Inside Vivek Singh's kitchen ... with a masala dosa recipe | Food (2024)

The splashback tiles really do create an impact, don’t they? They’re from Fired Earth and reminded us of tiles we used to buy in Jaipur. The rest of the house was done in a quite austere, Scandi style – clean lines, minimalistic – but our designer gave into our wishes to have this very noisy splashback.

Every Indian house has a tava frying pan, like this one on the counter. no matter how far you are from home. Ours is 18 years old. When my wife’s mum first visited us in London, she rightly assumed we’d be bereft of one, and so she brought this. It’s been in service since. We probably use it three times a week for lots of different parathas, rotis, chapatis ... It’s getting a bit thin now, but still beats a nonstick pan. The quality of a tava is defined by the thickness of the iron and the curvature – they’re ever so slightly dipped in the centre.

Like a tava, every Indian home will have a masala dabba like the silver one on the worktop. Usually it’ll contain seven spices, seasonings or condiments. Most commonly: salt in the centre, and around it, turmeric, red chilli powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, and garam masala. We have dried fenugreek leaves in ours (they have an amazing herbaceous aroma) and our family garam masala, which probably uses less cumin and coriander and more aromatics such as cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper, and also rose petals, giving it a lighter colour than is common. It’s my belief that those delicate, aromatic whole spices are virtually unusable after a month. They lose 50% of their potency in the first 15 days. It’s a bit like carbon dating in a radioactive study.

Roasted chickpea flour – my far left – is one of my favourite things; it’s a rustic ingredient found in the east of India, close to Varanasi. It keeps for a long time, and is probably the only ingredient that can be made into a three-course meal. My dad used to make doughballs with it, which we’d have with spiced yellow lentil relish.

To my left is Coco the co*ckapoo. She’s balancing on a chair, terrified.

Onam is a Hindu harvest festival celebrated all over Kerala and lasts for more than 10 days. It is celebrated specifically by Keralites to remember their agrarian past and as a way to thank God for their blessings. The most important day of the festival is called Thiruvonam and is characterised by a big vegetarian feast or sadhya. This consists of rice and 20-30 accompaniments. These side dishes are served in a particular sequence on a banana leaf, and consumed in a specific order: lentil-based dishes to begin, and yoghurt-based ones to finish. They can be broadly classified into eight types of dish: pickles or chutneys, fries, stir-fries, stews, starch, lentils, soups and desserts. Water served with the meal is usually simmered with cumin, dried ginger or the bark of an acacia tree.

Masala dosa

South-Indian dosa pancakes, served with spiced potato filling, are served as breakfast, as a snack or as a main meal at any time of the day, all over the country.

Several Asian stores now sell readymade packs of batter, saving both time and mess. Frozen grated coconut is also becoming increasingly easy to find. The same applies to grating coconut from the shell – frozen grated coconut is also becoming increasingly easy to find these days.

1 If you are making your own pancake batter, soak the dal and the rice together in water for at least 3 hours. Drain and blend together in a food processor to a fine paste, adding enough water to make a smooth, spoonable mixture. Leave overnight to ferment in a warm place (about 35–40C – eg leave covered in a warm oven 20 minutes after you’ve switched off, to get it started Lower temperatures will work –say 25-35C – but it takes much longer – over double the time. It won’t work well at temperatures below 25C though). The dosa batter is ready when bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the batter.

3 To make the pancakes, add the salt to the batter and mix well. Heat a nonstick frying pan over a medium heat, smear the base with a few drops of oil and pour in a small ladleful of batter (about 60ml). Using the ladle, spread it out into a thin, circular pancake. The thinner the pancake, the crisper it gets, but this needs some practice. Drizzle a few drops of oil over the top while the pancake cooks. Normally, dosas are cooked on one side only; however, if yours are thicker, it’s okay to cook on both sides. When crisp and golden, spoon about 50g of the filling into the centre of the pancake and fold it over. Repeat with the remaining batter and filling. Enjoy with chutney.

Spicy cabbage thoran

This classic Keralan chopped veg and coconut dish is usually part of a wider Onam festival spread. It’s very easy and it’s very good for you and, though not traditionally used as such, could make an interesting filling for the dosa.

1 Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the mustard seeds and, when they crackle, add the red chillies and curry leaves, then fry over a medium heat until the chillies take on a darker colour.

2 Add the green chillies and onion and saute until the onion becomes translucent.

3 Now add the turmeric, cabbage and salt, then stir well. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is cooked.

4 Stir in the grated coconut and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Serve hot as an accompaniment.