

One of the particularly exciting features of this challenge is that I am getting to learn about Aamchi dishes I have previously never come across (I know, my loss!). Eriyappe is one such dish. I've neither heard of it, nor seem to remember tasting it. This alphabetical culinary search has definitely been interesting, and what makes it better is that my 87 year young grandmother in Pune has now started following my blog! I need to now up my game!

So, on to the letter 'E'. Eriyappes are part of the 'Appe' family (who would have thought?). In appearance, they look somewhat like a cross between a sweetish dumpling and a 'pollo' (look up my recipe for Doddak to revisit what this is!). In taste, they resembled a mini, puffed up 'Surnoli' (a type of Aamchi pancake), which featured recently on the second session of our Thoy Stories series on instagram. The batter needs no fermentation, which is an added bonus over Surnolis.

But, here's the limitation of Eriyappes (or any appes for that matter). You have to make them in a typical "appe kaaili" (as in 'Kylie'). In Aamchi, 'kaaili' is a half moon shaped cooking pan, also called 'kadhai' in Hindi). The appe kaaili is a dish that has multiple depressions in them for you to pour small amounts of the Appe batter. You then shallow fry the appes on both sides to a beautiful golden-brown colour, possibly imparted by the caramelising jaggery and yellow turmeric, and to a slight crispy texture. Did I just hear a worthy 'mmmmm'? I was making this vegan and so I used oat milk, but if you aren't vegan you could simply use regular milk. Also, according to Rasachandrika you can use a frying pan but I think this would take a much longer time and will be more tedious than the easy-cook appe kaili.

I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. My wife and in-laws relished them with white butter ("lonee") but they tasted really good even with pitti chutney - the savoury pitty chutney complementing nicely the sweetish appe!

The yellow dim lighting in our kitchen does not do justice to how these looked, as I only made these in the evening, but trust me, these looked and tasted great!

Ingredients (This made around 21 eriyappes)

1.5 cups of rice

1 cup jaggery (I used powedered jaggery)

1/2 cup of dessicated coconut

1/2 cups of rice flakes or poha (soaked)

1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp tumeric pwd

Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice for 4-5 hours in twice the amount of water.

2. Grind together the rice, soaked rice flakes, coconut (as I used desiccated coconut, this needs to be reconstituted with just a little hot water) and turmeric to a fine batter.

3. Add the jaggery, salt, and milk and beat the batter well to a fine paste like consistency.

4. Put the eriyappe kaaili/pan over low heat and grease each depression with 2-3 drops of coconut oil. Ours is a non-stick appe kaaili, and so doesn't need a lot of oil. If you do not use a non-stick pan, you will have to use more oil to prevent the appes from sticking to the pan.

5. Pour only small amounts of batter into each depression/hole to fill them up until just below the rim without the batter overflowing or spilling into the adjacent hole. While making the second lot I poured a little too much into one of the holes and then the batter overflowed - it was a little messy trying to separate and flip the conjoined appes. 6. Put a lid on the pan to shallow fry the eriyappes to a golden brown colour and crisp texture on one side. (Note: you will know the appe is cooked when the runny batter like texture begins to turn opaque from translucent, and the appes easily wiggle out of the depressions). When one side is cooked such, flip the appes to cook the other side - this time you do not need to cover the dish with a lid.

6. Definitely serve them hot - with white butter or pitti chutney!

Week 4: Doddak

An integral part of my childhood memories, Doddaks are one of my favourite Aamchi breakfast dishes. A type of "pollo" (not to be confused with the Spanish word for 'Chicken') or pancake, doddaks are quite advantageous for a novice chef like me. Firstly, they can be made instantly with a simple batter of semolina and require no fermentation. Secondly, and this is important - doddaks don't have to be round, phew, which is an art I really struggle with.

Doddaks also use coconut, and cucumber. That said, I have made mine with courgettes, given their abundance in the UK. I have also used A LOT of coriander (did I mention yet that I love fresh coriander?). Green chillies of course can be varied as per one's preference. Doddaks are so flavourful themselves, that there is really no need for a separate chutney to accompany it. I am told it is often and traditionally eaten with freshly churned white butter. I had mine with vegan butter, and it tasted equally nice! If you are really feeling adventurous, 'pitti chutney' (literally means powdered chutney) goes perfectly with this too.

Ingredients (This made 9 medium sized doddaks)

4 cups semolina/sooji (coarse, or fine)

1 cup grated coconut or desiccated coconut

3/4th courgette

1/2 bunch fresh coriander leaves

2 green chillies

1 tbsp all purpose flour

Salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

5-6 tsp oil

Method:

1. Wash and grate the courgette in a bowl. Squeeze water from the courgette, but retain the water. Microwave the courgette for 2 minutes until slightly cooked and soft. Leave it to cool.

2. Wash the chillies, and fresh coriander. Finely chop them both.

3. If you are using desiccated coconut, pour just enough warm water over it in a small bowl to soften it (this way it sort of reconstitutes into 'fresh coconut').

4. In the bowl with retained water from the courgette, add all the remaining ingredients other than the oil, and mix with your hand until it becomes a thick batter. Leave this covered for 30 minutes (although if you are in a real rush, you could also make your doddaks straight away).

5. Take a small bowl of water to dip your fingers in while making the doddaks, so that your hands don't stick to the batter (and you don't have to constantly wash your hands either!).

6. Heat a frying pan and apply a little bit of oil to grease it.

7. Using your moistened fingers take a handful of the batter and place it on the pan. Spread the doddak into a medium sized pancake. To avoid the batter on the pan sticking to your fingers, keep dipping them in the water bowl.

8. Cover the pan with a lid to cook the doddak. You will see the doddak changing from opaque to translucent. At this point, put half a teaspoon of oil in the middle and the sides and then flip it to cook the other side.

8. Serve the doddaks hot and with butter.