Mallika Basu's best Indian recipes of 2016

Our food columnists rounds up her best recipes of the year from a simple dals to prawn curries
Mallika Basu's Tandoori chicken
Mallika Basu
Mallika Basu29 December 2016

2016 been quite the year. What better way to soothe our souls than with comforting cooking?

Here are my best recipes from a Goan prawn masala to easy spiced chickpea pancakes.

Tandoori chicken

Crisp on the outside, soft and succulent on the inside, Tandoori Chicken is the mainstay of Punjabi cooking, with its roots firmly in the Mughal era. This dish gets its name from the tandoor, a charcoal oven with clay walls that cooks flatbreads, skewered ingredients and portions of meat with precision and flavour.

Read the full recipe here.

Spiced cauliflower soup

Spiced cauliflower soup is aperfect winter warmer
Mallika Basu

A thick, smooth bowl of soup spiced with grounding whole spices, Shorba has its origins in Ancient Persia and the Mughal courts of India as a meat soup. It has made its way into the hearts and homes of Indians, as a warming precursor to Indian meals especially in winter. This is often vegetarian.

Read the full recipe here.

Spicy, sour and sweet potatoes

A twist on the Gujarati Batata nu Shaak, or potato curry, this festive version of the spud is guaranteed to slay your sinus and warm the frozen bones in your wintry body. Tamarind and gur, or palm sugar, are favoured ingredients for the spicy, sour and sweet taste preferred by Gujaratis in India. Hailing from the West, they are predominantly vegetarian influenced heavily by the Jain community, who follow an ayurvedic diet that favours Sattvic foods that don’t promote body heat. So onions and garlic are a no, and asafoetida is added to aid digestion.

Read the full recipe here.

Lamb curry in pickling spices

Mallika Basu

Achari Gosht, fiery sour lamb curry cooked with pickling spices, will send a sizzle through your kitchen on a dreary autumn day. Achar or Achaar means pickle in Hindi, and these are rarely subtly flavoured. The key ingredients are mustard oil, which is often used in pickling, and nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds. The Kashmiri Chilli Powder imparts colour – substitute for unsmoked paprika if you don’t have it.

Read the full recipe here.

Sautéed aubergine eggs

Dim Begun is a lightly spiced egg and aubergine sauté that is just as good piled on toast as it is served alongside a full-blown Indian meal. Cooked with just three spices – turmeric, cumin and red chillies – this dish makes getting a spice hit attainable after even after the longest of days.

Read the full recipe here.

Goan prawn masala

Mallika Basu

King prawns enveloped in a spicy and tangy curry paste never fails to bring back memories of sunny holidays. As the holiday season takes off, this curry will set the taste buds on fire and the senses going in the best way possible.

Read the full recipe here.

Red lentil dal with oranges

Mallika Basu

Citrus provides the perfect seasonal changeover touch to this Red Lentil Dal with oranges, or Santre Wali Dal. This unusual recipe comes from my mother, and is a lighter way to enjoy dal, infused with a subtle burst of fruitiness. Maintain the texture of the lentils as my mother does by bubbling them in copious amounts of water rather than adding water little by little during cooking time.

Read the full recipe here.

Spiced chickpea flour pancakes

Mallika Basu

These spicy savoury pancakes made from chickpea (gram) flour are called Pudla or Puda (poora) and hail from Gujarat in India. Sometimes referred to as a vegetarian omelette, they make a quick and easy brunch centrepiece or even teatime snack. The North of India has its own version called chilla or cheela.

Read the full recipe here.

Mustard fish curry

Mallika Basu

Fish in a wholegrain mustard and chilli paste crust is a Bengali speciality. Bengalis are famous for their fish curries, made with fresh water and salt water fish varieties (not sea fish though). The word Jhaal means both spicy hot, and a curry that clings to the fish without being too thick.

Read the full recipe here.

Easy green mango pickle

Mango pickle
Mallika Basu

When life gives you unripe green mangoes, it would be rude not to make mango pickle. Now I am a firm believer in leaving it to the experts when it comes to pickling, but there is something very satisfying about watching fruits and vegetables soften in a sunlit bath of oil and spices. It’s even more satisfying to serve it and savour it when the pickle is ready.

Read the full recipe here.

Mallika Basu is a London-based food writer, cookbook author and cookery personality; quickindiancooking.com. Follow her on Twitter @MallikaBasu_ and find more of her recipes for the Evening Standard here.

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