Friday Night Takeaway

Supper tonight is a different style of Indian for me. Rather than the usual curry (which I could happily live on) I've made three tasty bundles of flavour; Pakora, Onion Bhajis and Dali Bora.

I've served with a gluten free/vegan garlic and coriander nan, a little dish of lemon and apricot pickle; and lemon basmati rice (good old Tilda).... plus a large glass of my absolutely favourite white wine.

I had never heard of Dali Bora until yesterday, when my dear friend Bernice sent me a link to a YouTube clip for My Family Garden, a predominately garden video blog with this fabulous cooking clip, which gave me the courage to try.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4CT86ahdP5A

The Dali Bora is totally gluten free and vegan as shown in the video. For the Pakora and Onion Bhaji I've substituted the egg by using flax seed; 2 tbsp mixed with 6tbsp of hot water was enough to bind both successfully.

I'm not listing the recipe as it's not my own. I hope you will enjoy watching the video too.

My mind boggled.;

You can make a batter using soaked red lentils?

Oh yes, you can! I loved them, though I did alter the filling for these Dali Bora as my stomach could not have coped with so many onions at once. I used a small amount of spring onions, sprigs of cauliflower and broccoli and a handful of frozen peas. It worked!

Watching the video I couldn't understand why all the mixtures were done by hand. I tried using a metal spoon but it didn't bind everything together. As soon as I got my hand in and squished it all came together beautifully. Get your bowls in soapy water quick, I have a feeling this little lot would dry like concrete otherwise.

I don't have a deep fryer, do I shallow fried in batches, keeping warm and finishing cooking on my hot plate.

Verdict - Would I make these again? Most definitely, although next time I will be adding chillies and making for myself. Despite leaving out the hot stuff, my husband's tender mouth couldn't cope with the mild curry I put in for him. I shall ramp it up to my taste buds next time and enjoy. What I do need to figure out though is a raita type dip, I need to have a faff about to get one of those right to accompany. All in all a success though!