Serendipity. A Moroccan-Indian Vegetarian Feast

Variable, mainly southwesterly backing southeasterly, 3 or 4, occasionally 5 in north.

Slight.

Fair.

Good.

 

Serendipity. What a wonderful untranslatable (as in one) word. It is an unintended (accidental) discovery which turns out well. Columbus had serendipity when he discovered the Americas (although the Natives might question the part which says “It turned out well”). Fleming had serendipity when he grew a sample in a contaminated Petri dish and thus discovered penicillin. Serendipity is well known for cooks and usually starts with a slight panicky exclamation: “What the f*** did I do now” and ends with “Not bad at all”. I think most wonderful new dishes start with a perceived disaster. The cook who threw calf sausages into hot water (instead of cold water to keep them fresh) created the Bavarian “Weisswurst”. The Chinese chef, who forgot about the pickled eggs in the larder, created the “Century Eggs”.

I doubt my serendipity dish will go down in history as iconic, but you miss out if you don’t try it.

It started with an Ottolenghi recipe. A Moroccan kebab. I also wanted to add some of my Ras el hanout which is lurking in my cupboard. Then the telephone rang and I absentmindedly grabbed the nearest spice mix while chatting. A taste, after the conversation, raised some eyebrows and I realised that I added Garam masala. Okay, forget Moroccan and giant couscous, make it fusion.

Next, the vegetables. Since the main ingredient in my feast is mellow and yoghurty and has some heat, I needed something with a punch. Acidic and fresh. Some kind of salad.

I might be wrong but I don’t know any Indian salad, which is puzzling. All around its borders you get pickled vegetables and salads, but the closest the Indians get are chutneys or sweetish pickles. No salad in sight. The Moroccans however have a neat carrot salad. Acidity, freshness, sweetness and spice. Exchange some spices and you create another fusion. And last but not least, the carbohydrates. Couscous or rice felt wrong, flat bread is it then.

Flat bread is eaten all over the world and has, as its most basic, 2 ingredients: X amount of flour added to approximately x/2 amount of water. From then on it gets fancy. X amount of flour (mixed or whatever you have in your cupboard) x/2 amount of liquid (water and oil, water and lard, milk and butter= you get the hint) plus a pinch of salt and/or baking soda/cream of tartar/baking powder/yeast. Or a pinch of salt and sugar. Or added garlic and/ or herbs. The more saturated fat you add, the more pliable it becomes (a soft tortilla is either made with butter and milk or palm oil or pork lard; a hard pita is made with water and a few drops of olive oil). I opted for a mixture of yoghurt, olive oil and water to follow the Moroccan idea, but added coriander leaves to the plain flour and salt to get the best of both worlds. I made it all into a round smooth ball and let it rest for a few hours in a plastic bag. Then I rolled it out to my pan size, let it relax for a another half hour to give it time to shrink, rolled it out again to fit again the pan, heated coconut oil in a pan and grilled it for 3 minutes each side. But feel free to make the flat bread of your choice.

Dont be intimidated by the amount of ingredients. The cooking itself is very simple and takes a few minutes, but the marinating and preparing can be done several days in advance.

Not Ottolenghi`s paneer with an Indian twist

150g plain Greek yoghurt

1 tbsp harissa

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp Garam Masala

1/4 tsp fenugrek leaves (crumbled)

1 tsp honey

A good pinch of salt and black pepper

200g paneer (half packet), cut into 3 horizontal slices.

Mix the yoghurt in a medium bowl with the other marinating ingredients. Add the paneer, stir to coat, then cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least overnight.

When you are ready to cook, turn your oven to grill settings, take the paneer out with either a fork or tongs and place on a rack which is suspended over a baking sheet covered with foil (I advise to close the kitchen door and open the window, your smoke alarm will probably go off quickly). Grill for about 4 minutes each side, brushing frequently with the rest of the yoghurt mixture.

Moroccan carrot salad with an Indian twist.

2 carrots (more than you need, but it taste so nice that you can munch on it the next day)

Water (weigh the carrots and add the same amount of water in grs, but dont be too anal about it)

1 clove of garlic, peeled but left whole

1 piece of ginger (about finger thick), peeled but left whole

1 tbsp olive oil

A pinch of sweet paprika

A pinch of either cayenne pepper or Aleppo flakes

A pinch of salt and a sprinkle of white pepper

The stalks of a fistful of fresh coriander

A total of 1 tsp of a variety of cumin, whole and ground (I used cumin seeds and a few caraway seeds, toasted them and ground them up and added some ground cumin to make a tsp full), but feel free to just use ground cumin

½ tsp of nigella seeds

1 tbsp of white wine vinegar

1 tsp of honey

Peel and cut carrots into rounds, about the thickness of 1+1/2 of a pound coin. Add to the pan with all the other ingredients ending with the coriander stalk. Bring to the boil, reduce temperature and let simmer until carrots are soft and there is maybe one tbsp of liquid left (you might have to add a tad bit more water, depending how thick you cut them; or you might have to increase the heat if they are cooked with too much water left). Take of the heat. Remove garlic, ginger and the coriander stalks.

In the meantime either toast (in a pan without oil) your cumin/caraway seeds and pound them, once fragrant, in a pestle and mortar, or just add the ground cumin or a mixture of both to the vinegar, add the nigella seeds and the honey and shake away.

Once you took the carrots off the heat, add the vinegar mixture to it and let cool. Once it is cool enough to go in the fridge, put it there and let the flavours infuse as long as you wish.

Make a flatbread of your choice

See above in regards to flatbread.

Assemble

Take the carrots and marinating paneer out of the fridge.  Heat oven to grill and follow the paneer recipe.

Fry your flatbread while the paneer gets nice and crusty. Put your flatbread on a plate, add (half of) the carrot salad and top with the grilled paneer. Cover with chopped coriander leaves (remember the stalks you used for the carrots?) and give a cut up lime a good squeeze over it.

Enjoy