Topic: Soy Wadi

[beachbum]

In Brisbane there's a small cafe style joint up an arcade run by the major Brisbane Indian Grocers and it cooks nothing like BIR or AIR, it specialises in Dosa and Puri the size of a football, but also does a "Thali" meal with three curries and rice - it's vegetarian but does heavenly stuff like paneer and peas, chickpeas and a sort of veg biryani, and once a week puts on a sweet and sour curry based on soy lumps "Soy Wadi". Many diners have complained that it's chicken  ;D  - when I first went there I could have sworn it was chicken as well.

I did a stab at it today, and quite happy with the results.
Served some as a snack to a mate and he asked "what's the sausage?"



You just steep 100g of the chunks in lukewarm water for an hour and they plump up. Then I did:

2 tblsp oil plus a little mustard oil

Cassia stick, 5 cloves, 3 black cardmoms, a star anise, fried until spices darken / swell

2 finely chopped onions cooked in the spiced oil until darkened and caramelised

good pinch of dried methi leaves

2 tblsp garlic ginger paste fried in for a few minutes

good pinch of hing and half tblsp cumin seeds fried in for a minute

350 ml passata tomato puree
tblsp dry mix power and half a tblsp turmeric, half tblsp sweet paprika, tblsp ground kashmiri chilli powder.

tblsp moist brown sugar

half cup of water, bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes

with the swollen Soy Wadi, squeeze them like little bathroom sponges and drop into the brew so they can absorb the flavours.

Cook one hour.

Squeeze juice of a whole lime in before serving.

Very nice, almost like they do it at the restaurant.