Topic: Cafe Spice Dhansak

[livo]

Where do I begin?  Thank you so much to Tempest63 for an outstanding contribution.  This is an astonishingly good meal.  Yes, its a lot of work but I managed to make it by myself in one afternoon after the initial preparation yesterday.  You really do need to try this.  Mrs L was packing a takeaway container for tomorrow's lunch before I even finished mine and that was after she had seconds.  When I tried to explain to her earlier in the afternoon what I was making, she was sceptical, but once on the table it was dig in.

Some notes before I post a few photos.  As always, I reduced chilli by 1/2 or more and I used my own dried Rajah chillis.  I cooked a half quantity of everything except the kebabs, which I did make in full quantity.  The amount of kebab in the recipe is balanced enough to the whole dish.  I would definitely up the Kachumber (onion tomato salad) by at least double or possibly more.  Mrs and I ate all of it but went nowhere near the rest of the dish.  In my opinion this dish, if prepared in full, with extra Kachumber, will easily feed 10 to 12 people.  I did make a Vegetable and Paneer Navratan Korma as well so this will stretch it out, but I'd recommend this anyway. The amount I cooked today would feed 6 easily.

I followed the recipe almost exactly but there were a few things to note.  I thought I would need to do the Wet Masala again after I really over cooked the spices, but it turned out just fine.  I was distracted and thought I'd burnt it, but it was ok. Borderline but I went with it anyway, so there is good leeway there.  I added a few extra spices to the Pilau Rice as I like Fennel Seed and Fenugreek Seed and my wifey likes Turmeric in everything so in they went.  About a tsp of each.  I used Golden Brown Basmati Rice which I'd washed and soaked for 2 hours before putting into the pan.

Anyway, the photos aren't great because I was reluctant to do presentation when it was only me an Mrs but here it is.  Delicious. I didn't photograph the salad because it's a salad.

[Onions]

I'll be able to knock this out in an afternoon and it is dinner tonight. I made up the kebab mixture yesterday and allowed it to sit in the fridge for 24 hours but other than that, the ingredient list is very deceptive.  I do recommend doing the kebab mix the day before.  This will not be difficult to accomplish in about 4 -5 hours on my own. I started at 11.30 am and at 3.20 pm I have everything ready to finish off and assemble. I've been doing laundry and making home brew ^{(* Note below)} at the same time, a few of which have helped along the way.     I only need to cook the kebabs and pilau to be done, reheat and assemble, which I'll do when the devoted female returns to the nest. The Golden Brown Basmati is soaking, the chicks have flown and it's easy sailing from here.    Yeah, right!

The big plus, as I'd quietly hoped, is that the kebab recipe on its own is a winner.  I've already deep fried a tester of 6 and they're gone.  There was something missing but all they needed was a sprinkle of ground Pink Himalayan Rock Salt.  This will be my go-to for lamb (meat) kebabs from now on with one adjustment. Less bread and a little less water to compensate.  They are a bit bready with white bread.

Note: Home brewed Brown Ale and Munich Lager.  I already knew the Brown Ale is good, but this was my first tester of the Munich Lager I first started about 2 months ago.  I'm rather pleased with it, and it will only get better when I refrigerate and "lager it".

I'm sold on the kebabs already   

Something like me, when home brew met barbecue that time...

[tempest63]

Well done Livo, it pleases me when something I post goes down well.
Your kebabs do look a lot better than mine.
I have split the rice and lentils in half and will add a whole portion of the meat, goat in my case, to that reduced quantity. I often find with Dhansak that half of the veg/lentil dish is left over.
As I haven’t combined the meat and veg I haven’t used the dry masala, how did it work for you?
Our whole concoction is now nestling in the freezer for when we have friends round for a curryfest, so it may be a few weeks before we find out whether it is a hit or not.

[livo]

T63, I made a 50% amount for everything, except the kebab mix which I made in full quantity.   However, only half was used in the dish assembly so the finished dish was exactly half of the recipe you provided. Well almost. I did use 300g of lamb instead of 250g, so that was the only main ingredient slightly out of scale.  All spices were as stated with the exception of cutting back on the dried chillis.  I used my own dehydrated Rajah and I deliberately reduced to only 1 in the half quantity dry masala and 3 in the half quantity wet masala. I used 2 medium sized leaves of silver beet instead of colocasia leaf and the aubergine piece was the size of a tennis ball.

I cooked the lentils and vegetables on a very slow simmer for about 90 minutes before blending with the stick blender.  Pressure cooker could be used to do it faster.

I ended up adding about 3/4 of the dry masala and I felt it was enough, although adding the rest would probably have been fine. I just followed the instruction and felt it tasted good enough at that point.  Out of laziness, I used ginger and garlic out of jars which I'm thankful of, as I would have burnt it when I scorched the whole spices. I hadn't yet put the g&g into the pan.  The well cooked spices did not affect the dish and there was no burnt spice flavour.

There is nothing I would change about it when I make it again, and I will be making it again.  The proportions were fine and the extra kebabs are already gone.

[tempest63]

Thanks for the feedback.