As far as baking is concerned I really enjoy making different types of breads. Pastry is a science I am learning, and cakes are something that remain rather foreign to me. I decided I should step up my bread making skills, so I foraged around my Asian recipes for something that might stretch me.
I chanced upon a recipe for stuffed Sri-Lankan Rotis in Rick Stein's excellent, "Far Eastern Odyssey". I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you enjoy all the cuisines of Southeast Asia, and are what I would deem an "intermediate or better" cook.
This particular affair involved grinding a customized spice blend, making roti dough and making the stuffing - so, 3 processes in all (not including the actual cooking episode).
As far as preperation time is concerned, this takes a good hour to an hour and a half to prep - but as usual I found Rick's guidance (almost) infallible. His ingredients did list 75 leeks, but I interpreted this as 75g of leeks!
After making the dough and the filling I set about portioning and parceling up these goodies. Here's what they looked like pre-cooking
The cooking process is fairly easy, and just requires you to dry-fry the parcels in a hot pan. They all need to be rotated, so each side gets cooked, and browned. It took about 30 minutes to cook them all.
I under-spiced them, as it was my intention to feed them to two unsuspecting 4 year olds. I also omitted the extra chilli flakes. In my opinion they turned out rather well, and we also had them for tea (with a hot mango pickle). They are the closest thing to an "Indian Cornish Pasty" I can imagine!
Both my partner and I loved them, but I have to confess the kids did not share our enthusiasm for these dainty little cubes. They liked the bread on the outside, which they peeled off in swathes with much gusto, but it was the filling which I think they found somewhat alien to their infant taste buds. How their opinion of curry will change in later life!
No comments:
Post a Comment