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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Pesto Mushroom Chilla with Mango Chutney


When I first heard of really odd combinations as dosa (lentil pancake) stuffing, I was kind of surprised,especially to hear about the meat fillings, since traditionally a dosa is vegetarian! But I had to visit Hampton Chutney in New York to actually understand what works and what does not. This version of my dosa is inspired by Hampton Chutney, although it is not a traditional dosa using urad dal and rice, but it is a traditional Gujarati moong dal chilla, which is a dosa made of green lentils. The chilla is really good for health, especially if eaten with a salad. My mother used to serve it with green chutney and a fresh salad made with onions, tomatoes and fresh coriander.
My earliest memories are those of my mother grinding the soaked lentils and my brother not really liking what was for dinner that evening. Later, Amrita became the chilla queen since she would eat it in some form or the other for at least one meal a day. Finally, I must remember Preethi, who though was difficult to surprise with any kind of dosa since she comes from a part of South India which is dosa land (Bangalore), she fell in love with my chillas. I made her plain chillas with green chutney and yoghurt on her last day in NYC.
More about that later, now, getting on to this chilla.

Pesto Mushroom Chilla with Mango Chutney

Ingredients

For the chilla (makes 3 or 4 chillas)
Green moong dal (the split dal with green skin) - 1 cup, soaked for at least 2 hours, preferably more
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon, adjust to taste
Green chilli paste - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
Cumin seeds (jeera) - 1 pinch, or roughly about 10-12 seeds, whole

For the stuffing
Sauteing the mushrooms
Mixing the stuffing


Pesto (see notes below) - 1 + 1/2 tablespoon
Mushrooms, cleaned and sliced - 3 or 4, depending on size
Spinach (palak) leaves, washed and roughly chopped - 1/4 cup or a little more
Cheese, grated - 1 + 1/2 Tablespoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon, adjust to taste
Black pepper, ground - 1/4 teaspoon
Chutney ingredients ready to be blended

For the chutney
Mango, ripe, peeled and chopped - 1
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
Sugar - 1/4 teaspoon, optional
Red chilli powder - a slight pinch





Method
1. For the chutney -just blend the ingredients for 20 seconds and you should be done. Taste and adjust spice and seasoning according to your liking. It should ideally be sweet and sour with a slight punch of the chilli, but not spicy.

Batter consistency
2. Drain the soaked dal, and reserve the water for blending the dal. When blending, use the soaked dal with salt and chilli paste adding water one spoon at a time. You want a batter consistency that allows you to spread the pancake easily with a ladle on the pan.

3. For the stuffing - Saute of the mushrooms on a flat pan with a pinch of salt and pepper, about two minutes on each side, till they gain a little colour. You could use a splash of oil, Pam or water as the medium.

4. In a bowl, mix the mushrooms, spinach and cheese with salt and pepper.

5. Now you are ready to make the chilla. Heat a non stick Teflon coated pan on medium heat. Once heated, take it off to spread the chilla. To test whether it is hot, you can splash a little water (from the side please, you do not want to scald yourself!), and if it sizzles, it is hot enough.

6. Use a ladleful of batter on the centre of the pan, and with a circular motion, spread the batter into a chilla. After a minute, spread the pesto on the dosa. After another minute, spread the prepared stuffing, but only on half the chilla. This makes folding and serving it less messy.

Pesto spread on the chilla
The stuffing on one side


Ready to go on the plate
7. Let it cook till the cheese melts. The whole idea of using cheese was to bind the stuffing, otherwise the dry spinach and mushrooms would just fall off. 

8. Once its done, take it off the pan and enjoy it with the chutney!

 

 

The perfect meal

 Notes

  • I would have ideally used arugula as the green in the chilla, it goes well with cheese and mushrooms, but spinach was more readily available not only in my fridge, but also in my market.
  • If your batter for the chilla turns out really watery, the trick is to add a little bit of chickpea flour (besan) to thicken it up.
  • You can serve this with any kind of chutney, yoghurt dip or even ketchup.
  • The stuffing would work for a regular dosa as well.
  • I actually did not make pesto to the perfect recipe, it was more like a basil chutney. I do not have the heart to consume as much cheese and olive oil that the pesto recipe asks for. Mine included basil, coriander, nuts (I used raw peanuts, but you can use pine or walnuts), salt, pepper and lime.
  • As I mentioned earlier, the chilla is a very healthy meal, you can substitute for rotis at dinner and have it with dal or vegetables if you are on a diet.
  • You can also use a little bit of left over bhaji from pav bhaji as stuffing. It tastes yum! 
  • Also, you could sprinkle a lit bit of dry pav bhaji masala on a plain chilla while on the pan to lift the flavour of a plain chilla.
  • I could go on and on, but I shall leave you to it!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Shraddha - Thanks for recommending a pan with a Teflon® non-stick coating for your Chilla. I represent DuPont and it's always a pleasure to see people recommending our products.

    If you are interested in some recipes to look at for your cookware with Teflon® non-stick coatings, visit http://www.scribd.com/TeflonBrand! Thanks. Cheers, Sara

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