Pancakes with a difference

As you may recall, I was a little early with pancakes this year, having got a little confused with dates... oops!! But Boyfriend had a brilliant idea - let's ditch the dinner we had planned (soup) and live the rock and roll life. Let's have some savoury pancakes for dinner. Cheese and mushroom got a vague mention. And then I had a stroke of genius. Masala Dosai. A south Indian curry dish centered around a savoury pancake. We'd had it in the past a couple of times only at a restaurant in London and absolutely loved it. So there, that was it. I was determined to recreate this dish as best I could. Obviously, I didn't have 6 hours to soak the necessary ingredients to make the traditional Indian pancakes, but fear not I told my other half, I shall improvise and it shall be grand. And grand it was ;-)

Ingredients for the pancakes (makes 4):

• 150g plain flour
• 100g strong wholemeal flour
• 3 eggs
• 300ml skimmed milk
• pinch of salt
• tablespoon of desiccated coconut

Ingredients for the filling:

• 4 potatoes, cut into chunks and cooked
• one onion, sliced finely
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• half a habanero chilli, finely chopped
• thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
• large handful of green peas (I used frozen ones, so I boiled them first separately)
• handful of mushrooms (I used frozen ones)
• 2 small tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 1 handful dried curry leaves
• large handful chopped coriander

Method:

Start by making your pancake batter. Put the two flours and salt in a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and break your three eggs in the middle. Whisk the eggs and slowly incorporate the flour, then add the milk little by little. Whisk well after each addition to avoid getting lumps. Finally, add the coconut and give it all a good whisk. Leave to rest in the fridge until needed.

Then go on to making your filling. [Here I made a vegetarian one, but you could add lamb mince or chicken.] Peal and boil the potatoes. While the potatoes are cooking, heat some vegetable oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once they start to pop (about 1min), add the onion, turmeric and chilli. Give it all a good stir and leave to cook for 5min on medium heat. Add the mushooms, garlic and ginger. Cook for another 5min. Add the tamarind, followed by the tomatoes and curry leaves. Cook for another 5min. Finally, add the peas and drained potatoes. Coarsely mash the potatoes in the pan and mix it all together.

Your filling is now ready so all you need to do is cook your pancakes. They cook in the same way crêpes do, so get a crêpe pan out if you have one, oil it a bit and get cooking. These pancakes are a little heavy so you probably won't be able to flip them as easily. Once the pancake is cooked, put about three large tablespoons of the filling inside and fold over. Enjoy!!! xx